Burnout
Burnout was labeled an official diagnosis by the World Health Organization in 2019, and is classified as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
Chronic, unmanaged stress keeps the sympathetic nervous system on constant high alert. Dysregulated nervous systems are key contributors to mental health issues, addiction, blood pressure complications, cardiac distress, and other conditions and behaviors that reduce quality of life such as exhaustion and difficult relationships.
People who are experiencing such stress may try to self soothe or regulate their nervous systems, often through unhealthy means like substance abuse.
Before opening Jax Yoga Studio, I spent a decade working in a health system and in Public Health departments, studying community health patterns overall. I’m simply amazed at how the leading health indicators all have one thing in common: they are all directly linked to dysregulated nervous systems, many likely caused by BURNOUT.
In contrast to the sympathetic nervous system which regulates the stress response, the parasympathetic nervous system stimulates the rest and digest response; assisting the body’s attempts to calm down and return to a homeostatic state. Burnout lifestyles lead to overactive sympathetic nervous systems, the two become imbalanced and the brain, muscles and organs are all affected.
There is good news. The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems cannot both be active at the same time, and there are healthy, free, and easy ways to stimulate the parasympathetic system, bringing the two into balance. Breath and meditation are high on that list.
Most Westerners think of yoga as a physical practice - and that is one very beneficial part of it. But mostly yoga is about breath control, mental focus, and stimulating the relaxation response.
A growing number of studies reveal that diaphragmatic breathing triggers the body’s relaxation response and benefits the mental health of practitioners. Other studies have looked at mindfulness interventions and found that these practices reduce stress and its effects. (One geared toward health care professionals specifically here).
Harvard Health reports that a regular yoga practice can “reduce the impact of exaggerated stress responses and may be helpful for both anxiety and depression,” adding: ““This, in turn, decreases physiological arousal — for example, reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and easing respiration. There is also evidence that yoga practices help increase heart rate variability, an indicator of the body’s ability to respond to stress more flexibly.”
in 2019, the Journal of Clinical Medicine published a story on the use of yoga to manage stress and burnout in healthcare workers. The researchers conclude, “yoga is effective in the prevention and management of musculoskeletal and psychological issues. In addition to an improvement in physical problems and quality of sleep, both stress levels and burnout are consistently reduced in subjects who practice yoga techniques and mind-body meditation.”
We are offering a candlelight workshop/yoga class on Yoga for Your Nervous System. We will begin by covering information on how the nervous system works and learn some techniques that can be done daily, then do a 75 minute all levels yoga practice geared toward helping you find your calm.
The workshop will be held on Thursday February 16 from 6:30-8:30pm, and you can register here.
(All Jax Members get 20% off with code JAXVIP)