Important Health Benefits of Yoga at the Workplace

With the working days becoming longer and longer, people having busier lifestyles juggling personal and professional lives, we are observing different types of illnesses and problems arising. There are some work areas where they have to sit and work for a long time just like IT Professionals. How many times have you seen (or experienced) discomfort after a long day of hard work? To battle with our current working style, yoga is coming to the rescue and slowly finding its place in offices to help soothe the different issues one may have. Adding a little bit of yoga into your work life will help you get back onto your feet and is beneficial for your health, mind, and spirit.

Health Benefits of Yoga at Work:

1. Physical Benefits-

Do you have problems with your back, shoulders or neck? It’s a common problem that many workers face especially when you are sitting at a desk for the whole day. So instead of ignoring the signs, try out these few poses that won’t scare off your colleagues:

Yoga poses for office workers:

a) Backbend:

Sit upright with a straight spine, inhale a deep breath and reach up to the ceiling with your arms. Upon the exhale, bend slightly backward to curve our back. Hold for a few seconds, release your arms to your sides and repeat a few times.

b) Desk Shoulder opener:

If you have space behind you, scoot your hair out, stand away from your desk so just your hands can be placed upon it. Drop your head between your arms and stretch out your shoulders.

c) Do the seated twist:

Twist from side to side slowly. On each side, hold for 5 breaths. For your neck, place your right hand upon your head and gently pull your head down towards your right shoulder. Hold, bring to center, and repeat on the left side with your left hand.

d) Hip opener:

Start by placing the right angle on top of the left knee and flex your right foot. Engage your toes, take a deep breathe to lengthen the spine and slowly start to fold forward while you exhale. Stay for a few breaths and then do the other side to open up your hips gradually.

Unblocking the stiffness will help you become more productive and less fidgety at work. Who knows, you may start a movement amongst your colleagues!

Also Read: 7 Easy Yoga Poses for Back Pain

2. Reduce Stress:

Stress has become a part of everyday life that some people believe that it is normal to have a stressful life. To reduce the amount of stress that you may experience and to prevent burnouts, take some time to be mindful and breathe in deeply a few times. Yoga isn’t just about the physical practice; it’s all about the state of mind. You can set 5 or 10 minutes of your day to just focus on your breath and let your thoughts flow past you. Relaxation and meditation may help you become more mindful of your surroundings and environment.

Practice doing Yoga breaths: breath in deeply by focusing on the breath making your belly rise, going up your rib cage, chest and collar bones till it “locks”, hold, and exhale through your mouth down the same way you breathed it. Push out all the stale air before taking in another breathes. Do it for a set of 20 and see how it feels. If everyone took some time to breathe a couple of times a day, the workplace would be so much more enjoyable! Taking some time to breathe can help enhance your mood and spread positive energy around you.

3. Team Building:

If you have time at midday and have a yoga center nearby, why don’t you suggest to your team to pop over and try it out? Yoga classes typically last an hour and will not only do you good physically and also mentally, but help you bond with your colleagues. You will feel more fit, Yoga improves your flexibility, balance, and strength. If you, unfortunately, don’t have a yoga class close by but your office has enough space, you can ask to hire a yoga teacher to come over and give out a yoga class. More and more yoga teachers are offering classes at companies to help bring more yoga happiness to a wide number of people. This alternative is becoming a more common practice in companies as they become more aware that Yoga helps to improve working conditions: better concentration, relaxation and overall well-being for its employees.

Yoga at the office will also help those that were hesitant in taking a class to see what it is all about. Don’t hesitate to spread Yoga love and take time to fully embrace this opportunity to enjoy your yoga practice.

4. Better Concentration:

Remember, yoga is also a state of mind and can help improve your concentration. A few minutes of practice each day can help calm the chit chatter that you often hear in your head. Start by practicing being mindful and in the moment. Try to experience every moment as fully as you can, without any judgment. Just observe your surroundings, the people you are with, your actions or even focus on your breathing to fully realize that you are alive.

As you start to do this regularly, you may begin to notice that events don’t affect you as much as they did before. You begin to take things less personally and the work environment may become less stressful for you. Your concentrate will improve as you will have a better attention span and focus on actions that are important to your mission.

Also Read: These 7 Simple Exercises Will Help You to Achieve Fulfillment in Your Life

5. More Love All-Around:

When you aren’t feeling too well and someone that is being very grumpy and disgraceful comes along, don’t you somehow feel worst? How about when a very happy and lovely person comes along, can’t you feel the positive energy coming from them and find it hard to resist the temptation to feel a little better? Because yoga can help increase positive energy, fight off fatigue and improve your well-being all around, you may start to realize that practicing yoga on a regular basis will spontaneously help you start to spread joy and positive energy to other colleagues. Your work environment may feel more calm and peaceful.

To continue spreading happiness and serenity around you and amongst your colleagues, you can opt for concentrating on a few mantras such as “I am at peace and will find a job in my work today”. Put them on post-its, place them around your office and share it with your colleagues. Little by little the love will spread.

A busy lifestyle does not have to mean risking your physical and mental health. Bringing a bit of yoga with you at the office will help motivate yourself and your colleagues to be more at ease, productive and happy. Are you ready to try some of these tips out at work? What other things do you do at the office to spread the health benefits of yoga?