#straightfromcait: Mindfulness and Burnout - The Science For Your Brain and Heart

Fried. The Burnout Podcast

1. Hey Fried Fans! Last week, you found out that together with MINDALT, Luminary, Caveday, Kristina Libby, Sochill, and Spiritune, I have a super fun project for the month of April called The World’s Most Mindful Office. It’s the idea baby of Christina Vuleta, the co-founder of MINDALT and I’m so excited to be a part of it. In case you missed it, here are the basics. Luminary is my favorite co-working space in NYC and also happens to be around the corner from my acupuncture office, so it’s really convenient for those days that I have pauses between patients AND super convenient for a mid day acupuncture nap for you when you're working your day away in Luminary's beautiful space. Luminary also has a ton of online programming for their members (and for this last week of Women’s History Month - their online programming is FREE for ALL.. so hop on that this week!) that connects me with the most amazing women. Now, Christina and I are building the World’s Most Mindful Office, within Luminary’s walls. The private office will be covered in incredible floral art by Kristina Libby, supplied with a Mindful Plan for the day created by Christina Vuleta following the main principles of MINDALT, supported by Caveday with a focused work session, and enhanced by moi with short simple exercises designed to bring in more calm and more energy easily when you need it. The World’s Most Mindful Office will be available to rent by the day - Luminary members can rent it for just $20, and non members just $40 - So, $20 or $40 bucks will get you the best workcation you never knew you needed (before the pandemic anyway.. You all know you need it now :)). All of this is super exciting, but it begs the question - why am I a part of this? What does mindfulness have to do with burnout? I don’t use the word mindfulness often on FRIED episodes but it is interwoven into nearly every suggestion I’ve ever given. I find that sometimes, when you’re burnt out and the typical advice that’s touted hasn’t helped you, hearing words that follow the common advice makes you just glaze right over it. BUT! Mindfulness is a huge part of burnout recovery and the why is in the science. To keep it super simple, Mindfulness keeps your MIND FULL. We’ve talked neuroscience quite a bit on FRIED (if you missed the episode with Shonte Javon Taylor - go back and find it, it’s amazing!) and because we talk about it so much, I hope that you remember that there are a couple of brain changes that happen with the type of long term chronic stress that we associate with burnout. Mainly, the part of your brain that is responsible for filtering emotions, giving you motivation, connecting with others, and being your center of logic shrinks - you actually lose nerve cells in this part of your brain when you’re under long term, unprocessed, chronic stress - the same kind that leads you to being totally fried and crispy. Another thing that happens is the amygdala (the part of your brain that’s still all instinct based) is enlarged making you over interpret threats from your environment. Mindfulness practices have been shown to regrow (fill up) the part of your brain that is damaged by long term stress and also regulate the amygdala so that it’s not on high alert all the time. And then there’s the heart. We haven’t spent a lot of time on the heart on FRIED but I do mention Heart Rate Variability in The Bouncebackability

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