How this BeCalm Yourself gentle yoga series will reduce stress and burnout

Here are some testimonials about Janie’s BeCalm Yourself 5-week class series. More about how you can reset your nervous system and practice calm techniques for life.

“Seems to be getting deeper each session. And I slept so well last night. It is really a very special practice”

— Marion

“This series was an awesome way to be guided into the many gentle and calming practices that Janie has in her abundant kete ready to share”

— Fiona

“My body can do things - more things - that I thought it could which I really appreciate knowing.”

— Rachel

Make a new body-imprint each time you truly relax.

Our bodies are not meant to hold tension for too long. But we are designed to be stressed, when needed. Problems start when we don’t balance stress (which shows up in our bodies over time) with relaxation. If we are mentally stressed for too long, the body gets too comfortable with stress and you stop believing you can feel any other way. We literally need to change not just our bodies, but our mind. Our mind will come kicking and screaming, but our natural state of relaxation will win. With practice.

• The last 5-week BeCalm Yourself class series for 2025 starts 12 October. Ancient, easy, calm, beautiful and gentle yoga practices to regulate your nervous system and change your internal state. Imagine if you could be calm, anywhere, anytime.

• Break the cycle of moving through life stressed, anxious, unsure or unable to deeply recover from illness. We cannot heal when we are stressed - healing only happens when we are relaxed.

• This is not strenuous leg-behind-your-head yoga. This beautiful series is guided meditation, gentle stretches, letting every muscle go as you lay over soft bolsters, deep breathing and calming down. These classes return yoga to it's roots - meditation, silent stillness, and experiencing the world without tension.

• The impact of each 1.5 hour class will stay with you. And the by the end of the course, you will:

1. Understand more about your stress and relaxation responses

2. Learn easy ways to switch your nervous system over to rest

3. Learn breathing techniques to immediately calm you down

4. Remind your body what is feels like to be at ease

5. Support your mind to naturally and easily take a back seat

6. Learn to better transition to sleep

7. Slow down long enough to listen to what you truly nee

8. Have access to audio and video recordings for life

9. Have unlimited support and curiosity throughout the course

10. Create your own home practice after the series.

The world is getting faster. We don't need to. Fast and productive is not not our natural state!

These classes are led by Janie Walker who has experienced chronic stress and long-covid. She teaches from her own experience. You will truly feel supported. You will also crave coming to BeCalmed Studio's little haven in the forest. You can rest here.

Just 2-3 per class. If this time of week does not suit you, please contact Janie as there may be others wanting a different time slot.

And don't let money be a barrier - we can work something out.

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BeCalmed studio is nestled in a native forest in Titahi Bay, Porirua. You’ll hear tui and maybe the ocean. You may even hear korimako and the woosh of kereru. There’s kawa kawa, puka puka, kowhai, ringa ringa. Nature - yours and in the forest.

I apologise for the this next piece of this blog. It’s OK if you choose to ignore it. It is written by AI to be key phrase heavy. I just want you to find me.

The Incredible Benefits of Yoga for Stress, Burnout, and Anxiety Relief

Yoga is a ancient practice gaining widespread popularity for its profound health benefits, particularly in managing stress, combating burnout, and reducing anxiety. Incorporating yoga into your daily routine can significantly improve mental health, enhance emotional resilience, and promote overall well-being. Here’s an in-depth look at how yoga works as a powerful stress reliever and anxiety reducer.

Stress Reduction through Yoga

Yoga is renowned for its ability to lower cortisol levels, the hormone associated with stress. By combining mindful breathing exercises, meditation, and gentle physical postures, yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and calmness. Regular yoga practice supports the body's ability to manage stress more effectively, leading to decreased feelings of overwhelm and tension. Poses such as Child’s Pose, Legs-Up-The-Wall, and Savasana are particularly effective in calming the mind and reducing physical symptoms of stress.

Alleviating Burnout with Yoga

Burnout, characterised by emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and decreased personal achievement, can significantly impair quality of life. Yoga offers a holistic approach to rebuilding energy and restoring balance. Mindfulness-based yoga practices increase self-awareness and emotional regulation, helping individuals recognize and address signs of burnout early. The physical activity involved in yoga boosts endorphin levels, naturally elevating mood and reducing fatigue. Gentle flow sequences and restorative yoga classes are especially beneficial for those experiencing burnout, providing gentle movement and deep relaxation.

