5 Benefits Of Practicing Vinyasa Yoga At Work

Yoga in the workplace has grown in popularity in recent years, whether you call it corporate yoga, employee yoga, or office yoga. Stress and overwork culture are also contributing to its growth.

Nevertheless, employee health and well-being concerns have continued to rise. The concept of employee wellness is no longer limited to square box ideas, and it has become more holistic, incorporating all dimensions of wellness.

It is well known that yoga contributes significantly to employees' mental and physical well-being. And incorporating various types of yoga into the workplace can significantly positively affect both the workers and the organization.

Employers who invest in their employees' well-being see the benefits of yoga in their results. And vinyasa yoga is the perfect form of office yoga to practice as it is fast-paced and includes a lot of transitions.

This article will discuss the benefits of practicing vinyasa yoga at work and how to incorporate it into your daily life.

What Is Vinyasa Yoga?

Transitions are essential elements of any workout and even yoga. Vinyasa yoga is a form of yoga practice that is not restricted to just one posture but is holistic. Vinyasa yoga is known as the flow yoga as it involves the smooth flow between one pose to another without a break while focusing on your breathwork.

In Sanskrit, vinyasa means to place especially. The word comes from the prefix "vi," which means "variation," and the suffix "Nyssa," which means "within prescribed parameters." It is defined as the intentional placing of movement in a sacred way, and it is characterized by stringing together movements seamlessly by focusing on your breathwork.

The parameters of vinyasa yoga according to the yoga sutra are -

• Steadiness ( Sthira )

• Comfort ( Sukha )

• Smooth and long breathing (Prayatna Sithila )

Thus, to simply put it together, vinyasa yoga means a breathing exercise that connects every action or movement of your life with the intention of what is sacred or important to you. It is the practice of moving your body while bringing consciousness to every movement at each moment.

What Does Vinyasa Do To Your Body?

The benefits of vinyasa's body go beyond the obvious limits, and it strengthens your body's core. Vinyasa yoga is a powerful style that positively affects all three aspects of wellness - body, mind, and soul.

"Vinyasa yoga is the practice of external movement of your body, which means how you feel or think."

It is a form of yoga that breaks your body into a sweat as you keep making transitions from one pose to another while focusing on your breathwork—inhaling and exhaling. While moving, it can make your heart pace faster.

Vinyasa yoga is excellent for your overall health. It has a lot of health benefits, both physical and mental. Let's delve into some of the common benefits of incorporating vinyasa yoga into your lifestyle regime-

Suggested Read : 21 Positive Thinking Ideas For A Workplace To Encourage

Practicing Vinyasa At Work: What Are The Benefits?

A sedentary lifestyle has taken its toll on everyone's health, affecting everything from your mobility to your posture. Lethargic lifestyles and lack of physical activity are consequences of work-life hustle. As a result of slumping and sluggish movement throughout the day, you are more prone to poor posture. It also inevitably affects your mental health, as it creates a sense of insecurity and lack of motivation.

However, vinyasa yoga is often known as the "motivation movement" because of its "strength in diversity." It is more flexible and easier to learn for beginners to try at work. If your work is hectic and doesn't provide much room for an elevated yoga session, then trying out vinyasa yoga is the perfect aid.

"Vinyasa yoga increases your lung capacity. It involves focusing on taking long breaths during exhalation and inhalation. It maximizes your usage of lung capacity. "

Due to its contemporary style and flowing sequences, it requires neither much space nor time. Including vinyasa yoga in your yoga challenge can help your employees and you more than any other yoga practice.

Here are the five benefits of incorporating vinyasa yoga in your employee wellness program -

1. Improves Your Employees' Immune System

Physical fitness is linked to having a stronger immune system and being more resilient at work. As a result, workplace exercise and yoga are becoming increasingly popular.

A vinyasa yoga practice soothes and relaxes the mind. You can relax your mind and maintain a healthy immune system. In addition, it boosts the lymphatic system and eliminates toxins from the body.

A happy and healthy immune system ensures a life free of diseases. It helps to improve the grey matter and cognitive functions of your employee. As a result, concentration, memory, and learning levels increase. In addition to enhancing mental and emotional agility, it also increases creativity and executive decision-making skills.

2. Increases The Flexibility Of The Body And Builds Your Body Strength

A sedentary lifestyle takes a toll on your health either way. Work-life calls for a passive lifestyle with little to zero physical activities, resulting in muscle stiffness and poor postures.

