Yoga and Workplace Well-Being

Campaigns about the benefits of investing in the well-being of employees have led to corporate initiatives that make room for holistic approaches to health. Alongside more traditional exercise routines brought directly to the workplace, a growing number of organizations are inviting massage therapists, meditation practitioners and yoga teachers to lead sessions for their staff in order to alleviate the effects of stress.

These initiatives have their role to play, providing they do not merely serve to mask more profound organizational issues, such as an aggressive management culture or discriminatory work practices. When offered as part of a comprehensive reflection on the organization as a collective enterprise sustained by individual persons, whose needs may be complex but whose resources are ever-growing, holistic therapies and mind-body practices can greatly benefit workers, managers, and eventually the bottom-line.

Yoga in particular tackles both an anxious mind and a strained body. Yoga, whose rich and complex history can be traced back to ancient texts from India, is a philosophy or doctrine offering both a way to initiate oneself into the mysteries of the world and a system of physical exercises to achieve this initiation. What we commonly identify as ‘yoga’ in Europe and North America is effectively a Western interpretation of the doctrine, and many of the philosophical and spiritual elements have been left aside to focus mainly on the physical and mindful dimensions of the yoga system.

Fundamentally, yoga is concerned with liberating the person from the illusory veil that is the conscious reality of the material world. This liberation is an arduous process, which demands a complete dedication of the disciple to pass through the moral, psycho-emotional, physical and spiritual practices and aim towards the state of ‘immortality and freedom’ (in the words of Mircea Eliade). In the modern Western context, this process does not prove adapted to our minds nor to our lives. However, there remains much we can learn from yoga about our approach to life, our relationship to the body, and our appreciation of the breath.

The physical practice of yoga involves a mindful, conscious engagement with the body and its movements: the muscles, the joints, the respiratory system. The practice can be fast or slow, but it always generates some heat which enables the body to open and loosen, and which challenges the mind’s control over what we feel and what we sense. Yoga invites a surrendering and a conscious participation in an experience that can be greatly transformative.

The benefits of yoga are now well recognized: enhanced flexibility, great strength of the core muscles (abdominal area, lower back, legs, arms and shoulders), steadier and longer breath, greater endurance, and a calmer mind. A regular yoga practice can help alleviate more specific health problems, ranging from sleeplessness to back and neck pain, and from asthma to arthritis. The stretches help release tension, and the physical sequences of various postures help build up strength.

Yoga is a practice suitable and beneficial for both sedentary workers and more active labourers: it offers a system that targets the parts of our body which we generally neglect in our everyday activities. Yoga is also rich in offering alternative ways to work mindfully with the body, even outside of a yoga studio. When workers are stressed, they would greatly benefit from a tailored yoga sequence led in a quiet space in the office, without necessarily having to change clothes or bring a yoga mat.

The importance of the breath in sustaining efforts becomes obvious during a yoga practice. The breath warns us to remain aware of the need for balance and care even during a physically demanding exercise. It also acts as a tool to soothe the body after the effort, or to soften the body while sustaining a stretch. So often we breathe without noticing the way our breath adapts to the changes in our environment and our activity. We may notice a changing pace of breath afterwards, but we do not know how to use the breath to ease the tension, to alleviate the pain and strain, and to ground ourselves in a safer and calmer mind-space.

Simple breathing techniques (known as ‘pranayama’ in yoga terms) have immediate effects on the levels of stress and tension in the body. They are also forms of meditation accessible to all. Meditation can be daunting, but its positive role in stress management is well-known. We often think that we need to stop thinking to meditate properly, which is indeed near impossible.

In fact meditation is simply a form of quiet observation of the movements of the mind. It is useful to learn some basic steps to prepare for meditation, and it is important to make some time for regular practice in order to see its benefits in everyday life. However even a short meditative practice will boost the individual’s mental and physical capacities, and will enrich the community or the workplace.