🎙️75. Why Bringing Yoga to the Office Isn't the Answer & How to Maximize Corporate Wellness

podcast

May 7

the spiritual 9-5 podcast transcript

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Episode Published on May 7, 2024

Transcript:

Intro to the Intro

This episode is the second episode of my Woo Woo at Work series here on The Spiritual 9–5 podcast. I'm so excited to bring you this series and today we are easing into it with a title that may be controversial, but an episode that I think you'll get down with. If it resonates, please share it with everyone you work with, including your manager or their manager, and including all of your friends who have jobs, too, because it's pretty neat.

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Welcome to The Spiritual 9–5 podcast. We are here to support you in your day-to-day, to help you see and know yourself a little bit deeper, and to inspire you to show up in what you're here to do. Whether that be your nine-to-five or entrepreneurship, or art or philanthropy, or watching Netflix on your couch. Or a combination of all of those.

I'm your host, Marie Groover. I'm the founder of two businesses that are here to inspire you to do what you came here to do, and to bring the soul back into the office. I am so excited to bring you this episode today!

If you haven't, please leave the show a five-star rating, and if this episode resonates, consider saving it and sharing it with someone you think it would resonate with, too.

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We're going to talk today about general and, what i'm going to call basic somatic, modalities at work. Things like breath work and meditation, or mindfulness and yoga. And we're going to talk about why these are, and are not, always an effective solution. And we're going to talk about how we can make them more effective and impactful and productive for yourself, your team, your organization, or your business.

But first, we are going to just touch on why organizations are bringing modalities like yoga to the office. And I'm going to say the word yoga a lot – this is the primary focus. But when I'm talking about yoga, I do want to open the door to other somatic practices and modalities like breath work and, like, meditation and mindfulness. Because, not that they're all the same thing, but oftentimes, these are things that work is bringing into the office now. And work starts to feel really comfortable with, or corporate is beginning to feel really comfortable with, where back, you know, 10 or so years that wasn't necessarily the case.

And really the reason that organizations are bringing these modalities into the office is because there are some proven benefits to introducing modalities like yoga to work, or incorporating office yoga into corporate wellness programs, etc.

So, according to Google, the benefits of bringing yoga to the office are:

Stress reduction
Improved productivity
Improved decision making skills
Improved teamwork and collaboration
Increased flexibility
Improved morale

And I think these are great benefits! I don't think they're wrong. I'm not going to discount them. Also, who would argue with Google, anyways?! Definitely not me.

But listen, I have been practicing yoga for almost 19 years. I've been practicing since I was 15 years old. And since that time I've had a regular yoga practice. I did my first teacher training when I was 20. I did another in my mid- to late-20’s. I completed an apprenticeship with someone that I would say is a world-class yoga teacher and mentor, and I’ve said this before: yoga is the root of my personal awakening.

And by that I mean self-awareness, compassion, empathy, loving-kindness, my ability to respond rather than react, my thoughtfulness, my mindfulness practice, my somatic learnings. And I do not believe that I would be a coach, or nearly as effective of a coach, or as effective of a human, or an employee, or a leader, without having had such a deep relationship with yoga.

Yoga is spiritual, yes. But it doesn't have to be. And it is absolutely not religious. Yoga does not teach you or tell you what to believe or who to follow. Yoga points you to yourself.

It gives you the tools to pay attention to your body, to your breath, to your thoughts, to your words, to your actions, to your belief systems, to how you be, and how you show up in the world. Even if you just come into yoga as a physical practice.

I'm saying all of this because yoga is powerful.

And the same is true with breath work, and meditation, and mindfulness practices, and wellness in general. These are powerful tools that, with consistent practice, will absolutely transform you and your life.

So why not bring these modalities into the office?

So recently, in the last 5-ish years or so, maybe 10, yoga at work, or even mindfulness at work, has gained popularity. It's a little bit trendy. And it's much more accepted and has a relatively low ranking on the “woo woo scale.”

That is, these practices are not too woo woo anymore. People are no longer so afraid of them. Companies feel comfortable bringing them into the office, right? So what's the catch? What's the issue?

Well here's my take: I think that bringing yoga, or breath work, or meditation, or mindfulness, or wellness apps–all of these things and more–to a healthy culture is great! Highly recommend. Highly, highly recommend. And I think that there are ways to bring it into the office that can amplify the benefits, the benefits that I just read from Google, and more. Which we will talk about in a bit.

And the catch though, is this: I think that bringing yoga, or breath work, or meditation, or mindfulness, or wellness apps to a fractured, or toxic, or even mediocre culture or workplace is not ideal.