Sitting for long periods often results in slouched posture, and your body tends to lose its fluidity, causing more pain in movement.

Since you cannot enforce fitness motivation on your employees, there has to be some physical exercise or light yoga which can be both fun and beneficial.

"Vinyasa yoga is the most effective way to correct our body posture."

Vinyasa yoga is an excellent practice to build your body's strength. It acts as a body balance and resistance workout. The postures include backbends, inversions, and arm balance. It helps to improve your posture as every muscle in your body is given equal attention during vinyasa yoga practice.

Vinyasa yoga also helps to create a flexible mindset to develop your body's fluidity at any age.

Suggested Read : 20 Desk Exercises That Help To Boost Employee Health

3. Helps To Reduce Stress And Improve Mood

According to a study, almost 53% of workplace absenteeism occurs due to stress and burnout. Stress contributes to almost all major health problems like cardiovascular diseases, heart diseases, higher blood pressure, and other mental health issues.

You can help relieve workplace stress by introducing vinyasa yoga poses to your office yoga techniques. Yoga Vinyasa is known as moving meditation because it synchronizes the body, mind, and soul.

The more you focus on your breathwork (ujjayi breath ), the more you are likely to negate yourself from negative thoughts. It further relaxes your nervous system from anxiety by focusing your mind from external stimulus to internal stimulus.

Ultimately, it reduces anxiety and depression and heart rate, blood pressure, and tension.

4. Improves Lifestyle Choice And Builds A More Energized Workforce

With your busy schedule and workload, you hardly have room for self-care. The weekend culture again promotes a toxic lifestyle where instead of relaxing or taking the weekend to engage in a self-care program, most people engage in unhealthy activities as a part of their "coping mechanism" against work stress, anxiety, or even depression.

It leads to you overlooking your daily practices, which takes a big toll on your physical and mental health. There's no time for engaging in an activity that requires a lot of time since most work is fast-paced and lethargic.

Incorporating vinyasa yoga as a part of your wellness program can encourage your employees to make more healthy lifestyle choices. Vinyasa yoga creates alertness to what your body is consuming.

It makes your mind more attentive and helps your body to monitor unhealthy practices. Through vinyasa yoga, you can eat, sleep and exercise better. Since, sleep deprivation at work is one of the major causes of a less energized workforce, engaging your employees in vinyasa during a lunch break can help them build more energy for the second half of work time.

Again employees who take part in corporate wellness activities tend to sleep better, leading to a combination of appreciation by both employer and employees. It results in a higher level of job satisfaction and increases motivation.

Suggested Read : Guided Sleep Meditation To Beat Workplace Stress.

5. Improves Your Concentration Level And Focus At Work

Maintaining a work-life balance and prioritizing your health can be challenging with workload and busy schedules. As you're generally trying to adapt to a lifestyle or exercise that targets your body, you tend to lose focus on your tasks. But if your body and mind are not in sync, it'll not benefit your overall wellness.

If both your mind and body are not disciplined with focus, then you will fail at any attempt to make any life-altering choices.

Unlike other forms of yoga, vinyasa yoga involves focusing on breath patterns to bring your body and mind into harmony.

The mind finds a gaze to focus on. In addition, it eliminates external distractions and allows you to find a perfect balance between your body and mind. As a result, you will be able to achieve your goals because it effectively increases your concentration power, resulting in greater productivity.

The benefits of a well-focused workforce extend to the organization as a whole. Your organization will be able to attract and retain the best employees.

Additionally, a more aware employee will be taken more seriously when making decisions. Thus, your employee will feel valued and loyal to the company.

Suggested Read : Productivity and Physical Activity- What's the correlation between the two?

Summing It Up

Thus, to conclude, what makes vinyasa yoga different and popular from the rest is its strength in diversity. It is more about fun. Unlike most other yoga practices, there are no stringent poses, rulebooks, or sequences.

You are free to try out the flow of sequences appropriate to your health and body. It is easy to learn and try at the workplace as it hardly takes up much of your time.

Life and vinyasa yoga intend to have fun, enjoy your work, and engage in what you're doing because of joy and not duty. Hence, it is an excellent way to unwind, relax and at the same time improve your health.

I hope this article helped you better understand what vinyasa yoga is and how it can benefit you.