The best prevention of burnout is a mindful break. Even a minute counts

Most of us live in constant stress – work obligations, household chores, social media full of stories, news and all those worries about the future… Our attention jumps from one thing to another. A hectic life with so many responsibilities leads to the fact that our body and mind are constantly working overtime. Learn how to press the “Pause” button and give your mind a vacation for a while. You will do more for your health than you would expect.

For many of us, even when we fall asleep, the wheels in our heads seem to keep turning. Do you also happen to read a paragraph of a book or a text on your phone in the evening in bed and then you don't know what was written in it? This is one of the signs that we are not paying attention to the here and now. It is precisely the modern lifestyle, where we are most of the time oriented towards achieving goals, that distracts us from perceiving what is happening in our body. We are taught to take a sleeping pill or a painkiller and keep going. Until our body shows us red in the form of more serious health complications.

How does long-term stress "hurt"?

You may have noticed one common trait of people who live under long-term chronic stress… Even if they are slim, they have more fat around their waist in the abdominal area. When stressed, the body constricts blood vessels in areas that are “not a priority” (such as the skin, digestion, reproductive organs) to the muscles, heart, and brain so that the body has energy for a quick response. Less blood flow means less heat, so the body starts to store visceral fat around the waist, which acts as a thermal protector. This is just one of the first signs of stress.

Most of us become less sensitive over time. So frequent headaches, muscle tension, insomnia, digestive problems, decreased work performance and motivation, more frequent illness or chronic fatigue do not stop us. But when stress accumulates, more serious civilization diseases come, such as burnout, heart attack, diabetes, chronic anxiety or depression. Not to mention the deterioration of interpersonal relationships. However, there is a cheap and effective prevention that we all have at hand.

Stop every day. Even a few minutes of mindfulness of your body counts.

Learn to pause in your daily routine. Planned breaks in the form of a few conscious breaths, a short yoga stretch for stiff parts of your body, a mindful look out the window… will allow you to return from stress mode to balance mode. Just 1-3 minutes every two hours is enough, ideally after completing a task or before a meeting. These short “micro breaks” help restore attention, reduce stress and help prevent mistakes. Once or twice a day, you can add longer breaks of about 5-10 minutes, which you can use for breathing exercises, a short meditation, a conscious walk or a simple yoga stretch.

You might be thinking, I have too much to do, there's no time for a break. Or I'm not a begging monk to spend my time doing nothing, and someone has to pay the bills... The mind can be really creative in coming up with reasons why it can't be done. If you're having a tough day, set a reminder on your phone to remind you to take a break. And don't forget, regularity is more important than length. 5x a day for 1 minute is better than 1x a day for 10 minutes.

What might a mindful pause look like?

A mindful break at work doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s a short, conscious moment when you stop, turn your attention to yourself, and calm your mind and body. It doesn’t have to be long—1-5 minutes is enough—and you can do it at your desk, in the kitchen, in the hallway, or even while walking. Forget the complicated poses of Instagram yoga stars. The goal is to tame a fickle mind and gently stretch your body.

Here are three examples :

1. A few conscious breaths in and out

• Close your eyes or look into the distance.

• Breathe in slowly through your nose and exhale gently through your mouth.

• Become aware of how your body relaxes with each exhale.

  
  

2. Seated spinal stretch

• Sit straight in a chair, feet on the ground.

• Interlace your fingers and extend your arms above your head, palms facing up.

• As you exhale, stretch your arms behind you, inhale into your chest. (30 sec.)

  
  

3. Mindful sound

• Stop and listen to the sounds around you (office noise, birds outside, computer hum).

• Don't try to evaluate them - just feel that they are there.

  
  

Yoga, meditation, and mindfulness share a common foundation : by working with mindfulness of the body, mind, and breath, they can “turn off stress” by activating the opposite part of the nervous system to the one that is responsible for stress. As with everything, the art of mindfulness requires practice. However, the health benefits are measurable and scientifically proven.

Are you really feeling down during the day? It’s on the hectic days that short mindful pauses are most needed. There’s a significant amount of research suggesting that even relatively short meditations or mindful pauses can have measurable positive effects on mental and physical health compared to people who don’t practice such practices. So come join us!

For the eternal skeptics, we add the scientifically proven effects of stress reduction programs based on developing mindfulness.

Mental health:

Reducing stress, anxiety and depression

Improved emotional regulation and resilience – participants describe a better ability to handle challenging situations without automatic reactions.

Improved sleep – regular mindfulness practice leads to significant improvements in sleep quality in people with insomnia or high stress.

Physical health:

Pain and chronic diseases – regular mindfulness practice has been shown to help reduce the perception of pain and improve the quality of life in people with chronic pain, fibromyalgia, arthritis, or cancer patients.

Cardiovascular health – Some studies show a reduction in blood pressure and improvement in heart rate variability (HRV), a marker of better stress regulation.

Immune system – regular mindfulness practice improves some immune markers – e.g. higher activity of NK cells (natural killer cells) and reduction of inflammatory markers.

Metabolic health – in patients with type 2 diabetes, it can support better glycemic control, especially through stress reduction and lifestyle improvements.

Author: Veronika Veselá

Resources:

Goyal, M. et al. (2014). Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(3), 357–368 .

Kuyken, W. et al. (2016). Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse. The Lancet, 386(9988), 63–73 .

Khoury, B. et al. (2015). Mindfulness-based therapy: A comprehensive meta-analysis.

Clinical Psychology Review, 33(6), 763–771 .

Chiesa, A. & Serretti, A. (2009). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for stress management in healthy people: A review and meta-analysis. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 15(5), 593–600 .

Black, DS & Slavich, GM (2016). Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1373(1), 13–24 .