Yoga, meditation, breath work, wellness apps cannot fix organizational issues. Wellness is not the answer to poor leadership, lack of support, high workload, lack of autonomy, layoffs or reductions, misaligned values or no values.

Wellness is not the answer to bad culture. It's not the answer to employee burnout, or work-life balance, or a lack of work-life balance. It's not the answer to lower-than-market pay rates or unlivable wages, at that. Wellness is not the answer to performance culture. And I could go on and on and on and on to all the things that wellness is not necessarily the answer for, but what I'll say is: it just isn't.

I would actually even argue that bringing modalities like yoga, and breath work, and wellness that offer things like therapies, like wellness apps for example, like Better Health, will actually encourage turnover. Because this kind of work empowers individuals into awareness. And into making intentional choices that are good for them. And you will empower people right out of a less than ideal situation. Which is ultimately a good thing. But not great for an organization who wants to grow their business and retain talent.

So I'll say it again: yoga, meditation, breath work, or wellness apps can absolutely not fix organizational issues, whether those issues are material like paychecks, or office setups, or immaterial like culture and leadership and productivity.

I would argue that unless every single person, including the leadership team, practice these wellness modalities together regularly, because that is human connection which builds empathy and trust, and does help to repair cultural issues which then can bleed into repairing organizational issues. Without regularly practicing these modalities together, they're not an effective solution. Especially on their own.

These modalities, when introduced into the corporate workforce as solutions, are merely band-aids. And they aren't great band-aids, because when you hire a yoga teacher who has not had a lot of deep corporate experience and who doesn't value the workplace in the way that you do, as a leader or a decision maker, that teacher is not going to be able to connect the dots for the people who attend the classes.

And if that yoga teacher isn't super skilled at teaching yoga just in general, then people might not even go to their classes and then it could kind of be a wash as well, right? The participation could be spotty in general, unless it's dictated, which I don't think we can really do from an organizational, or HR, or legal perspective. And those who participate may receive general wellness benefits, but it's not going to help them with their 300 emails when they get back to their desk, or resolve the conflict with their teammate.

Side note: Arguably, as a yoga teacher, I can say that yoga does help us with these things when you have a skilled teacher to help you connect those dots. Otherwise, yoga is a long game. It's a long game that has to be opted into, that has to be practiced consistently over years. And when practiced consistently over years, it will change and transform you, and it will transform the way you walk through the world, and through the work, and through your workplace.

But we could also argue that most of the folks who opt into yoga at the office are probably people who are already practicing yoga outside of the office. Or, in the very least, they're open enough to be curious. Which then is like giving a valuable empathy training to an already empathetic and high performer. Which is great but what does it do for everyone else, right? If we're just lifting up the people who want to be lifted–not saying that, you know, other people don't necessarily want to be lifted–but if we're just giving prizes to the prized child, then what does that do for everyone else, right? How does that fix, or heal, or bridge gaps in an organization?

So, yoga in itself is not a solution to organizational issues. Breath work, meditation, mindfulness, wellness on their own are not the solution to organizational issues. Why?

Because yoga, or wellness, or breath work 1) are not a solve for poor pay, or culture, or high workload, 2) are not often mandated, or not able to be mandated, so not everyone will reap the benefits. Not everyone will actually opt in, and 3) the dots are not connected back to work and the business, and the goals of work in the business, which is a missed opportunity. And this is where we're really going to focus for the rest of the episode. And we're going to come back to this in a future episode as well.

So, how do we make these somatic modalities more effective in the workplace? Well, if we're managing a workplace with less-than-great culture, or poor organizational wellness, we address those things head on. And we can implement yoga, or breath work, or various team building practices, or wellness experiences in conjunction with directly addressing the problem at hand.

Yoga and these other somatic modalities can be super impactful when implemented as one piece of a great puzzle.

Now, I'm not going to speak to the entirety of the puzzle, at least not today, but I will speak to making yoga and wellness more effective in the workplace.

So, while we can't mandate that everyone practice yoga together, consistently at work, what we can do, and what I recommend doing, is connecting the dots back to the business, back to the team, back to the individuals, and to the work at hand.

I said it earlier in this episode that a yoga practice is not something that can necessarily help someone with their 300 emails when they get back to their desk, or conflict between themselves and a peer. But I'm actually going to negate that for a second. Or at least I'm going to add some nuance. So, no yoga does not magically clean your inbox, but what yoga can do, what breath work can do, what meditation and mindfulness practices can do, is give you the tools to navigate an overflowing inbox from a place of nervous system regulation. From a place of peace and calm. From a place of higher level brain functioning which is best for everyone, right?