Reducing Anxiety with Yoga

Anxiety disorders often involve hyperactivity of the nervous system. Yoga techniques such as deep diaphragmatic breathing, Pranayama (breath control), and meditation help regulate the nervous system, decreasing anxiety symptoms. Specific yoga poses like Bridge Pose, Cat-Cow, and Forward Fold stimulate the vagus nerve, promoting a state of relaxation. Regular yoga practice can also improve sleep quality, which is crucial for managing anxiety. The mindfulness aspect of yoga encourages present-moment awareness, reducing rumination and eliminating feelings of worry.

Key Benefits of Yoga for Mental Health

• Stress Management: Yoga lowers cortisol levels and enhances relaxation.

• Burnout Prevention: Restorative and gentle yoga restore energy and emotional balance.

• Anxiety Reduction: Breathing techniques and mindful movement calm the nervous system.

• Enhanced Mood: Endorphin release elevates emotional well-being.

• Better Sleep: Yoga improves sleep quality, reducing anxiety and stress.

• Improved Emotional Resilience: Mindfulness increases self-awareness and emotional regulation.

• Holistic Health: Supports mental, emotional, and physical health.

Getting Started with Yoga for Stress, Burnout, and Anxiety

Begin with simple, restorative yoga poses and breathing exercises. Consistency is key — practicing even 10-15 minutes daily can make a significant difference. Join a local class or use online resources dedicated to stress relief and mental health. Remember, yoga is a personal journey; listen to your body and progress at your own pace.

Conclusion

Incorporating yoga into your lifestyle offers numerous benefits, especially for those battling stress, burnout, and anxiety. Its ability to promote relaxation, emotional balance, and mental clarity makes yoga an essential tool for enhancing overall well-being. Start your yoga journey today and experience the transformative power of mindful movement and breath control.

A little trigger can go a long way: How yoga calms the path

I was triggered yesterday by a prank call and spent the day observing my reactions. I thought about food. A lot. And I’m not talking salad. I over-shopped online with food groceries. I had pizza for dinner. But I also pushed my partners chocolate biscuits towards the back of the cupboard and sat in my studio with all that I was feeling.

I noticed how I wanted to cover up the vulnerability I felt. I had memories from the past that hadn’t had an airing for years. Mostly I felt that the energy in my body was dense, uncomfortable - I felt quite gross. So, yes, triggered, but not half as much as in previous times, thanks to my own yoga practice.

Yoga allows us to not always connect with negative, disturbing or reactive thoughts. Often these reactions and thoughts result in habitual, destructive behavior - either old habits, or unhealthy new ones - in the flash of a blink. Mostly we are unaware of this process. We blame others or begin a familar spiral downwards.

Yoga helps us to retrain the brain by being aware of how we are feeling, notice our thoughts and reactions without acting on them, and focusing on something else - our breath, the open space between our eye brows, the release of tension in a part of our body. And the guided meditation practice of Yoga Nidra allows us to plant an intention in our subconscious when we are super relaxed, while we are awake, to set us in the direction of how we want to feel in life. Our brain then filters out thoughts that are not aligned with our intention. This intention can be used to disrupt negative and unhealthy thoughts and behaviours as they occur.

Guided meditation, restorative yoga, pranayama, Yoga Nidra - all these beautiful easy ancient practices allow us to gently and kindly release or soften old patterns that keep us from being in life in a more useful or kinder way. These practices bring us home to our natural state of being. We’re still messy. But we no longer feel that this mess is “me”.

Yoga is not about sticking your foot behind your head. Yoga’s purpose is to lead you through meditation to a calmer place where our triggers come up to go. We may need to gently stretch and release our bodies first so we are not distracted when we sit, but ultimately, yoga is about stilling the rollercoaster of your mind - not just for yourself, but for the world around you.

It took us a lifetime to get here. Come and talk to Janie about creating a calmer life through yoga, one less pizza slice at a time.

#restorativeyoga #lifereset #meditationnz #yoganidra

Yoga Nidra: the letting go

BeCalmed Studio’s Janie Walker has completed further Yoga Nidra teacher training at InDepth Yoga Academy.

