It’s no secret that yoga improves both mental and physical health, with the 5,000-year-old practise fostering harmony in the body, mind and environment. And, in recent years, offering yoga classes to employees in the workplace has become increasingly popular.
Whether your team is working in the office or at home, it’s been found that employees who exercise either before or during working hours have an improved mood and are able to handle more challenges during the day in a calmer way.
If you’re wanting to improve your workplace wellness in order to create a happy and healthy working environment, keep reading to learn the 9 fantastic benefits that introducing yoga to the office will have on your team’s productivity and morale.
1. Reduced Stress
Did you know that stress is one of the biggest factors that affect workplace productivity and many sick days are taken because of it? This is why it’s imperative to find ways to reduce stress in the workplace. Yoga is one of the best ways to combat stress as it helps to reduce the heart rate, blood pressure and tension in the body. All of this then has a positive effect on anxiety and depression, making employees feel much more relaxed and ready to take on the day.
2. Increased Energy
Plants and flowers are a great way to warm up your office space and bring Working for 6-8 hours from desks every day can quickly make people feel lethargic as the blood circulation decreases causing fatigue and lowering energy. As office workers, predominantly, lead a sedentary lifestyle, it’s important to get them moving to keep them as healthy as possible. Something as simple as yoga stretches, which can be achieved within their workstations, every 30 minutes, will get their hearts pumping and blood flowing which helps to produce more energy to get them through the day.
3. Better Concentration and Focus
In a demanding work environment, your employees will be faced with urgent deadlines, a high workload and endless meetings which can very quickly lead to their minds feeling cluttered. Yoga and meditation and breathing exercises have all been proven to help clear mental fog and allow employees to feel more alert, focused and productive. Plus, the increase in blood circulation will also improve brain function for a sharper mind that will be able to make decisions and problem solve much more easily.
4. Alleviates Common Desk Job Pains
As office workers typically spend the majority of their days sitting in chairs hunched over their desks for hours on end, they often suffer from neck and back pain, as well as eye strain from staring at a screen for so long. This pain could affect their productivity and focus. These pains are one of the main reasons many people take up yoga as it stretches out major muscle groups and helps to prevent stiffness and joint aches.
5. Better Immunity
Regularly practising yoga can help to boost the immune system and stimulate the lymphatic system to remove toxins from the body. This aids blood circulation to bring oxygenated blood to the internal organs helping them to perform optimally – meaning, employees are less likely to take sick days and will feel healthier in general.
6. Boosts Morale
If your employees are stressed at work then you may find they are quicker to anger and often feel more frustrated and less motivated. This can create a hostile work environment and affect the moods of other employees too. Offering yoga classes during a lunch break or at the start of the day can boost morale, keep tempers mellow and allow your team to bond and have fun together in a relaxed setting.
7. Improved Breathing
A large part of yoga and meditation focuses on breathing techniques and being completely aware of your breathing. These techniques teach people how to inhale and exhale deeply to increase lung capacity and the amount of oxygen in the body. Not only does this help calm employees down when they’re feeling particularly stressed, but it can also make them feel more energetic throughout the day.
8. More Flexibility
Being more flexible can help in all aspects of life and is something that many aspire to be. Yoga poses – especially the more advanced ones – requires a great deal of flexibility which can be taught and built up after lots of practice. Increased flexibility can help to lower pressure and chronic joint pain, it can also prevent injury and help to improve posture too.
9. Encourages Creativity and Productivity
As yoga can help increase focus, concentration and clear mental fog, it can also encourage and improve creative thinking too. Practising yoga often allows employees to be in touch with their emotions as they balance their mind, body and soul. This often then leads to more creative expression in both their personal and work life, helping to find innovative solutions to problems and completing tasks creatively.
Need more advice on improving wellbeing in the workplace? Read our top tips on how to manage stress at work.
At Officeology, we care about your health and wellbeing and offer products such as blue light protection, massage equipment and yoga equipment for your office.
