The discovery of yoga was, for me, like getting glasses for the first time. Just as I had never realised I had blurred vision until I got glasses, I never knew how much my body ached and how little energy I had before I started practising yoga on a regular basis. This is why sharing yoga as a teacher is so important to me, and why yoga plays a key role in Well & Truly workshops. But don’t take my word for it, let’s take a look at the proven benefits of yoga and how it can exponentially increase the productivity of not just our workshops but of any organisation.
In a high pressure work situation, especially in a creative setting where employees are expected to deliver great ideas and where there may be a tendency towards competitive behaviour, there’s no doubt that using yoga as a tool to turn down the dial on fear, aggression and anger would be invaluable.
If we’re being honest, a primary hindrance to productivity in the workplace is quite simply boredom and low mood. Well guess what? According to a Miami University review on empirical research on yoga, studies have consistently shown that following a yoga class, positive emotions increase. It may sound reductive, but the simple truth of the matter is: happier people make more cooperative and productive employees. Translate this to the context of a workshop and we’re already off to a great start if everyone in the room is feeling content.
Unsurprisingly, stress relief goes hand in hand with better mood as a result of a yoga practice. Not only does practicing yoga increase resilience to stress, it inhibits the areas of the brain responsible for fear, aggressiveness and rage. In a high pressure work situation, especially in a creative setting where employees are expected to deliver great ideas and where there may be a tendency towards competitive behaviour, there’s no doubt that using yoga as a tool to turn down the dial on fear, aggression and anger would be invaluable.
During Well & Truly workshops, one of our objectives is to help each and every participant feel confident in their ideas and in offering them up for discussion. We believe that practising yoga (this can simply mean a seated warm up for the spine or some easy standing stretches) as a group serves to increase the sense of camaraderie and a level playing field, making it more likely that all the participants will share their valuable thoughts. Moreover, a study on yoga in the workplace interviewed participants who reported ‘feelings of clear-mindedness, composure, elation, energy, and confidence’ thanks to their regular yoga classes. Yoga effectively brings about the exact state of mind we need workshop participants to be in in order to share with clarity, enthusiasm and vulnerability, thus creating a collective platform for truly excellent work.
Finally, if you read Kathryn’s blog on The Danger of Distraction, you’ll know that we run our workshops with a no-screens policy. This not only increases focus and engagement, but helps avoid the overstimulation that comes from endless scrolling and blue light, meaning that energy can remain sharp throughout the day. However, a hive mind of creative thinkers can easily whip themselves up into a state of overstimulation without the aid of smartphones. This is a natural bi-product of a great brainstorm, but it can unfortunately bring progress to a grinding halt. While stimulation is good, too much brings you into your stress response state, causing cognitive function to dwindle and concentration to scatter. Yoga has been shown to provide relief from excess stimulation and the stressors and hectic nature of modern life, and this helps us keep our Well & Truly workshops running at optimal productivity.
For more information on our Well & Truly workshop method or to book your transformative day, click here.
