Yoga at Work?

I am seeing a real increase with interest for yoga, as the country returns to a sense of normality and we slowly return to offices, albeit on an infrequent basis, more people are engaging, either online or attending local yoga classes, or even Park Yoga Wokingham.

Working from home, ‘hybrid working’, is the new norm. It benefits employees, and certainly benefits employers, for many reasons.

So now is the time for businesses to review their health, safety and wellbeing initiatives, possibly embrace a more holistic approach to their employee wellbeing, perhaps include yoga.

Yoga is a mind and body practice, that is well known. When we work, we probably carry a degree of stress, simply to problem solve and get through the day. We probably breathe at only 15% lung capacity whilst going about our stuff and we probably are sedentary for 70%+ of the working day. We are perpetually in our ‘fight and flight’ mode which is not sustainable and risking our health.

Our employers, and if you are one, have a duty of care for our wellbeing, which goes beyond some of the diluted approaches I have seen throughout my work life.

• A simple yoga class, whether online or in person, will gently stress the physical form, and in doing so, teach us how to breathe to reduce the stress and calm the nervous system and the mind.

Repeating this through each posture, and sequence, develops our nervous system to react automatically to stress when we are off the mat and going about our work. • We learn good breathing, practicing techniques that open our dormant lung capacity, building strength and flexibility around the intercostal muscles and diaphragm, so we breath naturally, more efficiently, slowing the regular heart rate.

We learn to recognise when we are not breathing effectively. • Attempting some of the key postures that we use in yoga will teach us about our bodies, our constraints, where we need to focus our attention to recover good posture that we may have mislaid along the way through sitting at a computer, all day.

Yoga is unique in that is a physical form of training with the intention of using the breath to achieve mindful physical movement. This awareness of the breath will permit a deeper understanding of ourselves and enable us to steady our minds. The breath is the bridge between body and mind, smooth the breath, calm the mind.

This doesn’t mean that after such a short (30-40 min) class, we are all so chilled out we cannot function, far from it. When we end a yoga class, we feel invigorated, we have space to think logically and we are much calmer, exactly what our employers would want, and great for our wellbeing.

If there is space in the office, then why not run a class, or even outside if there is space?

I commend those businesses that have already adopted a holistic approach and embraced yoga, how is it with your workplace?

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PARK YOGA WOKINGHAM

Join in with yoga outdoors in Howard Palmer Gardens, Wokingham. This park is a small pretty park (0.8 acres) located behind the Cockpit Path car park in the centre of the town.

Every Sunday morning 9.30am – 10.30am From Sunday 1st May to Sunday 11th September 2022. Free car parking in Cockpit Path car park on Sundays