Can Office Yoga Lead You Professional Success!!

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Can Yoga at Office Bring You Great Success!

Check here: A Complete Book On Office Yoga For Your Professional Success

• Work pressure in your office may hold you from giving the best performance.
• Deadlines appear to drain full energy.
• You carry this office burden back home leading some form of disturbance in your family life too!

This is where the need for change in workplace culture arises. Leading companies in the world such as Google, Apple, Yahoo, Tata, Nike, Infosys, and many others are keeping their employees more happy and productive by offering office Yoga and Meditation sessions.

In turn, this  ‘happy and Productive’ workforce works hard for their employer’s great success. A successful company has successful employees.

OfficeYoga is a great source of a happy and calm working environment. “Blissed out office workers are more productive”.

Digital-age is making you sit longer than ever before

At least 12 hours a day we spent sitting on a chair. Majority of us start our day –studying on a study chair, breakfasting on a dining chair, balancing on a driving chair, working on an office chair and then back to the driving chair…dining chair.. study chair…endless loop!

Typical office goers may spend up to 15 hours per day sitting. On the other hand, a housewife may spend 4 hours a day or a farmer may get only 3 hours a day sitting.

These stats point out that an educated person with his fixed office hours spends more time sitting on the chair. So he is living a more sedentary life,  comparison to the other people, in a different working environment.

 Sitting limits the number of Calories one must Burn. On a more serious note, it may contribute to-  Severe Back Pain.

Extended sitting hours cause major professional risk in today’s information age

Even if you maintain a good body posture, your body needs some break to release muscle tension. Stress and stagnation in the joints may cause you to discomfort at the end of the day.

Luckily, we can get away with this problem efficiently by taking just 30 minutes of yoga break at our workplace. This yoga  Practice will revitalize and recharge you for the rest of the hectic day ahead. Also, When we’re happy, we can thrive in our work with better focus and awakening the mind.

yoga practices can also be very effective in reducing the effects of stress on our brains. It is well understood that stress is among the primary factors related to brain cell death and cognitive decline.

How  Office Yoga Accomplishes Pleasing all

• Sitting in your office chair, gazing the greenery outside, doing breathing practice and setting up for office yoga. This is a better choice than watching glare from the computer screen and souring your eyes and neck. Office yoga adds a sense of calmness, reduces stress
• Mindfulness activities and concentrated meditations-Sharpen your focus, improve overall wellbeing
• A pleasing office atmosphere is more an inviting place for employees hence refraining from being absent.
• A happy employee returns home happily! leading a good family life.

 Explanation – why office yoga is important?

Office Yoga …, What?

Everyone around is pretty familiar with different forms of yoga such as -Hath Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Iyengar Yoga ..and more. But Office Yoga...(wide eyes expressions!)?

After all” Yoga is a morning ritual to be performed on empty stomach” then-

Why yoga in Office..? The answer is but simple—

The need for office yoga arises out of the following situations-

• Totally out of “early to bed and early to rise” routine
• Lack of time in the morning especially for moms
• Laziness in some form

To understand better the situations why office yoga could be a more popular choice lets perform two  obvious case studies:

Case Study 1:

Hema is a teacher in a renowned school in the city. Her school timings are from 7 am to 3 pm. Before leaving for work, she has to send her children to school, prepare lunch boxes for each family member. It is really too difficult to snatch out even 15 minutes for yoga. But, she gets a 30 minutes lunch break in the school and 2 free periods. Here she can optimize her time to get benefits from yoga.

Case Study 2:

Rishab is employed in a corporate office set up in a metro city. He has to leave home at 8 am to reach his office at 10 am. It takes a minimum of 2 hrs to commute between home and office, in a busy city full of traffic jams. So in the morning, he can’t concentrate completely on his yoga session because of the anxiety to reach office on time. But during lunchtime in the office, he is half done with his work and quite relaxed. At this time he can practice office yoga.

The two scenario study is simply to make you understand that the need for office yoga is a demand in the modern culture. The emphasis is on keeping yourself happy and stress-free living.

How to Prepare for the office yoga

1. You may need to customize your surroundings a bit, to get a yoga-friendly place, either oneself in your chamber or with your like-minded colleagues at some common well-ventilated place.

2. Principally, yoga practice is to be performed on the almost empty stomach, but in the office, you can relish something healthy like banana and yogurt…but some gap is needed in any case.

3. You can feel more freshen up and relax with a splash of cold water on the face.

4. Bring awareness and be present. Randomly check the atmosphere- Is it clean!  smells good!! calm!!- just notice. Make everything a part of your practice—even the noise and discomfort too!

             Master the Skills of Office Yoga and Be Successful

Get ready to get rid of the –stiff shoulders,  neck, itchy eyes, sour back, jammed hips, and knees. These lightweight yoga poses are designed to be performed with your desk and chair as a prop. You can switch to its Mat-version too. Also, you don’t require special skills to perform these amazing yoga poses in your office.

Watch the video on YouTube –20 Minutes Chair Yoga Sequence For Your Neck,Back  And Joints

1.Breath Awareness-Core Awakening

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• Come forward to sit on the edge of your chair.Sit erect so that your ears, shoulders, and hips are in proper alignment.
• Now position your feet flat on the ground.
• May place a block beneath the feet to make your thighs parallel to the ground.
• Place hands on your legs comfortably
• Inhale up to 10 counts, now let it exhale gradually.
• Focus on the rise and fall of the stomach.

Do 5 sets of inhale-exhale. As you feel relaxed now, move to the following simple stretches specially designed for office yoga.

