Yoga As A Tool For Transformation In The Workplace

Stress on the Job – An Overview

Long hours, deadlines, finances, politics, personalities, and confinement – let’s face it  - working is stressful.  Most employees deal with their stress with a break of some kind and usually not a healthy one; the extra café’ latte, a cigarette, a few martini’s after work.  Whatever they can do to wind down; blow off some steam and attempt relaxation.  

Those of us in the fitness industry are the lucky ones, for several reasons.  We usually love our “ chosen” professions, get to work off our stress the healthy way and more importantly get to help those less fortunate – the person who has to sit for 8-10 hours a day and deal with a lot more stress than we’ll ever see in the gym.

As personal trainers, group fitness instructors and exercise counselors we can help teach those stressed on the job a better way to relax and get healthy.  However many times the people who need us most will not even make the time to go into the gym. We hear “I’m too busy,” “I don’t want to get sweaty, ““I have no time” a lot…The answer – we need to go to them.

Results of Stress on the Job:

Employee turnover, absenteeism and stress related illness are all results of stress that does not get released properly – mentally as well as physically.  These issues are something that a cup of coffee, a cigarette, a drink or even sometimes an aerobics class or weight training session will not fix. Why?  Stress needs to be released physically as well as mentally.  Most stress is a mental pressure exerted onto our physical bodies.  Especially in the corporate setting where people are working furiously with their minds and not their bodies. To go into a gym and just  work the physical body is still unbalanced.  The body and the mind need to be worked and brought together for a sense of peace, calm and relaxation.

Yoga is the perfect tool for transforming the workplace into a less stressful, more peaceful environment.  The nature of the practice is physical and mental – focus, concentration, discipline and a state of oneness stem come from and are needed to practice yoga.  The results and components get better with regular practice and the by- product is a better physical body and more relaxed mindset.

As a group fitness instructor, personal trainer or exercise coach who has studied yoga and taken a yoga teacher training you can take matters into your own hands.  Approach corporations, outline the benefits of yoga, the problems associated with on the job stress and create a profitable and rewarding new career for yourself.

The ultimate goal is to create “Conscious Corporations.” These are companies that have healthy work environments, fitness centers, cafeterias with healthy food, yoga/fitness classes, and on-site massage and stress management programs, for example.