Yoga helps frontline warriors beat stress, anxiety

Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

Practicing yoga and meditation has helped many frontline Covid-19 warriors in Abu Dhabi beat stress and anxiety during the peak of the pandemic. They were helped by an Indian yoga practitioner who offered regular training and shared tips with the frontline warriors to keep their spirits up.  

Working at a hospital in Abu Dhabi, Lokesh Hegde decided to offer training and shared tips with the Covid-19 warriors when he realised that many of them were passing through undue stress and anxiety.

A traditional Indian practice, yoga is a combination of physical and mental exercises that has the power to calm the mind and strengthen the body, said Lokesh, Yoga Specialist at Burjeel Hospital, who has been sharing video tips and conducting webinars since the beginning of the outbreak.

“When the number of infected patients admitted to the hospital increased, I found that the medical staff was fully engaged for all day. I knew this would induce stress and anxiety.”

“Working in PPE for all the day was not an easy task. Seeing my fellow doctors and nurses suffering, I wanted to help them. I decided to shoot videos of yoga techniques and shared with them. It helped. Many started calling me for more tips and guidance. Later, I even started getting calls from people outside our hospital. It was then I decided to hold a webinar once in a week depending upon the requests,” he said.

Lokesh has been sharing tips on how to do certain meditation techniques, which would help people reduce stress and anxiety. All those techniques were easy for even a beginner to practice without the guidance of an instructor. 

Dr. Nadia Najjari, Consultant Reproductive Medicine, said she learnt yoga recently and has been teaching the nursing staff at the hospital too. “I am practicing yoga regularly now. It has been very helpful to keep the mind calm during tense situations. The pandemic really proved how yoga could be helpful. During the initial days of the outbreak, it was normal. But slowly, the number of cases increased. It was not easy. At the end of the day, everybody was exhausted. Practicing yoga was a great relief and helped all of us to stay calm and motivated.”

Dr. Job Simon, Consultant Diabetes and Endocrinology at Burjeel Hospital, said he started doing yoga as he could not go out for a workout. “I stopped going out to do my regular exercises since the outbreak as venturing out was not prudent. For a few days, I did my workout at home. But with the pandemic hitting a peak and the number of patient flow increased, we had to work for longer hours attending to each patient.