I’m aware of the absence of things, just for a second. I’m lying on the floor in a cool roof-top yoga studio in Phuket. I know there’s chaotic traffic half a kilometre away. Dogs barking. The yells of fight from the boxing academy up the road. But I’m no longer conscious of that . I’ve reached a withdrawal of the senses and there’s a new experience happening. I’m loosing control of my thoughts. I can feel them slipping away and I’m trying to fight the natural desire to grasp them back. As I let go I fight too. What am I letting go into?

For the first time, I’m experiencing this fight and letting go as a duality: as anxiety as well as calm. I used to think I was one or the other at any given time. I thought the point of all this yoga and meditation practice was to spend more time in the calm space, blocking out the anxiety and worry. But after this new Yoga Nidra teacher training, I realise that both exist at the same time. There needs to be an awareness and acceptance of all our icky stuff instead of blocking it out in the hope that we will eventually be somewhere else. We have to find love for what we’re letting go of.

I think that’s what holidays and changing jobs or relationships do. They force us to leave ourselves instead of love ourselves. It’s easer to leave.

A brindle rescue cat and a black and white rescue dog have made their home here as they saunter and stretch in and out of our class. They’re both splayed out in front of me on their tummies. These animals had a hard start in life but they’re learning to rest here too. I like the addition of animals - easy compassion.

The lovely yoga teachers here are a mother and daughter team - Nathalie and Anastasia (Ana). Ana, the daughter, is my Yoga Nidra trainer. She’s much younger than me and fires between a wise sage and a youthful pocket-rocket. I love her quirkiness and absolute love of yoga. She explains complex yoga terms in easy ways. I also love the way she’s spent her young life questioning the teachings of the buddha and ancient wisdoms instead of blindly following them. She’s very smart and I can’t wait to meet her when her years catch up with her mind.

Ana reminds me that this letting go in Yoga Nidra leads to the heart of this practice - resting in wakeful awareness - the systematic letting go of physical, mental and emotion tensions during the different states of a Yoga Nidra session. Tension ceases to exist for a time. This brings a profound state of relaxation, rest and healing - well beyond the 30-40 minute practice.

Resting in awareness of the present moment is the whole point of, well, pretty much anything to do with yoga!

I think we can experience a brief, shallower state of this - a taster - in our daily lives. You’ve finished work and you rush home (because that’s just what you do). You do the essentials and instead of turning the TV on, you sit on the deck, garden or bed. Alone. There’s so much to do and achieve. But you’re overwhelmed. You listen to the wise part of yourself and decide to just stop for a minute. You get comfy, take a deep breath in (of fresh air) and sigh out (stale air). There are a few seconds before your brain kicks in and tells you to get a move on and you rest between the outbreath and the inbreath. Something else exists. A beautiful pause. It’s the resting place of our true nature. You don’t really know what that is, but you know it’s there. Intuitively you know it’s something you want/need more of. Awareness of your present moment without the shitty past or the anxious future. This resting in awareness decides how you live the rest of your life. The longer you stay - and the deeper you go with practices like Yoga Nidra - the more you naturally transform your life. Because there’s no reaction when there’s no tension. There’s just an awareness of things as they are. You get to experience the why of your conscious and subconscious.

So, what’s the point of resting in wakeful awareness? There’s the easier to grasp stuff - you relax, lower your heart rate, digest better, relax your nervous system to lower stress, manage pain and increase yummy neurotransmitters like dopamine.

Then there’s the energetic and personality stuff: Yoga Nidra, over time, changes your relationship to thoughts, emotions and how you interact with the world.

Only yesterday, I had another moment of realisation of this for myself. We were deciding whether to lock up or not before we went out. I’m more cautious than my partner and can get anxious about leaving. We were about to enter the familiar argument when I said, “Just do whatever you think is best”. I thought to myself, “Wow, who was that?” Way calmer. Less reactory. A much nicer person to be around.

Letting go can be scary but clutching makes us fight. And fishing spins us in mental circles. Letting go with practices like Yoga Nidra is what will ultimately transform our lives and the lives of others.

Ana from InDepth Yoga Academy. A wise and quirky soul.