Yoga and Workplace Health and Safety

When you think of ways to make your workplace safer you most likely think of policies and risk assessment sessions. But what if I told you yoga was a way to also make your workplace a little safer?

You may be wondering just how yoga can help in workplace safety. It works like this: One of the things that lead to illness and accidents at work is stress. Stress can hit people on a number of levels.

• Feeling Sick – Enough stress can go beyond being a mental bother. It can start to manifest itself in physical illnesses, starting with fatigue, and then progressing to headaches, and other symptoms. Those who suffer too much stress can reach the point that they can’t go to work and have to stay home leaving the business understaffed.
• Poor Performance – The second way stress can cause physical problems in the workplace is that it can cause workers to be so out of focus on their job that they make mistakes. Think about the last time you were suffering from stress. How well could you keep your focus on your job?  That lack of focus can mean mistakes that could lead to injuries or worse.

For these reasons many companies are deciding to put more options in place for their workers to reduce their stress. One of the most popular is setting up yoga lessons at work.

Yoga techniques serve a number of purposes for employees:

• Stress Reduction – By teaching people how to focus on their breathing and techniques, the process of yoga can help them remove the anxiety and stress that was controlling their life before.
• Flexibility – Those learning yoga are learning how to properly stretch and use their muscles and tendons. This creates an awareness of strain in different parts of the body, and hopefully helps to forewarn of any repetitive stress that may lead to injury.
• Stimulation from Exercise – Yoga can help people be a little ‘more in shape’. As exercise releases endorphins into the system leading to a sense of well-being, Yoga can create a better feeling and attitude towards the work environment.
• Morale – Believe it or not, one way to make things safer in the workplace is to boost morale. Higher morale means more employees happy with their job and doing their part to keep things running as smoothly as possible. Yoga can bring employees together and boost morale in your office.

When you’re ready to bring your office together with a morale boost, and help them help themselves to make a safer workspace, consider what offices around the world are doing and consider setting up a yoga program for your business.