Hot yoga as an occupation

2024/06/27

Previously I wrote Natsuyo’s hot yoga experience which supported her

to recover from burnout crisis after being transferred.

Natsuyo destressed and was able to balance her work and private life.

Today, I will share with you a perspective of hot yoga as an occupation

from these angles:

              the form of hot yoga as an occupation,

              the function of the occupation,

and the meaning of the occupation.

To look at hot yoga in a big occupational picture, let’s imagine Natsuyo

engaging in hot yoga.

Hot yoga as an occupation

Situation:

Natsuyo is in her mid-20s and works as a full-time occupational therapist.

After working in the recovery rehabilitation department for four years,

she got transferred to a visiting rehabilitation department.

Working at her client’s home was a totally different experience from

her previous work.

Natsuyo was tense and nervous in her new work.

She was behind at work, her work-life balance was disrupted by the transfer

and she was exhausted. She decided to do hot yoga to destress.

Form of the occupation:

While working in the recovery department, Natsuyo worked in the

occupational therapy room which was a quite familiar place to her.

She could get help from other therapists anytime she needed.

In four years when she got transferred, she visited her clients by

herself but couldn’t get help from her colleagues there.

She visited 4-5 clients a day and had a lot of paper work to do. 

She stayed late in the office.

After she came home, she still thought about her work.

She was exhausted. Her work-life balance was disrupted.

Natsuyo was behind at work after being transferred and experienced

burnout.

She couldn’t work efficiently, so she stayed late at work and stressed out.

Her work-life balance was disrupted.

That is Natsuyo’s environmental challenge.

Natsuyo should somehow adapt to her environmental challenge.

Natsuyo tried participating in a hot yoga class to destress.

In a hot and humid room, she joined the exercise with other participants.

Coached by the instructor, she moved her body slowly to make various

poses and tried to concentrate on her breathing.

While moving her body slowly, she repeatedly concentrated on

breathing in and breathing out.

It has been a while since she moved her body fully.

Moving slowly in a hot and humid room was very strenuous and she sweated.

Natsuyo was happy and felt refreshed. Natsuyo really wanted to join again.

Natsuyo should finish her work in time for the hot yoga class.

She reflected on her daily life and decided not to stay late at work

but to work efficiently.

She created a good weekly and daily schedule and worked on schedule.

 Finally, she participated in the class four times a week.

Function of the occupation:

Natsuyo was exhausted with her work after being transferred.

Her life-work balance was disrupted and well-being was poor.

Natsuyo started punching to her environmental challenge doing hot yoga.

Natsuyo’s punch had two effects.

First, hot yoga had a positive effect on her-physically and mentally.

Second, it improved her life-work balance.

Take a look at these effects separately.                    

Doing hot yoga involved repeatedly concentrating on breathing in and out

while moving to reach a yoga pose in a hot and humid room.

While Natsuyo was moving her body, and concentrating to her body and

her breath, she forgot other things.

She also felt refreshed.

She sweated a lot and was happy.

She felt destressed from her work.  

She was so glad that she wanted to join again.

Secondly, motivated to be engaged in hot yoga, Natsuyo looked at her work.

She should　finish her work to be in time for the hot yoga class.

She reviewed her work to make weekly and daily efficient work schedules.

As a result, she finished her work on time and was able to join the yoga class.

Natsuyo now had a good work-life balance every day and every week and

recovered her well-being.

Meaning of the occupation:  

Hot yoga supported Natsuyo to solve stress and to recover her occupational

balance.

She adapted to the new environment after being transferred, overcame

her burn out crisis and regained her healthy life.