Meet Ivory Howard

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ivory Howard a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ivory, thank you for joining us today and sharing your experiences and acquired wisdom with us. Burnout is a huge topic these days and so we’d love to kick things off by discussing your thoughts on overcoming or avoiding burnout

Stop glorifying the hustle. Hustling is not a guarantee of success but rest is essential to success.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a yoga and Pilates instructor. My program helps busy, professional women struggling to workout consistently. Inside the program, I walk you through my proprietary program so that you can establish a consistent practice and reclaim your health with ease in 90 days.

I’m on a mission to make sure that more women know that exercise and a plant-based diet can prevent many chronic lifestyle diseases and leading causes of death in the United States. I want to continue to make it easier for women to be active to help them avoid preventable chronic diseases like stroke, diabetes and cancer. And if you have a chronic disease, I want you to know that it’s not hopeless. You can live a long, healthy and active life.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Think of one small step that can move you forward and just take that step. I encourage anyone who’s feeling overwhelmed to begin to take action. Stop thinking, stop researching, stop planning, and just take action. Think of one small step that can move you forward and just take that step. All of the other steps will follow.

2. When you’re feeling stuck, challenge yourself to do it for free and see how many creative solutions pop up. Once, I challenged myself to do more free marketing and decided to create a series of free yoga classes to build my email list, develop brand awareness, and market my services. But I didn’t stop there. I challenged myself to do it all for free! I got the venue for free. I printed the flyers for free. I partnered with other businesses to offer prizes and promote the event series. Through these events, I’ve been able to double my email list, improve search ranking, put myself out there in new ways so that I can reach my ideal client, and make more money in my business.

3. Move your body everyday. Move your body everyday. Movement can take many different forms. It can be deep stretching for 20 minutes. It can be a long, brisk walk. It can be yoga. It can also be a 10-minute exercise snack. I start my day with a a workout. Starting your day with a workout ensures that you exercise before competing priorities pop up and sideline your workout. It allows me to feel more alert and focused throughout the day. Exercise is not optional. It is essential … personally and professionally.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

Stop and take a breath.

What if I told you there’s a single nerve in your body that controls your stress levels, digestion, heart rate, and immune response. Meet the vagus nerve.

The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body, running from your brainstem all the way down to your abdomen, connecting your brain to major organs like your heart, lungs, and digestive system. The vagus nerve is the main component of your parasympathetic nervous system or your “rest and digest” mode, as opposed to “fight or flight.” When your vagus nerve is activated, it tells your body: “Hey, we’re safe. Time to relax, repair, and restore.”

If you’ve ever wondered why you feel so much calmer after a yoga class, it’s because deep breathing stimulates the vagus nerve. When you breathe deeply and slowly, you’re literally massaging this nerve, sending signals that activate your relaxation response.

Here’s what happens when you take a slow, deep breath in through your nose, your diaphragm drops down, your ribcage expands, and this gentle stretching stimulates vagus nerve receptors.

This is why in yoga, we emphasize breath control or “pranayama.” We’re not just filling our lungs – we’re actively engaging our body’s natural stress-relief system.

Ready to experience this for yourself? Try box breathing. You can do this anywhere—at your desk, in your car, or on your yoga mat. Sit comfortably with your spine tall. Place one hand on your chest, one on your belly. Close your eyes or soften your gaze downward. Breathe in through your nose for four counts. Hold your breath for four counts. Exhale through your nose for four counts. Hold for four counts. Repeat this cycle three times, then notice how you feel compared to when you started reading this post. That shift you might be experiencing? That’s your vagus nerve doing its job.

After taking a breath, you’ll be able to move forward and take the next best step.

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Image Credits

Focused Minded Photo

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