A simple yoga session can feel relaxing and freeing, especially for healthcare workers in a high-stress environment.
About half of physicians and healthcare workers experience burnout, so institutions are carrying out various wellness strategies to mitigate the stress levels of their very own workers. To illustrate, healthcare institutions are providing support staff, work autonomy, and even childcare benefits to increase their well-being.
Apart from improving the office environment, the healthcare industry is also promoting wellness by moving towards virtual care practices that provide greater flexibility for healthcare workers. Through telehealth opportunities, healthcare workers can provide quality care and integrated services for their clients while enjoying a more balanced schedule. This allows healthcare workers to have enough time for stress management practices, one of which is yoga.
The practice of yoga can be life changing for anyone, including healthcare workers. So if you’re a healthcare professional who wants a healthier and happier life, here are a few reasons why you should start doing yoga:
Stress Management
Whether you’re doing a long shift or addressing a medical case, a single workday can get really intense in your profession. However, you can experience relaxation after your shift by making time for yoga sessions.
It may sound too good to be true, but a study revealed that nurses in intensive care units experienced better well-being after practicing yoga and mediation. Since yoga is both a mind and body practice, it’s effective in easing the occupational stress that nurses experience. As a result, they are able to enjoy a better work-life balance after doing yoga regularly.
Work-Life Balance
Yoga will not just make you feel more relaxed, it can also teach you a thing or two about having a healthy work-life balance. After all, yoga can get your body worked up while teaching you great philosophies about life.
Since yoga is rooted in spiritual practice, asanas or yoga postures were created to release any energy blockages that are preventing you from experiencing peace and strength. These asanas invite you to pay attention to your physical body through several poses, therefore taking your mind away from today’s shift towards the present moment. As a result, you’ll learn how to balance your body and mind, whether you’re on or off the yoga mat.
Mental Wellness
Aside from juggling an intense workload, it’s also common for healthcare professionals to experience heartbreaking medical cases. It’s definitely a lot of responsibility to save people’s lives, which is why numerous healthcare professionals struggle with their own mental health.
Yoga has become a good self-care practice in this case since regular yoga interventions have demonstrated a reduction in stress, anxiety, and depression in medical workers and students. In fact, practitioners stated that they were able to manage their anxiety and stress because yoga taught them how to be aware of their bodies and how to control their breathing.
Pain Reduction
It’s not easy to conduct multiple clinical rounds and medical procedures. As such, it’s no surprise that you may experience aches all over your body.
Since yoga also serves as a form of exercise, you can release any muscle tension and reduce any aches through regular practice. Aside from relieving any physical pain, yoga also strengthens your muscles, joints, and bones so that you’re less likely to experience those aches and pains. So while those warrior poses may be difficult to hold for many seconds, you are assured that your body will become more relaxed and strong once you step off the mat.
There are many occupational hazards that may come with being a healthcare worker. However, making time for a regular yoga practice can help you relieve any physical and emotional pain so that you can experience more ease in your personal and professional lives.
The YogaMad is founded by Mila, an avid yogini who is passionate about inspiring others to live their best lives while finding mind-body-soul balance. She has a background in business consulting but has left the corporate world in her quest to live out her dreams as a yoga nomad.
