Nurses – Put Yourself First For Once And Unwind With Yoga!
Nurses are extremely skilled and are great at taking care of others. However, more often than not, they forget to take care of themselves.
It’s been proven that taking part in yoga consistently, has positive effects on stress relief and emotional health. A study carried out in 2015, found that after completing an 8 week yoga intervention, the participants reported significantly higher levels of self-care and less emotional exhaustion. Before you take care of anyone else, you have to put your own health first!
So for all of those days that you are taking care of everyone around you, don’t forget that you’re allowed to be selfish and take care of #1 first! (That’s you by the way!)
So why not take even 30 minutes a day. Just for you to unwind. Any time, any place that has a flat surface and just breathe.
Here are some of the ways that Yoga can help you do just that!
Here are some of the benefits of Yoga:
- Increased Flexibility.
- Stress Relief – Modulates perceived stress and anxiety by slowing down rapid breathing and heart rates, lowering blood pressure and increasing heart rate variability.
- Increased muscle strength and tone.
- Improved respiration, energy and vitality.
- Maintaining a balanced metabolism.
- Weight reduction.
- Cardio and circulatory health.
- Improved athletic performance.
- Protection from injury.
Regular Yoga practice during stressful weeks can also improve mental clarity and concentration, making nurses more likely to manage their stress and pressure more effectively.
Never done yoga before? Hakuna Matata, my friend because there are so many styles of yoga that you can try as a beginner. Hatha Yoga is often recommended for beginners for the following reasons:
- It’s gentle,
- It has a slower pace
- It encourages people to focus on correct alignment and form, to support their bodies.
The best-known styles of Yoga include Hatha, Bikram, Kundalini and Ashtanga Yoga. It is important to find a class that suits your work and lifestyle and discuss benefits you want with the instructor before signing up.
I don’t have the time or the schedule for Yoga classes every week!
I thought we might run into this problem! Don’t worry you don’t need to go to classes because there are so many great channels on Youtube that you can watch and learn from in your own time and for free! I highly recommend Yoga With Adrienne for a great 30 day yoga challenge!
