Not sure if yoga is right for you? Think it’s just for those super flexible girls with Starbucks in hand? FALSE!!! Let’s explore the facts about yoga and how it can help emergency personnel and first responders everywhere.
Emergency personnel deal with stressful situations everyday. As a profession, it is one that can be very rewarding but also can create insurmountable health and wellness issues.
Many emergency personnel suffer from stress-induced illnesses such as insomnia that can cause job disruption, job loss or even worse. Even after retirement, many first responders carry their stress and trauma which can lead to a shorter lifespan. You didn’t work that hard just to kick the bucket as soon as you retire!!
Yoga is a practice that is perfect for emergency personnel as it teaches stress reduction techniques that can be used anywhere. Yoga has been marketed to women in Western society for years and has been adapted to include many other ‘hip’ add-ons such as Beer Yoga, Goat Yoga and more. However, yoga is actually an ancient practice that teaches us to connect with our bodies and minds through self awareness, meditation and breathwork.
When you practice yoga as a tool for a better life, you can reveal your best qualities.
Learn more about Yoga for First Responders
How can yoga help emergency personnel?
- It can be done anywhere: You can practice the limbs of yoga such as mindfulness and breath techniques anywhere, like in a patrol car or at a desk. It only takes 3 minutes of mindful breathing to effectively calm the nervous system. It slows down your thoughts, your nervous system and hormonal responses to stressful situations and can centre your attention. This can be done at ANY TIME – just pause what you’re doing, focus on your breath flowing in and out of your body and take three minutes to reset.
- Yoga helps you excel at your job. By working on your physiological responses to stress, you are able to make clearer, more effective decisions. When making snap or gut decisions, we react in a way that is second nature. However, if we are overworked, over tired and stressed out, those decisions start to move away from what may be the right or best decision to make in that situation. By clearing your mind and centering your body we can make better decisions and potentially de-escalate situations that could have caused harm to you, your co-workers and/or the members of the public you serve.
- The benefits of yoga help your life outside of work. Daily we go about our duties in an effort to make things better for the communities we live and work in and when we come home, our emotional gas tank is empty, leaving our loved ones to deal with the fumes of whatever is left. Yoga teaches us mental resilience so we don’t empty our tanks fully, allowing us to give more to the ones that love us. By not being so emotionally drained and stressed, we also sleep better which is always a good thing. Anyone else love sleep like I do???
- It helps you connect with your body and mind. Health and wellness are often words thrown around these days. What does it really mean to be healthy and well? In reality, it means something different to each person, and the real way to understand what makes YOU healthy and well is an answer you must uncover yourself. By sitting still and connecting with your body and mind, yoga helps teach us how to identify when we are out of sync or there is pain or trauma somewhere. Our bodies will always tell us how to keep it healthy, and the only way to hear our bodies speaking to us is by actually taking the time to listen when it speaks to us.
- You join a community of other like-minded people who also value health and happiness in their lives. By joining a yoga class, you will meet other first responders like yourself who are dedicated to bettering their work and selves.
Become a part of the BLFT community – join a yoga class today!
Yoga Classes
ALL-LEVELS FLOW
A variety of poses with a steady pace
Monday Evenings
- 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
YIN YOGA
Deep stretches with a slower pace
Friday Evenings
- 6 PM – 7 PM with Deb
FLOW FOR ALL
Strength-building poses with a steady pace
Thursday Evenings
- 7 PM – 8 PM with Nikki
