Geeky wellbeing favourites: February 2024
Stress, changes and the usual mind–body science highlights
I recently made a big life decision, one that I had been thinking about for quite a long time and which I paradoxically avoided thinking about for quite a long time too.
I quit my well-paid, established, secure job of 8 years.
With no real plan of what I’m going to do next. Eek…
One of the main reasons? Stress (and probably burnout, although I am a little unclear on precisely how one defines burnout given that there are no clinical criteria for it). Which might seem a little insane given that having no concrete plans is bound be stressful too, but let’s not get into that.
Stress is part of life, and it is unrealistic to expect living a completely stress-free life, or having a stress-free job (does such a thing exist? Even being a yoga teacher is not stress-free, in fact I’d say it’s pretty stressful). We do need ways to cope with stress and avoid getting overwhelmed by it – yoga, meditation and exercise more broadly are some of the tools that we have to alleviate stress and improve our wellbeing.
But sometimes the best way to cope is to make a change. I needed a few people to tell me this (sometimes we need this too) and I hope that I made the right decision for both my mental health and physical health; after all, they are connected. Wish me luck!
More on stress
Stress can also wreak havoc on your gut (certainly does for me) – have a look at this Zoe article on a more detailed explanation of the gut–brain connection, including the bi-directional interaction the brain has with the gut microbiota.
New research shows how chronic stress harms the gut – by interfering with and re-shaping the gut microbiota.
There’s a lot of discussion on what workplaces should be doing to reduce stress and burnout – and a lot of criticism about using so-called wellbeing programmes as plasters, instead of really tackling the causes of stress among employees.
And from the blog
How stress messes up your immune system (and where yoga fits in) – Stress really fucks up the immune system in various different ways. Yoga’s positive effects on our immunity are likely due to its effects on our stress levels.
Stress, gene expression, inflammation – and where yoga may fit in – Mind–body practices like yoga, tai chi and mindfulness meditation cause changes in gene expression that dampen inflammation caused by stress – which may help to keep the immune system in balance.
Burned out? Try yoga – Despite my caveats above, there is some research showing that yoga can help burnout, although definitely not the only thing that workplaces should be looking at.
Mind–body science highlights
Digital mind–body interventions are effective
In this systematic review of studies evaluating digital (or ‘internet and mobile-based’) mind–body interventions, the authors conclude that digital interventions are effective at reducing depression and anxiety among those living with chronic conditions. This is when they are compared with controls, which in most studies was no intervention – so not really comparing with face-to-face. Mind–body interventions included yoga, tai chi and, weirdly, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), or CBT combined with another intervention.
Yoga slightly effective for period pain
Another systematic review, this time evaluating interventions for primary dysmenorrhoea, or period paid. The authors conclude that exercise is most likely the most effective of all the interventions assessed (exercise, topical heat, acupuncture, acupressure, yoga, aromatherapy, TENS and herbs), although yoga was also found to be more effective than placebo. The interesting question here is is yoga different from exercise in the context of this work given that the intervention was likely to be specific yoga postures (ie physical practice)?
Meditation and its impact on stress
Speaking of stress, this review goes into quite a bit of detail on the stress response and where meditation could fit in, specifically looking at the reduction of inflammation in the body (similar to what I’ve covered in relation to yoga on the blog). (Slightly disappointed by the editorial standards in this new journal by the way, I guess no one copy edits anymore. Spot the number of typos in the image below!).
Until next month!