- Speaker #0
You know that feeling, that deep, just persistent exhaustion that goes way beyond needing a good night's sleep. Well, today we're diving right into that whole space, the realm of burnout. But maybe understanding it is something more profound than just fatigue.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, like a collapse.
- Speaker #0
Exactly. Caroline Berger de Femini, she's the founder of Studio BioPilates in Paris and a Stoke Palaise reference in France that's... A very biomechanically focused approach.
- Speaker #1
That's right. Very precise.
- Speaker #0
She describes burnout as a real collapse.
- Speaker #1
Absolutely. We've been looking at this interview with Caroline, and what's really fascinating is how her hands-on experience with Pilates gives such a fresh perspective on this challenge we hear so much about. And for anyone listening who maybe feels that kind of weariness, her insights could really, really hit home.
- Speaker #0
So our mission here in this deep dive is to really unpack Caroline's take on how Pilates can genuinely support people going through burnout.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, not just vague wellness stuff.
- Speaker #0
No, exactly. We want to get into the tangible effects, the concrete steps, she actually suggests. It's really about understanding how to, as the interview title puts it, reprendre le pouvoir par le corps.
- Speaker #1
Reclaim power through the body. Such a great phrase.
- Speaker #0
Isn't it? Okay, so let's start there. Understanding this idea of burnout. Caroline's really clear. It's much more than just being tired.
- Speaker #1
Oh, definitely. What hits you right away is her word for it. A fondrement. A collapse. Wow. And she really stresses this isn't just physical. I mean, yes, it hits the body, but also the mind, your confidence. Sometimes even like your core sense of who you are.
- Speaker #0
It sounds really pervasive.
- Speaker #1
It is much deeper than just feeling run down.
- Speaker #0
And it can be so sneaky, can't it? She talks about it being sort of invisible, creeping up gradually, layer by layer until your body just basically says, that's it. I'm done. It just stops cooperating.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, that slow wearing down is such a key thing. It's usually not, you know, a sudden event. And this is where Caroline started seeing how Pilates could offer this unique kind of support, almost like a counterbalance to that slow erosion.
- Speaker #0
How did she make that connection? Was it something she intentionally looked for or?
- Speaker #1
Well, she said it grew quite organically just from observing patterns in her students over time.
- Speaker #0
Oh, interesting. What kind of patterns?
- Speaker #1
Well, she noticed quite a few people coming in with similar physical signs like A very slumped posture. She called it posture replier.
- Speaker #0
Kind of folded in on themselves.
- Speaker #1
Exactly. And shallow, quick-breathing souffle court. And also this kind of vacant look and absence de regard. Like they weren't fully present. Hmm.
- Speaker #0
I can picture that.
- Speaker #1
And interestingly, she also picked up on this common urge among them to, like, do something about it, you know? To push through the fatigue with more activity.
- Speaker #0
Which is often the first reaction, isn't it? Just power through. add more effort.
- Speaker #1
It really is. But Caroline highlights this really crucial shift needed. When you're in that burnout state, what you often actually need is to do less.
- Speaker #0
Do less.
- Speaker #1
Your body's already overloaded. So Pilates, because it focuses so much on relearning how to feel things in your body, how to breathe properly, how to move without all that extra tension, it offers that doing less pathway.
- Speaker #0
Okay. So for someone feeling totally drained, like we talked about at the start. Yeah. The idea isn't... push harder, but maybe step back gently with Pilates. What are the first effects people usually notice? Is it like sudden energy?
- Speaker #1
Not usually, no. She says a really common first reaction is simply, je me sens différent.
- Speaker #0
Feel different?
- Speaker #1
Yeah. And she's clear this isn't necessarily feeling stronger right away or like you can suddenly do more. It's more a feeling of being more present in your own body.
- Speaker #0
So less about a burst of energy, more like a recalibration. tuning back into your body's signals.
- Speaker #1
That's a great way to think about it, yeah. She talks about these subtle but really significant physical shifts, like the breath coming back deeper and fuller, shoulders relaxing, dropping away from the ears, the pelvis finding a more neutral alignment. It's all about deep work through small, precise adjustments, not pushing to the limit at all.
