“Calmness is the cradle of power”
-Josiah Gilbert Holland
What do successful leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have in common? Apart from being world leaders, they are also practitioners of the traditional and transcendental practice of yoga.
While many consider yoga to gain physical fitness, did you know that its holistic benefits can also give you an edge at the workplace? Something these dynamic leaders have proved time and again.
Practicing yoga not only improves physical health but also looks after mental well-being by calming the mind; propelling you to excel in your personal and professional undertakings. If you want to be at one with yourself and take your career to new heights, these are the three ways in which yoga can help.
Manage Stress Better
You have a big meeting coming up at work with multiple stakeholders pushing in different directions, what do you do? You can ace it, if you can put your points across clearly and address every situation with a calm mind.
Here, as a yoga practitioner you can stay calm and balanced in high-stress situations, helping you develop the mental clarity you need to tackle work head-on. The daily practice of yoga increases the number of endorphins released by the body, with studies showing that it also reduces the secretion of the body’s primary stress hormone.
Savasana, a restful pose practiced at the end of a yoga session, helps you feel calm and emotionally stable. Pranayama, an extension of yoga techniques, helps regulates your breath, allowing you to centre yourself before dealing with stressful situations.
These simple yet highly effective yoga techniques can have a far-reaching impact on your performance at the workplace, allowing you to stand out from your peers.
Increased productivity at work
As you grow at the workplace, you have to juggle multiple tasks at the same time, which can make it easy for you to lose track. Simultaneously, the nature of the tasks becomes more demanding, requiring you to dedicate more time and energy to it.
In such situations, you need to be able to gather your thoughts, eliminate all distractions, and focus your attention on high priority tasks. As each yoga pose requires your absolute attention, it trains your mind to have a laser-sharp focus on the task at hand. During yoga, the balance shifts from any rapid knee-jerk reactions to a more relaxed and focussed state of mind, making you more aware, alert and productive at work.
Mental fortitude and self-confidence
At work, you may come across instances, where you have to make effective decisions with both speed and clarity. When you practice yoga regularly, you push your limits, even exceed them, to discover what you are truly capable of. With each yoga pose that you master, your self-confidence and self-belief increases, banishing negative thoughts from your mind.
Yoga enables you to confront your innermost mental blocks and helps you embrace creative and unique ways of problem-solving. This increased self-confidence makes you surer of yourself, allowing you to be confident in your professional decisions.
If you are seeking a calm, mindful, and confident approach towards your personal and professional life, there is no better time to do so than the International Day of Yoga.
So grab your yoga mat, put your outfit together from the top clothing brands in India, and open yourself up to a new way of living.
