Yoga to Increase Focus at Work

Written by Evie Harrison.

Yoga is an ancient practice that aims to harmonize your mind, body, and spirit. Originating from India thousands of years ago, it has seen a resurgence in popularity around the world during the past couple of decades. More and more people are becoming aware of the various health benefits that yoga offers, and are actively seeking it. The increase in obesity and the increased stress levels across the globe has seen more individuals invest their time in yoga as a source of fitness and relaxation.

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People are not just doing yoga for personal benefits. The corporate world has tapped into its potential as well, and companies such as Los Angeles based Chakra 5 Yoga and New York-based ‘Work from Om’ are thriving. These companies are basically mobile yoga studios that go to different corporate events and offices and guide the staff to do yoga. Why are offices investing their money into such practices, you may ask? Well, yoga can really benefit employees in the workplace, improve their productivity and hence be a good investment for the corporate world. Let’s analyze some ways on how yoga can increase your focus at work:

Yoga Increases Energy levels

Yogis believe that all beings have a life force running through them called ‘Prana.’ This energy flows throughout our body, through the seven major energy points in the spine called ‘Chakras.’ Prana flow is responsible for all the actions you do with your body, from the powerful ones which involve movement and lifting things to the chemical reactions in the body such as the neural activity in the brain when we are thinking.

Blocks in this energy can cause ‘dis-ease’ and make you lethargic or fatigued. Yoga aims to remove these blocks and ease the flow of prana throughout your body. Certain poses are aimed at instantly rejuvenating your energy such as the bridge pose, the downward-facing dog pose and the lord of the dance pose. Better energy will give you clarity of mind and increased focus at your workplace.

Holding Yoga postures helps Improve Patience

Certain yoga poses are no easy feat to master. They require a lot of tries to get them right and then to continue holding those poses for 30 seconds to a minute. This helps you learn patience, something we could all use a bit more of.

This will keep you from burning a fuse the next time some task is taking too long, or a client is indecisive. Some poses are deliberately aimed at improving patience such as the seated pose. When you are calm and patient, you can focus on the needs of the client at work instead of getting annoyed at unnecessary delays.

Yoga Increases Mindfulness

Mindfulness means that you focus all your attention on whatever it is you are doing right now, in the present moment. Mindfulness helps you focus on what you are working at, instead of trying to do everything at once.

Multi-tasking is highly overrated, and a study by Stanford University found that people who tend to multitask tend to get distracted too easily, and forget the important information in contrast to those who do tasks one at a time. Once you have mastered mindfulness, your focus at work will definitely improve.

Better Concentration due to Meditation that accompanies Yoga

Yoga is not only about doing specific poses and postures. It aims at improving all aspects of your being, from your body to your mind and spirit. Most yoga practices include meditation and even visualization sessions.

A study by Giuseppe Pagnoni published in the Journal of Neuroscience has proved that meditation improves your mental focus. He took a group of people who meditated regularly and another who didn’t meditate and scanned their brains with an MRI machine to measure brain patterns.

Meditators were found to have more stability in their ventral posteromedial cortex which meant they could control mind wandering better, and thus the study concluded, meditators have much better focus than those who didn’t practice meditation.

Yoga helps reduce Stress and Anxiety

Stress is a bitter reality of the corporate world, with more and more individuals are complaining of stress-related disorders. Stress compromises your immune system, decreases your productivity levels, leads to accidents and also costs companies millions of dollars annually due to insurance claims and lost revenue. A brain test review can also help you find out your stress and anxiety levels.

Yoga helps counteract stress and anxiety and helps you relax by lowering your blood pressure and balancing your heart rate. A study that measured how the introduction of yoga in the lives of stressed individuals affected them shows that majority of those who started practicing yoga confirmed a decrease in anxiety and stress levels. When you are relaxed at work, your mental focus will also benefit.

Yoga Leads to Better Quality of Sleep

The National Sleep Foundation of USA found that millions of Americans are not getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep and are hence sleep deprived. Yoga can help getting you a better quality of sleep. A study conducted at Harvard Medical School analyzed how doing yoga daily affect the lives of people suffering from sleep issues and insomnia. The study found out that yoga can drastically help improve the not only the quality of sleep but also sleep efficiency, total sleep time, and sleep onset latency (time it takes to fall asleep). Better sleep means you will be well rested and better able to focus on work.

Better Health Means Better Focus

Longer work hours, more workload and increased stress can take a toll on your health, affecting it adversely. Yoga has been proven to improve health and overall quality of life. Research has shown that yoga can improve the respiratory, circulatory, cardiovascular, nervous and muscular systems in the body. It helps with toning your muscles, leading to weight loss and a better body image. Better health choices associated with yoga practices such as eating more fruits and vegetables also have a positive impact on your wellbeing. When you are healthy, you save time that would otherwise be lost being sick, going to doctors and companies save on insurance claims and benefit from improved employee turnover. When you don’t have aches, body pains and stress distracting you, your focus at work will naturally increase.

Yoga is a way to improve not only your focus at work but your quality of life overall. That is why more and more people are investing their time and money in it, even to go on luxurious yoga retreats to soak up its benefits. That is why, whether you are an employer or an employee, you should definitely include yoga in your corporate world for improved work focus.

Author Bio:

Evie Harrison is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences and express herself through her blogs. Find her on Twitter: @iamevieharrison.

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