- Speaker #0
Which sounds like exactly what a body needs when it's been overstimulated and just wants safety and calm.
- Speaker #1
Precisely. It aligns perfectly.
- Speaker #0
Okay, so let's get practical. For someone in that really extreme fatigue phase, Carolyn suggests three specific simple exercises or maybe intentions. The first is centering through lateral thoracic breathing. Can you break that down? What does that actually involve?
- Speaker #1
Sure. She suggests just three minutes a day for this. Find a comfortable spot, maybe sitting or lying down. Place your hands gently on the sides of your ribs. Okay. Then you inhale, but the key is without letting your shoulders creep up. You want to feel the ribs expand outwards into your hands sideways.
- Speaker #0
Lateral breathing.
- Speaker #1
Got it. Exactly. Then as you exhale, you just gently engage your deep core muscles. Just a soft drawing in. She calls this re-education neurology.
- Speaker #0
Neurological re-education. Wow.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. The idea is that just focusing consciously on your breath like this can start to reset some of those deep-seated stress responses in the nervous system. It's like a little three-minute reset button you always have with you.
- Speaker #0
I like that. Okay, the second one, a gentle shoulder bridge. How's that different from maybe a standard gym class shoulder bridge?
- Speaker #1
Well, the key words are gentle and control. Caroline describes it as peeling your spine off the mat one vertebra at a time and then rolling it back down the same way. Super slow, super smooth. The focus is on softness, fluidity.
- Speaker #0
And the purpose.
- Speaker #1
It's about... Helping to reintegrate the pelvis with the spine, gently releasing tension there. It's like reinforming those deep postural muscles without any aggression or strain.
- Speaker #0
So rebuilding support safely makes sense.
- Speaker #1
Exactly. Connecting back to that bigger picture of burnout, it's rebuilding that foundation in a way the body feels safe with.
- Speaker #0
Okay. And number three is the swan prep. Sounds elegant, maybe a bit demanding.
- Speaker #1
It is an elegant movement, but the... The prep part really signals the gentleness. You're lying on your stomach and you just gently lift the upper body. But, and this is vital, without any tension in the neck, no straining. Ah, okay. The goal here, she explains, is to counteract that slumped, collapsed posture we talked about.
- Speaker #0
Right, the posture replié.
- Speaker #1
To encourage a feeling of lift, of verticality. And she also talks about it symbolically as opening the heart, moving away from feeling closed off or withdrawn.
- Speaker #0
It's amazing how much intention is layered into these seemingly simple movements.
- Speaker #1
It really is.
- Speaker #0
And she puts huge emphasis on breathing throughout all this, doesn't she? Yeah. Why is the breath so absolutely fundamental in her approach to burnout?
- Speaker #1
Oh, it's completely central. As Caroline explains it, our breath is the most direct link we have between our autonomic nervous system, you know, the part running the show in the background, heart rate, digestion.
- Speaker #0
With automatic stuff.
- Speaker #1
Right. Between that system and our conscious mind. When we practice good full breathing, we directly stimulate the vagus nerve.
- Speaker #0
Okay, the vagus nerve. I've heard of that.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, it acts like the body's main relaxation pathway. It helps regulate heart rate, calms down brain activity, soothes our organs. So for anyone listening, your breath is literally a tool you can use right now to shift your overall state.
- Speaker #0
Like a direct line into the stress response system that we can actually dial down consciously.
- Speaker #1
That's exactly it. And Caroline points out that the specific Pilates breathing, that lateral breathing we talked about, really seems to amplify this effect. It can genuinely transform your inner state. Simple, portable, powerful, always there.
- Speaker #0
That's incredible. Now, moving beyond the purely physical, Caroline also talks about the mental shifts she sees. How does this physical practice start to connect with, you know, our sense of self, our identity, which can get so battered by burnout?
- Speaker #1
Yeah, this is where it gets really deep. Caroline sees the physical work in Pilates as being tightly interwoven with that identity piece. People in burnout often feel like they've lost their confidence, their sense of capability, right?
- Speaker #0
Definitely.
