Time to campaign for yoga in your workplace? Alicia Roscoe shares five benefits of yoga to help persuade HR.
Before becoming a yoga teacher, I was a corporate lawyer and it was during this fairly stressful time that I discovered yoga. I now share yoga classes with several corporate clients and teams in Oxfordshire in their workplace.
Practicing once a week really helped me stay grounded, focus on work and connect with my co-workers. If you already have a yoga practice, you will likely know how great you can feel after yoga, it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what has changed in the body and mind, just a general sense of well-being!
Below I share five benefits of practicing yoga to encourage you to seek out a class or to join your co-workers on the mat if your company offers yoga. If you are new to yoga or considering starting, I hope this helps understand what yoga brings and persuades you to try it or approach HR to get a yoga class started at work!
1. Connection: yoga translates as ‘union’, when we practice we unite our breath and movement; this is like medicine for the body. We often exist in the mind just a short but seemingly unbridgeable distance from the body. By bringing the two together we experience connection, clarity and contentment.
2. Posture: after years of study and then working in the City, my posture was appalling, I couldn’t get my hands past my knees! Now it’s a different story. In yoga we are constantly aligning and lengthening the spine to create space for energy to flow freely. It’s brilliant for the shoulders and spine.
3. Focus: during our practice we really focus on the breath, this brings in energy and calms the body. After the practice tackling that problem or spreadsheet is so much easier, having shifted our attention to something entirely elemental.
4. Teamwork: yoga builds connection, partly with yourself and understanding your own internal dialogue. However, it also creates an openness with others, it elevates empathy, increases patience, which all lead to a more understanding sense of teamwork.
5. Sleep: a good night’s sleep is key, it is so often the beginning of recovering a balanced sense of self. In my classes, I often bring in deep-belly breathing, grounding postures and inversions. All of these will contribute to calming the nervous system, resulting in a deep sleep at night
Alicia Rosoce offers corporate retreats and yoga classes for businesses in and around Oxfordshire & London. Alicia is currently working with Mercedes, Lulu Lemon and Value Retail (Bicester Village). She also organises private wellness events and retreats and has organised a journalist press retreat for Pukka Herbs for the launch of a new product. In addition she has hosted workshops and talks on team building, communication and personal development. She is a Yoga instructor, ambassador for Lulu Lemon & founder of &Sister.
If you would like to get in touch with Alicia, please email aliciaroscoe@gmail.com
‘Just wanted to thank you again for such a beautiful practice on Thursday, it so lovely to be able to practice in work and enjoy the beautiful environment here! My afternoon was alot more peaceful and considered and I was able to concentrate so much better. It’s also really lovely to spend some peaceful time with different people from around the company, so often we only meet for work and never really get to bond in a peaceful environment.’