In today’s modern workplace, employee wellness and happiness is more important than before. Executives are now realizing that to have a productive company they must take into account the nature of their work culture. Part of that is making sure that employees are happy where they work and have a positive mental perspective of their work. Many companies are providing their employees with opportunities to prioritize their mental health while at work.

Yoga in the workplace is not necessarily a new concept, but is a concept that more and more businesses are incorporating to their work culture. This is because yoga has many physical and mental benefits that can help employees during their workdays.

1. Stress Relief – The big reason yoga in the workplace can be beneficial are the stress relieving qualities of a regular yoga practice. One study found that even just 20 minutes of yoga everyday could vastly decrease one’s perceived levels of stress. Stress relief can help improve not just employees’ attitude towards work but help increase their productivity by preventing burn outs from working too much or too long. Stress relief through mindful practices such as yoga can also help with employees’ perception of their quality of work.
2. Increase Employees’ Self-Awareness – A regular yoga practice requires more than just physical awareness but also mental self-awareness. Yoga uses many meditation techniques that can help employees be more in tune with their self-awareness, such as regulated breathing techniques and exercises in concentration. Increased self-awareness can help improve workplace productivity and have a positive effect on employee attitudes.
3. Increases Productivity – Incorporating yoga into your workplace can bring about positive results towards productivity. When employees are happy and stress-free at their place of employment, they perform better and enjoy their work. Employees are more likely to establish work balance and learn to think more clearly under pressure. The health benefits of yoga also mean that fewer illnesses take place in the workplace thus resulting in fewer absences. Yoga’s benefits on individual employees creates underlying benefits for companies in general.

4. Boosts Creativity – The mental benefits of a regular yoga practice at work include not just stress-relieving qualities but also boosting creativity. Yoga helps employees to think more clearly and can help with increasing creativity. When individuals have a clearer mind that is not cluttered with stress or anxiety, they are able to think of greater possibilities to problems or situations. Yoga often incorporates exercises that helps individuals to think outside of the box and teaches individuals to focus in order to see possibilities they would otherwise be blind to.
5. Gain Physical Wellness – Along with stress relief, one of the most apparent benefits of yoga in the workplace is the increase in physical wellness of employees. This boost of physical wellness is especially important for those working in offices where employees might spend the whole day sitting in front of a computer. Stretching and incorporating some sort of movement for an extended period of time during work breaks is important to stay healthy. Yoga practices in the office can help ensure that everyone has the opportunity to get their blood flow moving and a healthy body can help lead to a healthy mind.

Yoga in the workplace can help increase both the physical and mental health of employees. This in turn creates a positive work atmosphere that can lead to an increase in productivity. Incorporating yoga into your company’s work culture will lead to dedicated and happy employees with more positive mindsets about their tasks.