Yoga final

Yoga Theory
Laura Douglass
Lesley College
Thorton Paul
May 1, 2011

Yoga Incorporated In The Work Place

In today’s world we are encountered with many stress filled days that seem to dread on for hours and hours. We as people are always looking for something to ease our pains and release our stress that seem to holds us back from fully working to our abilities. Today we have found a new method to accomplish and rid these pains that we go through and its Yoga. Yoga has had great affect on our culture, fairly new to our culture; yoga is a new form of exercise. Many people use Yoga for flexibility and becoming one with there own body, many people use yoga to become more calm and one with there mind and many people just use yoga just to relax. Yoga has recently been included into our day-to-day activities such as school and even in the work place. In school it helps some kids relax and sometime even control anxiety towards school pressures such as fitting in with other groups of kids, big exams such as SAT and AP exams and also graduation. The work place is much more important because it deals with peoples lives and careers. It is much better to perform composed then stressed and this is where yoga comes in to play. Yoga in a business or work place setting has been shown to improve a multiple things such as employee productivity, work life balance, health, stress management, increase of creativity and even the well being in the work place

As a manager or a director, one thing these executives strive for are workers that can do there job as fast as possible and hardworking individuals. At the same the employee’s would love to be on top of their game when performing task that need to be done yet these workers aren’t robots so being consistent does not always workout everyday because of many circumstances such as kids, partners, just personal issues overall. What people tend to forget is that you cannot bring your personal issues in to work. Things in life constantly happen but you cannot let it affect your work yet this continues to happen in our world. While realizing this many companies executes understood that little activity in the work place brings little productivity so they began to incorporate yoga and wellness into the workplace because it becomes a health hazard in the long run for an employee. According to one of the yoga journal articles it states that University of Massachusetts medical center in Worcester has conducted a research and have found that with meditation, employees do began to work better because it helps relieve stress and anxiety. Employees normally work better with more energy, which is a given and overall helps, them become more accurate at what they do. Companies strive on things such as accuracy because the fewer mess-ups that happen in the work place the smoother the assignments and team projects go. Yoga helps team project also in the work place. When working on group projects teams need every individual on board ready and willing to do their jobs. There are times were group members are stressed because of other assignments which puts a burden on other teammates. Other teammates should not have to deal with your issues. Yoga helps because it rids the burden on the other teammates and it helps the person relax and get through all of their assignments that need to be done. As a manager incorporating something such as yoga in to the workplace is a plus because it becomes a moneymaker. Instead of having your employees productivity on the slow end they are up and ready to work; also instead of workers calling out of work because of stress related issues there attendance becomes more persistent.

There can be many issues in the work place that can affect a persons view on there job and they way they live. A huge issue that many people have is dealing with there work lives and balancing it with there personal lives. In the work world today there is a huge unbalance between these two areas. These people would love to be around their children and partners and enjoy their families but do not know how to do it. When having yoga in the work place it gives you a clearer mind and understanding on what’s more important in your life. Yoga gives employees perspective also more of a reason too work harder since everything is balanced. Employers need to understand that your employees do have a life other then work and the better you understand that, the better it will be for both you and your employees. Yoga journal indicates while incorporating yoga in the work place your employees learn to move more swiftly through appointments because they gain a cleared mind through the whole process of yoga. How your body is physically affects how you react mentally and yoga demonstrates how important it is to be emotionally sound in the work place. Once emotionally sound and you have the understanding and clear mind on what you really want, things become much easier.

Health is a major issue in the work place overall for both employees and employers. Sitting at a desk all day causes many aches to the body such as back and neck pains. Such pains are accumulated over time because of inactivity of the body, which causes a healthy body to lose energy. This is why there are many campaigns against children sitting home and watching TV. They want kids out of their houses active because it creates and promotes greater health and it is great for your heart. Yoga in the work place carries the same aspects. The body needs to be maintained and tuned; sitting at a desk defeats this purpose because it creates tightness around the body, which causes many issues. When bringing yoga into the work place it helps eliminate the aches and pains from sitting down for so long. I personally slouch when I sit at a desk for too long and it effects the alignment of the body. When yoga is presented in the work place it helps you regain the alignment of your back and help stretch-out your spine. Yoga includes the movement of the breath. The movement of the breath is very important to your health because it helps with the circulation throughout your brain and body. Deep breathing also helps the body let all the bad air out of your system, which helps you lessen your chances of getting sick. Yoga in the work place can be compared with how athletes relate with muscle functions. Athletes and workers both do demanding assignments that need the body to function well; with yoga it helps the body and prevents injury. As a director or a manager this aspect will also be great for the company. If you can decrease the amount of sick time your employee’s use, while the productivity of your office will become more quick and accurate. Stress related diseases are very common in the work place and the more you can sustain this from happening the better off your company will be which shows a great improvement in health for employees. Stress always seems to cause an issue and many people find different ways to manage it. Some people use coffee, some people use cigarettes and some people use alcohol. Yoga is a much better for the body and mind and it is not a substance that can be abused. Instead of having to manage stress filled days by yourself, having yoga incorporated in the work environment helps the employees that are stress gain help.
Gaining confidence in what you do holds so much power in the work force. Once you are calm and relax you gain self-confidence in what you are doing and that is when the creativity comes out of you. In many companies you need members of your staff to be creative about what they are trying to accomplish and this is a hard task to fulfill while stressed. Stress levels take away from your thought process and affects your ability to create certain things. When having yoga in the working scene it just creates more time to think since you become calmer. Many people also have been creative and created ways to do yoga right at the desk area. Some poses consist of forward bends, spinal twist, neck stretches and also wrist and hand stretches. These stretches help during the times that you are in front of the computer for long periods of time. Each stretch should be done approximately 10 times to help release tightness of the body.
Normally women are seen to do yoga more then man, it is the same when it comes to the work place. Women find it easier to do during the workday. Men do yoga at work also; it is just that more women do it. What makes yoga in general great is that you do not have to be a certain ethnicity or a certain religion to participate. Anyone is allowed to do yoga and no one is ever discriminated; you learn and move at your own pace. During my site visit I realized this point immediately. Normally I am able to go through physically activities very rapidly but yoga is a different aspect and there are many things that you can’t force your body to do during your first try. Overall yoga helps employees gain and maintain strength throughout their workday to completely task. It is ideal for employers to integrate yoga into their companies because at the end of everything they will create a great working area while saving money.















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