2.Neck Releases

• Drop down your chin to touch the chest.
• Let your neck pivot for 360 degrees, clockwise and anti-clockwise.
• Try to do smoothly and slowly not to strain your neck.
• For a beginning,5-sets are sufficient. Gradually you can increase the number of sets as per your time.

3.Shoulder Rolls

• Place your fingers on the upper part of the shoulder joints.
• Now rotate clockwise then anti-clockwise in the same posture.
• Keep breathing sustained and progressive.

4.Seated Twists

• Very simple and fun doing, can be done an time
• Simply assume looking someone behind you.
• Just sit erect and mind your breathing.
• Twist from your left-hand side.
• Switch to another side.
• Take help of your chair handles and back to pose more perfectly.

5. Seated Backbend

• Raise your hands and bend back while inhaling.
• Bend nicely, keeping your balance.
• Come back to your starting point as you exhale.

Stand up at your place for a standing backbend to give your body a full stretch.

6.Seated Forward Bend

• Create enough space between your table and chair so that you can bend forward safely.
• Keep your feet flat on the floor, while seated.
• Stretch your arms behind your back, join both the hands to interlock your fingers.
• Bend forward from the waist, raise your interlocked hands over your back.
• Rest your chest on your thighs and keep your neck relaxed.

7.Side Bends

Side Bend

• Sit erect on your chair to raise your hands above your head.
• Bring both of your palms together to press each other.
• With a deep inhale bend your body to the left-hand side to get the half moon position.
• Exhale while coming back to your initial central position.
• Repeat the process for the right-hand side bends too.

You can do side bends in the standing position to get a nice body stretch.

 

8. Wrist Release

 

 

Your wrist, elbow and shoulder joints are the silent sufferer in the process of typing. When you spend long-long hours typing on your keyboard, these joints too, need your care. So give them a nice stretch in the following way-

• Fist your fingers, spread your hands, rotate, rotate and rotate from the wrist joints- clockwise-anticlockwise. and.. so on.
• Roll your hands from your elbow joints -back and forth as much you like.
• Perform shoulder rolls in between you working on your PC to relax shoulder and neck both.

 

 

9.Seated Eagle Pose

 

• While sitting on the edge of your chair, spread your arms on the sides of your body and push them back to bring your shoulder blades together.
• Be more gentle initially, now slowly bring arms forward, in front of you and twist both arms with each other. Try to bring both the palms together.
• Keep breathing normally.

 

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10.Shoulder opener

 

 

 

• There are many many ways to open up your jammed and stiff shoulders.
• Place your both the hands on the table while standing near it. You may want to give your chair a back push to make a room for your stretch.
• You need to bring your head down between the two arms until you feel a nice shoulder stretch.
• Keep breathing nicely.

Start with 5 sets and go further.

Alternatively,

• Grab firmly the frame of a door and move forward! (slightly), until you feel a good stretch in the shoulder.

 

11.Eyes Rolls

 

Eyes being the softest body organ, need some special care. Just 5-10 minutes in a day are enough to keep this precious body organ healthy and happy. Good night sleep is the best way to give your eyes a beautiful and relaxed look. To optimize your eyesight, cold or normal temperature water is all needed to be splashed on your eyes.

These few steps will make your eyes sparkle-

• Cup your palms to cover your eyes from the screen glares and harsh light. Let them rest for a minute or so.
• Take 10 fast blinks, while still covered to replenish the natural eyes fluids.
• Now, look at some point -the farthest and the nearest one to maintain the flexibility of your eyes. Repeat 10 times.
• Roll your eyes ,clockwise ,anti-clockwise ,at least 5 times.Try to keep your neck stable.

 

 

12.Temple Massage

 

 

Temple massage is a quick stress buster. Temple massage is known to increase the blood circulation in the area where a number of nerves meet together. It also increases the level of soothing hormones like dopamine and serotonin.

• You can place your elbows on the table or on the handle of your chair.
• Use the fingertips of your hands to give a nice temple massage-clockwise and anti-clockwise both.

Conclusion

 

First of all thanks for accompanying till the end! I know it’s a bit too much description on the topic of OFFICE YOGA. But believe me, if you can follow even 60% of the poses advised above you can revolutionize your professional and personal life. The reason behind this assurance is that I personally follow most of the yoga poses at my workplace, and find them very- 1.easy 2.wonderfull and 3.refreshingly healthy. So why can’t you?

 

In case,  you find it too much of the work and decide not to pay attention to my highly trusted office yoga routine simply go for these alternatives-

• Always sit upright on a chair with proper back support.
• Desk height should be compatible with your sitting posture. One -third of the monitor screen should be above the level of your eyes.
• The golden rule for your seated pose is rather simple. Just go for 90-90-90-180 degree rule:

Ankle joint- 90 degrees, Knees joints- 90 degrees, Hips joint- 90 degree, Neck joint- 180 degrees

• Just avoid elevators.
• After every half, an hour or so, leave your place and walk up to the window or meet your tired peers. Don’t forget to inspire them with your new skills in office yoga.

And last but not the least, please share office yoga on all of your social media platforms with the help of the share buttons provided at the end of your screen. 

So all the very best for your “Happy Office Health Routine“.

Check here – A complete book on office Yoga

A Book to Let You Thrive in Your Professional Life

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You may like to read on yoga by anatomy-science of yoga:

• Yoga and Digestive System-Miracle Human Body
• Yoga and Circulatory System
• Yoga and Skeletal System
• How to avoid yoga injuries

 

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