When getting into shape, yoga normally does not get the credit that it deserves. More often than not, it gets overlooked, not by trainers, but by those who are being taught by professionals. It is only seen as a practice that helps someone become more flexible, and you know how it has become the joke of the fitness world when even women who normally likes to relax let yoga pass over their heads.
However, that is not actually the case.
Yoga is an exercise that can be traced to 5,000 years ago in the country of India with a focus on breathing and poses, and contrary to popular belief, yoga does not exclusively help you become more flexible. It also aids in the development of a person's strength. As a result, it elevates a person's physical and mental well being.
However, the benefits that yoga provides does not end there. Yoga also can help you grow as a professional.
It Instills Discipline in Our Practice
In order to develop skills, you should be disciplined enough to make practice a routine. Just like they say, consistent and correct practice makes perfect. In order to do so, you need to be disciplined enough to do so religiously. Short sessions of practice does not cut it.
Yoga teaches you discipline because in order to do the things that instructors do, constant practice is required. What they do cannot be learned overnight. It needs religious training in order to perform them, and do them with ease.
Just like any profession, it is important that we continue to learn skills in order to avoid becoming stagnant, and the only way to do that is through training and classes that helps improve our tools that we could use in our work. However, learning them at one time is not enough. It will require immense discipline in order to improve these newly learned skills, and it would be better if they can also be applied in real life situations, and if there is anything that we can learn from yoga and that is discipline. It is just a matter of reinforcing it in your profession.
Coordination of the Mind and the Body
As mentioned earlier, yoga involves two and these are breathing and poses, and by doing this routinely, you will be able to achieve a coordinated mind and body.
A coordinated mind and body is important for professionals, especially those who requires skilled labor because it allows your body to do what your mind thinks you should be doing. How many times have our bodies failed us because of one slip up and then we go 'That was not what I was supposed to do'. To be honest, our bodies are not very reliable. Our minds however is the most rational part of our bodies when we try to do our best in our job.
In addition, it also helps improve our focus; another important factor that help you develop as a professional.
Develops a Positive Mindset
As humans, we tend to focus on the negatives rather than the positives. As a result, we complain too much and brings problems at the forefront, and normally, the complaints only come when we are pushed out of comfort zones; when changes are being implemented.
Change can be a difficult time for anyone put in the spot, and that is highlighted in the workplace where change might mean getting cut from the employee pool or being pushed out of your comfort zone which might change the way you have to work around certain things. However, if there is something that yoga can teach us, that is to be more receptive to change. It can be difficult in the beginning, but once you give a try, change might not be that bad.
If it does not work out as well as you were promised, then that is when you make a feedback.
This aspect of yoga however is not exclusive to the employees. It also applies to those in the higher positions in the company because with inner peace acquired through yoga and the confidence that they have thought the change through, they can become more encouraging to their employees. In a way, this is a positive reinforcement which is necessary when trying to implement change because enforcing change with an iron fist has never sustainable. Only do so as a last resort.
An Increase in Production
Sadly, companies only look at an employee's production when making an evaluation of their work, and that is why it is important that you keep them up. However, this can also easily lead to a burn out resulting in a reduction in overall production.
In order to maintain a high production, it will become your responsibility to be more efficient and effective in how we work, and yoga can help us in that regard.
Yoga initially helps us by effectively managing the stress that comes with maintaining a high production because this is the most debilitating among all the pressure that our bosses might be putting on our shoulders. When you do this effectively, meeting deadlines and expectations which can insanely high compared to what you can actually do.
Coming Up with a Decision
Making decisions is inevitable in a workplace because we are always forced into situations where a decision has to be made. In fact, getting up and going to work is a decision on its own. However, we do not make the smart decision all the time, and that may become a problem in the long run.
Yoga helps ease us into a decision by making us think about the choice more clearly. Our mind is a safe space for us and yoga just elevates it further by ensuring that we focus more, removing any distractions that might plague you when put on the spot. The decision normally comes through self reflection and introspection.
Additionally, it can also help us accept whatever consequences we may have to go through because of the decision that we will be making. Knowing that we made the decision not out of haste makes us accept the outcome whatever it may be.
A Lifetime of Learning
By practicing yoga, regardless of whether it was self taught or taught by a trainer, we are showed the value of knowledge and skills. Additionally, it shows us that if we put our minds and bodies into it, we can achieve whatever we set out to do, no matter how impossible it is because learning does not end when we graduate from school. In fact, we learn more out in the real world and with yoga, we become more receptive to whatever life has in store for us.
Being Mindful
This encompasses all the other benefits that were mentioned above because it entails learning about ourselves in general because by learning about ourselves, we become more confident of what we want, not only out of life, but also with the career that we are currently in.
Yoga may often be overlooked, especially by those who are more focused on getting physically in shape. However, that is only superficially looking at it. Yoga encompasses all that because what is a fit body if you do not have a sound mind that can help you, not only in the immediate future, but for the rest of your life.
