What Is Yoga

If you wish to change the world Yoga prescribes that you change yourself first. At the very mention of the word “Yoga” and you tend to receive an assortment of responses. While some folds relate it to ascetics meditating in ashrams, a renouncing home and hearth in favor of a search for something more ethereal, others promptly call to mind chanting and burning incense. Yet others tend to recall the more physical benefits, and of highly supple, lithe Yoga practitioners they have seen practicing the least expected poses, some of them even dangerous.

Yoga is all of these and none of these. When you start to practice Yoga, authentically that is, you will come to learn that it is a complete physical, mental and spiritual discipline. The word Yoga literally means to unite, to join, to yoke, to put together. What, you may ask. Well, all the different elements and parts of ones being, such as the body, mind and soul, a state of harmony that is reached only when all the different elements, constituent parts and building blocks of the system are in harmony with each other.

Pretty much like a large corporation, isn’t it? Well, it is; and why not. This body is a conglomerate of several systems working in cohesion with each other –there is the skeletal system that holds the whole body erects, the respiratory system, the circulatory system, the digestive system the uro-genital system, the endocrine system and so on. The whole body, in fact, is composed of millions and millions of minute cells, all of which have to work in harmony with each other for a smooth, healthy functioning. This is what Yoga teaches us and this is precisely the kind of understanding that applies to the corporate world as well.

Yoga And Business

Yoga and business are closely linked, intertwined, in fact. At the heart of Yoga lie the virtues of responsibility, one-pointedness, calmness of mind, cool-headedness, commitment to ones calling – all of which traits and features are advocated by and even mandatory for mercantile success in this day and age of business ethics and morals, corporate social responsibility.

Physical Benefits Of Yoga

The physical benefits of Yoga are innumerable, and a lot of people in the corporate world have taken up the practice of Yoga to help them slow down and relax after a whole day’s stress. Together with health spas and diet foods, nowadays don’t be surprised if you see a Yoga instructor showing the corporate elite the right breathing, stretching and relaxing techniques at work. Day by day, more and more executives and managers are seeing how it really makes more business sense, how it makes people so much more productive. With a lot of relaxation too.