Yoga Can Help You Reduce Stress at Work
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
If you’ve got the kind of job that requires you to spend hours toiling away at your desk or standing on your feet, by the time you get home you can feel burnt out and stressed and your body can ache all over. While there is no complete solution to a stressful job other than to find a different job (which is not an option for many in these hard economic times) there are some things you can do throughout the day to help your body stay limber and pain free and to reduce the amount of stress and frustration you feel with your job. If you’ve never thought to add yoga to your daily work routine, perhaps now is the time to see the benefits you can reap from spending just a few minutes a day focusing, stretching and working your body.
One of the best things about yoga is that you can do it virtually anywhere as it doesn’t necessarily require any equipment other than your own body. Additionally, putting together a short routine won’t take more than ten or fifteen minutes out of your day– time that could be well spent taking a relaxing break for both body and mind. Worried about feeling strange doing yoga at work? You shouldn’t as thousands of employees and employers are singing the benefits of bringing yoga into the workplace.
Doing yoga during your workday can be beneficial because it gives you some time away from your tasks to focus on breathing and clearing out your mind. This can be refreshing to do midday or anytime you’re feeling especially stressed and can help you actually perform better in your work for the rest of the day. When you take away some of the stress from your job you will improve your focus and be in a better mood– both things that are big boons for job performance.
Yoga doesn’t just help your mind, however. You can give your muscles a break from their positions at your desk and use yoga to explore a more full range of motion. Many people don’t realize how badly their necks, wrists and backs hurt from the way they sit or work at their computers. While more ergonomic desks and chairs can help, if that’s not an option yoga can be a part of the solution as well. Doing yoga stretches will help increase your blood flow and get your entire body stretched out and feeling limber and more healthy. When you feel this way, you generally feel like you have more energy as well, which can help you keep going throughout the day.
While yoga isn’t a cure-all for stress on the job, it can go a long way in helping you feel more relaxed, alert and healthy at work whether you’re having a good day or a bad one.
