Health, Happiness & Harmony – Yoga for Senior Executives
What would you choose between the following: a handsome pay packet or mental well-being?
A study by UKG shows that 88% of Indian professionals would choose mental peace over high pay, any day. No Health, No Wealth – the Covid pandemic has given the message loud and clear. This has led to a major reshuffle in the life priorities of Indian professionals.
But we believe that Health and Wealth can go hand-in-hand with the right professional and personal lifestyle choices. Of these, the best would be Yoga, the most comprehensive, universal & holistic well-being program that India has gifted the world. With about 300 million yoga practitioners worldwide, yoga is one of the most popular fitness regimes today. The benefits of yoga for senior executives are numerous.
On International Yoga Day, we interviewed Anuj Kumar Agarwal, ICF-ACC, a yoga instructor and yoga wellness coach, to understand what yoga is and the relevance of yoga for senior executives, leaders, and professionals. It was a deeply insightful session with practical takeaways to incorporate into our lives. We have captured some here.
Listen to the full podcast of the interview on Spotify.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a medium to find and prolong the state of inner happiness. This is possible through chitta vriddhi nirodhah, or stopping the mind’s impulses. Impulses of the mind drive our actions or responses. They may be conscious or unconscious. These impulses create restlessness in the mind. Yoga helps reduce mental impulses and thereby increases focus or concentration, which leads to serenity.
Sage Patanjali outlined eight steps to achieve chitta vriddhi nirodhah. This is called Ashtanga yoga. One of those steps is asana, or the ability to still still. Most people consider yoga asanas to be yoga. But asanas is only one of the steps of Ashtanga yoga and a way to make stilling the mind easier.
Is it practically possible for busy leaders & executives like us to still our minds?
Yes, it is possible when you make yoga your lifestyle and not just a practice. If you take up yoga for a narrow goal, such as losing weight, then it is natural that you stop doing yoga once you achieve your goal. So your benefits are limited to that one goal. But if yoga becomes your lifestyle and you live it every moment of your life, stilling the mind is assured. So yoga is a marathon. It requires consistency and dedication.
What is the purpose of yoga for senior executives?
Multiple forms of yoga have arisen over time to suit different needs. But all forms have one purpose – to realize our dormant potential – of body, mind, and personality. It enables us to go beyond physical and mental limitations and realize how much we can create, learn, and give.
What are the lessons from your yoga practice for senior executives and corporate leaders?
Right Perspective
I see that corporate leaders and executives deal with unpredictability and fluctuations on a daily basis. Combine this with high stakes and multiple stakeholders, and you have the perfect recipe for stress, which leads to physical and mental illnesses. Stress can also negatively impact relationships. Yoga can eliminate stress by putting our happy and sad moments in the right perspective.
Listen to the body
People do not listen to their bodies. Our body communicates with us. It tells us when we need sleep and how much; when we need food and how much. But we ignore this communication that’s the main reason we develop health issues. So we should start listening to our bodies and make the right choices based on their needs. Yoga can increase body awareness.
Self-exploration
Yoga makes us turn inwards and explore our minds. This helps us understand our thoughts & actions and their impacts on others. Self-reflection also helps us understand others’ mindsets and actions better. We can thus make informed decisions and act with awareness.
As a yoga instructor, what is your message to leaders, executives, and professionals?
Formulate a self-resolve that covers physical and mental wellness – a short positive statement. It should become an anchor in your subconscious mind. So, have a clear goal for yourself. It can be as simple as ‘I want to be happy.’ Setting a goal or purpose can make you more creative and energetic, help you achieve more, and commit to accomplishing something larger than yourself.
My alma mater, the Bihar School of Yoga, has released its message for this year – yoga for health, happiness and harmony. Health includes the physical, mental and emotional. Harmony refers to both internal harmony and harmony with other people, beings and environment. That sums up, in total, the all-encompassing, far-reaching benefits of yoga.
Anuj Kumar Agarwal (ICF ACC) is an International Yoga Teacher teaching integral yoga for holistic health for the last ten years. He is inspired by the Satyananda Yoga Tradition. He is also a Yoga Wellness Coach. He conducts yoga workshops and personal yoga classes for lifestyle health concerns and mental wellness.