I was about to relocate to Thailand when I went on my first meditation retreat with Buddhist monks in the British countryside. I remember one of them warning me not to be disappointed in Bangkok because lay people – the ones who follow the Buddhist tradition but are not monks – did not really practice meditation in real life. Going to a temple and practicing Meta Bhavana, the loving-kindness meditation, was not exactly the typical Thai hobby. In the Buddhist world, meditation can be optimal in very specific conditions but clearly not for people with busy lives.
How can we keep a slow and mindful practice when, in the end, this is just the cherry on top of one’s life? How can we combine this with a crazy agenda? Why should we do this?
As a young corporate woman I find it very challenging to integrate my Ashtanga practice into my life with a very busy schedule. Yet I have been finding more and more parallels and connections between yoga and work.
Surviving the Workplace
I am going to state the obvious, but if you have ever worked in any kind of company you will have experienced stress. Stress is the number one threat in our modern lives. Stress pulls us in contradictory directions all day long, it can make you lose your hair and fill your body with crazy hormones and keep you awake at night. Stress is the lunches you swallow in 20 minutes. Stress is your smartphone vibrating all day long (I work on project with colleagues all over the world, so it vibrates 24/7).
Making the effort to arrive on my mat as much as possible has changed my life. I start my morning by setting good intentions for my day and sending good wishes to my colleagues. I then start mindfully waking up my body through the first series of Surya Namaskar, making sure the damages of sitting all day are balanced with deep stretches. My phone is on flight mode or not even in the room. During one hour all I am asked is to go through the series of postures, surrender to my teacher and let go. Simple, no talking, no confusing signals. My mind becomes clear and positive which immediately gives a different colour to my day.
Mind and Body
Like many people, I started yoga because my back was hurting and I was having panic attacks on my way to work. I was also having eczema outbreaks, tummy pains and hormonal imbalances. Separate issues in my opinion, until the day I realized through yoga that my body was desperately trying to tell me something in a language that was unfamiliar to me.
My crazy lifestyle with its frantic pace – I moved to 6 countries in 8 years – was the problem but inevitable at the same time. How to be a passionate and committed high achiever yet remain detached, still and spiritual at the same time? Yoga has helped me to include slowness and nowness in my routine. My mat has become a safe place to let go of tensions, feelings and sensations. I am not projecting CAPEX, planning my next four weeks or anticipating my customer’s needs. I am on my mat here and now. I am on my mat and at my own pace, tuned in to what’s happening on the inside. On my mat I stand and nothing else matters, not my meeting, not my project, not my boss, not my colleague.
More importantly yoga has helped me reconnect my mind with my body, to understand the little pains that create a bridge of communication between a very stubborn brain and a crying body. On my mat I have started to recognize the moment I need to take care of myself and slow down my lifestyle. I can feel every part of my body from tightness to the inability to stand on one foot. Asanas are like a mirror of our inner world. The failure of being able to do an asana reveals so much about ourselves.
The Corporate Yogi
Maybe the true realization that has been coming to me lately is how practicing yoga can be a parallel to my corporate life and equally a tool that I can use in the workplace.
Ashtanga yoga offers us a toolbox to enhance focus, discipline, dedication and patience. Active meditation through concentration on asanas has helped me to develop my ability to concentrate on one task at a time and remove myself from the office noise.
Repeating the same sequence has also taught me perseverance and faith: one cannot see tangible progress quickly but yet we are constantly planting the seeds of success. Success needs time, dedication and the right circumstances. You can’t achieve headstand on a first shot but by working on the core and the preparatory postures you create the conditions of one day being able to achieve it. This comes into my work where I have to take business concepts from scratch and work through the steps to bring them to life. In the same way, I need a little bit of time, perseverance and faith to make these ideas happen.
Ashtanga has also taught me detachment. Do I really need to get angry at my computer bugging? Do I really have to take what my colleague just said personally? Do I need to be the best all the time? Yoga helps me look at things positively and with detachment. What matters is the journey.
Finally through yoga I have understood that practice is important but we also need to be forgiving with ourselves. We do not live in ashrams and our environment does not always set the best conditions for detachment and calm minds. Sometimes we are consistent with our practice, sometimes life decides otherwise. Sometimes we praise ourselves for being the office Yoda, sometimes the week is too demanding and we lose it. What really matters in the end is that we keep coming back to the mat, that every time the mind wanders we bring our focus back to the breath and re-centre.
From: Yogini in Real Life