Burnout is real. Miami experts say you should follow this advice to ease stress

Miami Herald

13-05-2025

Are you happy?
Happiness — laughing with loved ones, a purpose in life, something to look forward to — is a factor in whether a person will live a healthy and long life, experts say.
Eating healthy, sleeping well and staying active — critical lifestyle changes that can promote healthy aging — are easier to track. But happiness can be difficult to measure, and at times, difficult to feel.
'How do you feel happy if you're dealing with dementia? How do you feel happy if you're a caregiver? How do you feel happy if you're unhoused and dealing with multiple chronic conditions? It's a real challenge,' said Joy Siegel, a professor at Nova Southeastern University.
Siegel is also a board member of the private not-for-profit Alliance for Aging. The organization provides resources and services to seniors, their families and caregivers in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
'Those aren't necessarily happy things, but the reality is that when we look at the present moment, we can feel happy for right now,' from the simple things in life, such as listening to music and helping someone, Siegel said.
Even so, people are feeling the squeeze. Groceries, housing and the cost of living is up. A historic number of older Americans are living alone. And seniors who live alone are at higher risk for social isolation, depression, falls and other accidents, hospitalization and death.
For those who take on the role of a loved one's caregiver, research also indicates that the stress can worsen physical and mental health.
'It's very important to understand that the stress that you see every day, you encounter every day, it's hard to be happy when you have such stress,' said Tami Muller, a certified happiness trainer and positive psychology coach.
And long-term stress can increase the risk of many health problems, including heart disease, sleep, digestive, depression and issues with memory and focus, according to the Mayo Clinic.
While you can't avoid stress, you need to give yourself time to recover from stress, Muller said. 'You need to allow yourself to take some recovery during the day — if it's going for a couple of minutes of deep breathing or going for a short walk, good sleep at night, one day a week that you don't answer your phones.'
Finding opportunities to relieve stress, laugh and connect with others is becoming even more important in an aging country that is also in a growing mental health crisis. That crisis has particularly hit South Florida kids, teens and older adults hard, according to several experts who spoke during the New Face of Aging: Aging and the Art of Happiness Conference, hosted in May by Alliance for Aging at the Hilton hotel on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami.
Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has described the U.S. mental health crisis, which is affecting people of all ages, as being largely fueled by loneliness.
'It's those moments of happiness that may serve as that bridge between a good day and a not good day,' said Siegel, co-chair of the conference and served as the conference's moderator.
The caregiver effect
People need to take care of themselves before caring for others, similar to how you would secure your own oxygen mask before helping others in a flight emergency, said Dr. James Galvin, director of the Comprehensive Center for Brain Health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Galvin's team developed a tool a few years ago that can provide a snapshot of how healthy a patient's brain is and how much risk the patient has of developing Alzheimer's and related disorders.
'Caregiving is a biomedical challenge. The actual practice of care giving raises inflammatory markers, increases headaches, increases GI complaints, decreases response to vaccines,' Galvin said.
But it also has positive effects.
'Caregiving gives people a sense of accomplishment,' he said. 'They can feel the joy they're providing, the love, the care to their loved one, giving back. It makes many people feel good, has high life satisfaction.'
'Laughter yoga' and other tips to reduce burnout, stress
Here are some tips Galvin, Muller, wellness advocate Lauren 'L2' Howard, Dr. Thomas Felke, director of the Shady Rest Institute for Positive Aging at Florida Gulf Coast University, and Arnold Rodriguez, a certified instructor in 'laughter yoga,' gave to help reduce stress and encourage socialization to promote healthier aging:
▪ Laugh, even if nothing funny has happened. Laughter has both positive and long-term effects, including reducing stress and tension, improving your mood, and can even help reduce pain, bolster your immune system, and make it easier to cope with difficult situations, according to the Mayo Clinic.
But the funny thing about laughter is that 'the body does not know the difference between forced laughter and actual laughter,' said Rodriguez, the 'laughter yoga' instructor.
Laughter Yoga was invented in 1995 by Dr. Madan Kataria in Mumbai, India, and relies on a mix of breathing and laughing techniques meant to help improve mood and reduce stress. Some studies suggest that laughing yoga, or simulated laughter, 'may be as effective as aerobic exercise at reducing self-reported stress,' although some experts say there's not enough large-scale research yet to determine how beneficial laughing is, according to Healthline.
Here's how it works:
Breathe deeply through the nose, 'engage our entire torso, and then we're gonna let it out with a smile and a 'ha' sound,' Rodriguez told people at the Miami aging conference. After you do this breathing exercise a few times, breathe in again and when you're ready to exhale, do so with a 'good hearty laugh.'
▪ Find activities you enjoy and engage the brain. Take a class, join a book club, volunteer with a school or nonprofit, join an exercise group, find activities that interest you and give an opportunity to socialize with others. Keeping your body and brain active is also known to help reduce the risk of Alzheimer's and other dementia. Walking, for example, can help improve your physical and mental health.
'There's no magic formula so for each person — the things that make them happy is going to be different,' said Galvin, the UM doctor. 'And so you really need to think about what makes you happy and what makes you sad and try to choose those things that make you happy.'
Online communities can be a form of support, too, according to Howard, who is also founder and CEO of mental health company LBee Health.
'Everybody has a different set of circumstances and abilities and desires to go out and engage and so when you start treating any place where you can get fulfillment and friendship and camaraderie as community, it opens up a whole lot of opportunities for you to find different pockets that make you feel happy, that you feel welcome, that make you feel included,' Howard said.
▪ Learn new things. 'Once you find that thing you like to do, do something different because the brain likes novel things,' Galvin said. 'So if you exercise and you walk on a treadmill, great. Now, do something different. Swim. Use a resistance band. Take a yoga class, a Tai Chi class. If you read a book, join a book club. If you listen to music, go to a concert. The idea is to challenge yourself each day and so the high activity is the one that's going to give you the most satisfaction and open new doors for you,' he said, noting that Florida residents 60 and older can take college courses for free at Florida public universities, and don't have to worry about homework.
▪ Use tangible rewards as incentives to kickoff healthy lifestyle changes. Howard, the wellness advocate, said she loses interest in things quickly so she's had to find creative ways to get engaged. She switched out her desk for a standing desk to help motivate her to move. She suggests finding ways to 'gamify' your own activity as a completion incentive. Some fitness trackers, for example, give digital metals when you hit certain walking or other fitness goals.
▪ Find people who have the same goals as you. 'Be around people that want to do what you want to do,' to encourage and keep you accountable, Muller said.
▪ Train yourself to think positive, even when things get tough. 'Positive psychology doesn't suggest that there are no challenges, doesn't suggest that there are no difficulties,' Muller said. 'It suggests that we can choose to focus on what works on the bigger picture.'
To find resources
Visit allianceforaging.org
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