Introduction
In this blog, Anita (yoga teacher) and Rudy (digital strategist) have combined forces to discuss the positive impact digital group yoga (live streamed yoga sessions via zoom) will have on your teams, currently dissipated and working from home.
Covid-19 is driving the new Working From Home (WFH) revolution, out of necessity, but unfortunately not by design, and for many it is not working. Team morale is low with HR and managers finding it difficult to keep WFH teams motivated, thereby reducing productivity and the ability to deliver products and services in a high quality, timely manner.
How can managers fulfill their duty of care to their teams, increase motivation, track and boost morale, and maintain productive teamwork?
We propose a holistic approach to address all the dimensions of well being that have been negatively impacted by dissipation of team members and the disruptions caused by WFH and the pandemic lockdown in general.
Unlike most corporate well being programs that focus on only two dimensions of well being, generally referred to as ‘physical and mental health’, we will be exploring all seven dimensions through the lens of digital group yoga sessions. These sessions promote well being, acting as a holistic health check, enabling continued support to team members, redressing work-life balance, providing both rejuvenated and novel shared experiences, focus and goals. Your teams will be happier, stronger, more balanced and work smarter with greater collaboration.
Digital group yoga and the seven dimensions of well being (LOL – sounds like a B-movie title)
Many of the activities we have long taken for granted at work, like the chat around the water cooler, pizza and beer on Friday, gym sessions, communal lunch areas, free, onsite yoga etc. are now gone. We now have to reinvent remote versions of these things and entirely new activities too. Below we’ll explore how digital group yoga can positively affect each of the seven dimensions of well being.
1. Social
Social well being is the ability to connect with other people, building positive relationships, and is addressed at work by encouraging people to engage with coworkers.
Digital group yoga creates Social well being by bringing your teams together in a virtual communal space, analogous to the communal work spaces and team events we have all become familiar with.
Social well being creates a sense of belonging, it can make people happier, translating into increased motivation, productivity, and collaboration.
2. Emotional/Mental
Emotional/Mental well being is the ability to understand and accept ourselves and deal with life’s obstacles.
Digital group yoga enables you to observe and accept how you are feeling, providing ways to channel emotions, e.g. you may see that you are anxious, begin by accepting that feeling and during the session a shift occurs and the anxiety lessens or falls away completely.
Digital group yoga creates an environment where people feel safe and comfortable sharing how they feel, with post session group chats really open, honest and supportive. It correlates well with the previous practices of stress management, onsite yoga, meditation and mindfulness, and can be a source of daily inspiration.
3. Spiritual
Spiritual well being establishes peace and harmony in our lives, giving a sense of meaning, purpose and fulfillment. Note that “spiritual” in this context does not mean religious, although it does not preclude the inclusion of a person’s religious beliefs into a yoga practice.
Digital group yoga, as a regular practice can establish aspects of spiritual well being and is the virtual equivalent of corporate, onsite yoga , meditation and mindfulness classes, with similarities to ‘quiet rooms’ found in many progressive, well being-focused companies.
4. Environmental
Environmental well being is being aware of our surroundings. It is not only about protecting the environment and protecting ourselves from hazards, it also includes the space in our homes where we work, rest and play.
Digital group yoga, and in fact all forms of yoga enable an immediate heightened sense of ones environment. It encourages people to value not only their time set aside for the session but also their personal space in which the session takes place for them; a quiet, tidy, clean, respected space, often decorated with plants, candles, music. This increased awareness seeps into all aspects of their environment, providing immediate benefits to the home work space.
5. Occupational
Occupational well being refers to our ability to feel fulfilled with our jobs, without sacrificing work-life balance. It is about maximizing workplace happiness.
Digital Yoga addresses this by:
- Giving your team a healthy work break in the day where they can switch of their computers and smartphones – turn off, tune in, drop out!
- Forming part of your preventative health program with de-stressing and physical activity
- Acting as a focus for incentives for healthy behaviors ‘do some yoga, win a fitbit’
- Promote inclusivity – e.g. rotate the ‘Yoga Manager’ role weekly
- Add to the healthy work-life balance by providing occasional ‘family yoga sessions’
6. Intellectual
Intellectual well being encompasses results from stimulating mental activities. It’s about opening our minds to new ideas and experiences that can benefit our personal and professional lives. Digital group yoga adds to intellectual well being in a variety of ways:
- For many, digital group yoga will be an entirely new learning experience and a new way of learning.
- The extensive theoretical side of yoga, if explored, provides a workout for the mind, complementary to the physical workout.
- Insights from the yoga practice can lead to new ways of approaching work challenges and stimulate inclusive, team responses – e.g. in an agile culture we speak of ‘build, test, learn, improve’, ‘pivot or persevere’ etc. , which for many go against old skool conditioning, but directly correlate to the yoga mindset of flexibility, continuous improvement, letting go, living in the moment, and so on.
7. Physical
Physical well being is about taking proper care of our bodies (activity and diet) so that our bodies can function properly and optimally, enabling us to complete daily activities without fatigue or physical stress.
Digital group yoga is a direct replacement of the onsite classes popular with many teams.
The physical practice of yoga allows people to get stronger, more flexible, breathe better, calm and focus the mind, enabling a noticeable, incremental increase of physical well being.
Yoga also has an extensive theoretical and practical system for improving diet and nutrition for healthier living and general harmony, with many adherents gradually gravitating towards this.
If you’d like to know more about this subject or discuss classes for your teams use the contact form on the homepage.
Namaste,
Anita and Rudy Tambala
Anita Tambala has been practicing yoga for 20 years and teaching professionally for 8 years in the UK, specialising in vinyasa flow.
Rudy Tambala has been working in peoplecentric, digital strategy for over 20 years, specialising in transformation for life science, healthcare and wellness.
tambalayoga.com 