Guided Deep Relaxation for Healthcare Professionals
- You are likely regarded as dedicated, working to serve your community.
- Today many healthcare providers are experiencing stress, exhaustion, burn out, and increasingly with the covid pandemic, overwhelm.
- Healthcare professionals in particular are at risk of not taking time out for much needed self-care.
- You can better take care of others by taking good care of yourself, and Deep Relaxation is the ideal antidote to stress.
Available on Zoom or in-person
The first session is free!
How to get started
I am an experienced teacher and have been leading people in Guided Deep Relaxations regularly for over 20 years.
Guided Deep Relaxation sessions range from 20-45 minutes and can be done during a lunch or other break, or after work from the comfort of your home so it need not interfere with your work. It can be practiced at your desk or in a conference room, either from a steady chair or lying down. No props are necessary, but if you’d like you can use a blanket or pillow for maximum comfort. Because the gentle stretching that normally precedes the Deep Relaxation is optional anyone can participate safely regardless of ability or disability.
The first session is free! Try it out and experience the extraordinary benefits of Deep Relaxation for yourself.
I am confident you or your group will want to continue after your free session! I have several affordable options to choose from. You or your group can select a package with a certain number of sessions, or you can schedule on-going weekly or bi-weekly sessions.
To learn more, have any questions or are ready to schedule your free session, please contact me by phone, email, or by clicking the “Book your free session” button above.
I hope to hear from you soon, and to assist you with healing your body, mind, and soul with Guided Deep Relaxation.
The Stress Response
As healthcare professionals, you likely know all about the stress response, or ‘fight or flight’. Stress is our response to something that we perceive as threatening or beyond our control. While the stress response begins in the mind—as a subjective response to an external event or an internal thought—it manifests in the body as increased heart rate, labored breathing, release of stress hormones, activation of the sympathetic nervous system, increased blood pressure, shutdown of digestion, etc.
An episodic stressor might be seeing a car coming fast down the street and jumping to safety. After the threat has passed, the physiological stress response is resolved. The problems arise when stress becomes chronic. If we act as if we’re in danger repeatedly, the stress response becomes habitual and can lead to exhaustion, burnout and illness. Many doctors and nurses today are experiencing chronic stress with the onslaught of covid19 patients, while often working with limited time, resources and support.
Chronic stress is a major contributing factor to illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, immune disease, digestive disorders, asthma, psoriasis, anxiety, depression, headaches and more.
The most effective way to relieve stress is to begin with practices that release tension in the body, such as Hatha Yoga or gentle stretching, moderate exercise, and/or Deep Relaxation. The mind is often a stressor itself, but because it is easier to take hold of the body than to take hold of the mind, starting with the body is a great way to begin reversing the unhealthy effects of chronic stress.
The Relaxation Response
In the 1970’s Herbert Benson, M.D. (who later established the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Harvard Medical School) studied people in meditation and observed that the stress response had an equal and opposite response which he coined “the relaxation response”. The relaxation response activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
Some of the features of the relaxation response are: reduction of stress hormone levels; decreased heart rate; decreased blood pressure; reduced anxiety; improved sleep and circulation; decreased breathing rate, muscle tension and metabolic rate; and an increased sense of well-being.
The relaxation response brings the body and mind back to balance. In the state of relaxation, the body devotes its resources to essential life-sustaining processes: digestion, growth, repair, and healing. The mind rests, health is optimized, and energy is restored.
Guided Deep Relaxation as Stress Management
Deep Relaxation, also known as ‘Yoga Nidra’ (which means ‘yogic sleep’), is a simple yet highly effective technique that systematically puts the body, breath, and mind in a state of profound relaxation and harmony. In yogic sleep, as opposed to regular sleep, our consciousness remains awake and aware, while the body and mind deeply rest.
Because we are used to continually being busy, productive, or distracted, it may take some practice to learn to truly relax. Some people are unable to fully relax in a given session and that is OK.
The state of Deep Relaxation is unlike any other, and the benefits are both immediate and long-lasting. Here are a few of the many benefits of practicing Deep Relaxation regularly:
- Provides a profound sense of being renewed, refreshed, and rested
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Increases mental focus
- Boosts the immune system
- Lowers blood pressure
- Improves sleep
- Restores energy level
- Bestows an overall sense of well-being
testimonials
“Padma’s sessions helped me live in my body again. I found her when recovering from a grave illness and felt immediate safety in the patient, careful progressions from body to breath to meditation. She showed me a path back to strength and calm, teaching with great compassion and care while leaving plenty of space for me to have my own inward challenges and insights. Padma is among the extraordinary teachers who lead without ever getting in the way.”
~ Aaron
“Padma’s gentle and contemplative style during guided deep relaxation has a sublime effect that leaves one wrapped in a peaceful, altered state and keeps her loyal students coming back for more.”
~ Patti
“I have taken guided deep relaxation sessions with Padma over the last ten years. Her sessions have helped give me a sense of balance and calm energetically, physically as well as spiritually. She instructs with great care and intention. Guided Deep Relaxation is the most wonderful way to access the part of yourself that allows deep healing to happen. I have experienced this healing firsthand after grieving the loss of my mother. It has helped me more than anything else has.”
~ Heather