While the COVID-19 crisis continues to consume us and to prevent us from living our normal lives, I continue to conduct free online yoga classes thrice a week on Instagram Live. The video of the session is available on my Story for 24 hours after the live session for anyone interested in doing the practice at a convenient time. Find me on Instagram @shashisarda_
Today I thought I would speak about another aspect of yoga: that of yoga retreats conducted by companies. Apart from my regular yoga classes and yoga therapy sessions, I am called upon to conduct corporate yoga retreats from time to time. The HR departments of various companies conduct yoga retreats in order to foster team spirit and enhance employee wellness.
What is a corporate yoga retreat?
Typically, in the corporate world, employees and executives lead busy, harried lives with little time for exercise and even less to give attention to wellness and self-care. This not only negatively impacts employee health, but also lowers morale and hence productivity. In other words, a stressed, less-than-healthy work force is bad for the company as well as for each individual worker.
A yoga retreat is meant to help individuals from the corporate sector by teaching the basics of yoga and breathing techniques. It is meant to give people a break from the everyday grind and to equip them with the tools to become healthier in mind and body. Sometimes companies organize yoga getaways at spas. However, these tend to be an expensive option that may involve only senior members of the staff. In other cases, companies invite a yoga instructor to organize a yoga retreat for all employees on the premises or at some chosen location. I am frequently invited to conduct such yoga retreats, and find that employees are greatly benefited by their experience and learning at such retreats.
Benefits of corporate yoga retreats
One of the main benefits of a yoga retreat of course is the lowering of work-related stress as a result of learning and practicing yoga, meditation and proper breathing techniques on a regular basis. Employees learn the importance of being more physically active and understand why it is important to make time for self-care. Many employees adopt some of the techniques they learn and incorporate them into their daily life. Some breathing techniques and stretches can be done at their desk on a daily basis. The relaxation techniques that employees learn and adopt can also help with brainstorming sessions and other creative processes in the company.
However, these are the long term benefits that accrue to those who make yoga a part of their life. There are other, immediate benefits of a yoga retreat as well: it becomes a bonding exercise for the workforce of a company. A retreat can take place in a democratic setting, where all employees participate together, from the top management to the junior-most staff. As such it can be a valuable team-building exercise with everyone participating in the event as an equal in an informal setting. As a result of this, senior employees can appear less intimidating to juniors and seniors can become more familiar with junior staff members. It can be an ice breaking exercise of sorts. Hence I find that such bonding is a very valuable outcome of the yoga retreat; one that has long-term beneficial results such as team building.
As a yoga instructor, I have found such yoga retreats to be very beneficial for corporate environments – as well as for me as a yoga professional.