It’s no secret that being a nurse or a midwife can be stressful.

Finding a healthy way to manage and relieve stress before it takes a negative toll on your body is crucial.

Anesthetics nurse Jana Hnatova, believes yoga and meditation are great ways to relieve workplace stress.

Since taking up yoga over a year ago, and attending classes four times a week, she has noticed significant benefits that have helped her physically and emotionally at work and in her personal life.

This includes relief from ongoing lower back pain, she says.

“Standing all day doing anesthetics I would go home so sore and was getting massages to try and help relieve that.

“I can honestly say in the last 12 months since practicing yoga I haven’t had any troubles with my lower back.”

Regular yoga practice is known to lessen musculoskeletal stiffness as well as improve flexibility and posture, which can aid in the prevention of work injuries.

It can help prevent heart disease, reduce blood pressure, control weight and strengthen bones to avert osteoporosis.

Yoga is also a great stress buster. It helps focus the mind, ease tension, help with concentration, improve energy levels and promote a feeling of calm.

“It brings you to a space that you feel more relaxed,” Jana says.

She says this can be attributed to connecting with the breath while doing postures, which brings peace.

Being more conscious of the breath Jana now applies breathing awareness to stressful situations in her daily life.

“When facing a stressful situation I just stop and think about what I am doing and start breathing then I think ‘oh yeah, this is really helping’. I’m much calmer because of it.”