- Speaker #1
So by slowly, gently regaining a sense of control and connection within their own bodies through Pilates, and crucially, without the pressure to perform or achieve some external standard, they start to rebuild a more positive sense of self. She describes it as this really powerful shift. From feeling broken, her words were, je suis cassé, to feeling like you're actively rebuilding, je me reconstruis.
- Speaker #0
That's a really empowering shift in perspective, broken versus rebuilding.
- Speaker #1
Isn't it? And she says this internal shift then ripples outwards. It affects their mental posture, sparks desire again, helps them find the energy to re-engage with life.
- Speaker #0
Wow. Okay, so on the flip side, what are the common pitfalls? What mistakes does Caroline see people making when they try to use exercise to recover from burnout? Maybe too fast.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, she warns very strongly against that urge to just go fast, you know, to try and sweat it out or jump right back to whatever fitness level they were at before.
- Speaker #0
Old habits die hard.
- Speaker #1
They really do. Yeah. But she emphasizes the body and burnout just isn't operating like that anymore. You have to listen to what it needs. You can't just force it.
- Speaker #0
So what's the alternative?
- Speaker #1
Gentle consistency. That's her advice. Maybe just two or three short but very regular Pilates sessions a week. And this is really critical allowing for integration phases.
- Speaker #0
Integration phases. What does that mean?
- Speaker #1
It means building in time for rest, for just doing that focused breathing, for grounding activities. It's in those quieter moments, she says, that the body actually does the repairing and the recovering.
- Speaker #0
That makes so much sense. Giving the body the space it needs, not just pushing it more, even with good intentions. Now, Caroline also brings up Pilates in the workplace. That's an interesting angle you don't always hear.
- Speaker #1
It is, and it's so relevant, isn't it? We talk so much about employee well-being, performance, but often the actual physical state of people gets overlooked. Caroline argues, look, if an employee isn't breathing well, if they have chronic back pain, if they're carrying all this tension, they're naturally going to be less effective, more prone to stress.
- Speaker #0
Bans to reason.
- Speaker #1
So she suggests bringing Pilates into the workplace isn't just a perk, it's a tool. For prevention, for helping people regulate stress during the day, for restoring that sense of mental and physical spine within the work routine.
- Speaker #0
So way beyond just a quick lunchtime stretch class.
- Speaker #1
Oh, yeah. She sees it as strategic, preventing stress, fostering better team dynamics. She even observed that managers who seem more physically aligned tend to be more composed, clearer leaders.
- Speaker #0
That's fascinating. A kind of ripple effect through the whole organization.
- Speaker #1
Potentially, yes. A ripple effect of well-being.
- Speaker #0
So near the end of the interview, Caroline is asked in just one word why Pilates is so powerful against burnout. And her answer is just parce qu'il reconnect. Because it reconnects. Can you unpack that? What are the key reconnections she's talking about?
- Speaker #1
Absolutely. She puts it beautifully. It's first reconnecting the breath to movement. Then reconnecting the body and the mind, making that link conscious again. And ultimately and most profoundly, reconnecting the person to themselves. Wow. In a world that constantly pulls us apart, leads to that feeling of fragmentation that feeds burnout, she sees this act of coming back to yourself through mindful pilates practice as just a fundamental act of healing.
- Speaker #0
So wrapping this up, the really core takeaway from our deep dive into Caroline Berger's work seems to be that tackling burnout can genuinely start with that simple foundational act, reconnecting with your own body through mindful movement, through intentional breath. And that Pilates offers a really potent way to do that.
- Speaker #1
Precisely. And maybe for you listening, if you're navigating some of this complexity, maybe just try one of the simple things Caroline suggested. Even a few minutes of that lateral breathing each day. It could be a start. Yeah. Remember, small, consistent steps can really add up. They can be the catalyst for real change.
- Speaker #0
So maybe here's a final thought to leave everyone with. In a world that values pushing through, always being productive, what would it actually look like to prioritize reconnection? with your breath, your body, yourself. To see that as a form of strength. Could listening more closely to your body's signals actually be the most powerful thing you can do when you feel overwhelmed? Something to think about.