Now, when the dots are not connected back to these things in our practice, yoga can be a bit more of a long game. I mentioned earlier that yoga is a long game, yet we can shorten this game when we apply the principles of yoga to our workplace and our work-life situations. Which need to be directly stated and exemplified throughout a practice. When you are doing yoga at work there should still actually be an emphasis on the work. Which is not something that I've really seen yoga teachers and office settings do, or do well, or do consistently.

When this is the case, AKA when we do connect our yoga practice with our work practice, it can be such a powerful tool for moving through your workday. With all the same benefits of yoga plus application, direct application to your experience in the office, or remotely, or with your team, which then actually amplifies the benefits that you receive from your practice.

So for example, rather than kicking off a workplace practice with a letting go or a releasing of the rest of the workday, you might kick off your yoga practice, or your mindfulness practice by bringing to mind a specific situation that is affecting you. And you may mindfully practice with that situation in mind, in heart, cultivating empathy and compassion and loving-kindness, and diplomacy and truth.

Another example could be a corporate yoga teacher teaching a class that integrates conflict resolution, or difficult conversations, or leadership development, or a class that connects the dots between yogic philosophy and something specific to the office culturally, or materially. This is where yoga can become much more powerful and not fall flat to your employees or in your work environment.

And this connective experience will also drive more employees to show up to their mats at work because they will see directly how taking an hour away from their desk impacts all of their work positively, and helps them actually move the needle forward.

A similar, or adjacent, example would be bringing mindfulness into the office. So, I was working with a client who requested a custom experience to kick off an executive offsite in-person, and I first suggested a mindful kickoff, a mindful kickoff and intention setting. And the client's response was, “Well we have done that. We've brought someone in for a mindfulness practice before and it kind of felt flat.”

So I got really curious, and I asked, you know, “Was this mindfulness in general, was it specific to what your team or org was working on, how much detail did you give to the person that was leading the practice?” Right? “Did they know what they were kicking off? Did you share with them what you were working on? Did you share with them what your goals were?” You know, “How did that initial scoping conversation go, and how did the mindfulness practice go, and how connective was it to what it was that you were all working on?

And it turns out that the mindful practice that fell flat was a general mindfulness practice. And here is where I think that we, as a wellness industry, can do better. As a wellness industry, if you're a practitioner listening to this, we can scope our clients needs and wants much more deeply. So that we can understand not just the problem at hand, not just why they're bringing us in, but we can understand what their goals are. We can understand specifically what they're working on as a group or a team, so that we can skillfully connect the dots to our wellness services in a way that will be effective and maximize benefits for the company, or the organization, or the team.

And if you're a team, or a manager, or a leader who is bringing on a wellness provider, if you're bringing a yoga teacher into the office, for example, taking just a few moments to state what you think is obvious to you–because maybe it is obvious to you, but what might not be obvious to someone who isn't working in the corporate setting all the time–to share with them what you're working on. To share with them what the team goals are. To share with them the team mission. To share with them what the focus of the week is, or what the priorities are. To share with them, to give them detail about what it is that you're doing. Because this can really help build an effective experience.

You know, I recently did a mindful kickoff for a team at a tech company. It was for an All Hands, it was for an organizational All Hands. And I asked them actually, what their All Hands theme was. I asked them why they wanted to bring mindfulness into their meeting. I asked them what they hoped to get out of bringing mindfulness to the meeting. I asked them what their main goals were for the meeting and for the time together. I asked them for the full meeting agenda and the slides, even though I was not going to attend the entire meeting.

And why did I do this?

Because, I wanted that first five minutes where I joined to level-set everyone, and to prepare them for not just what was to come, but for how they could show up and receive most effectively. And how they could participate most effectively. And in order for me to know those things, in order for me to prepare those people for what was to come, was for me to know what was to come, and for me to know the direction that the leadership team wanted to head in the All Hands. To know where they wanted their employees to end up, where the journey was going to end.

So the mindfulness practice was not just about connecting the body and the breath, and establishing awareness with self. It was not a general mindfulness practice at all. But the mindfulness practice for this particular group was connecting with the body and the mind, and preparing the body and the mind for exactly what was to come. So that at the end of the practice, the employees didn't feel just calm and peaceful, but they actually felt calm, and engaged, and inspired, and excited, and ready. They finished the mindfulness practice feeling alert, attentive, intentional.

And I can tell you, same practice–similar practice to probably what happens all over the place when mindful experts come into the office–but very different results when we take the time to understand and connect those dots for everyone. So that they know why they're participating, and they know how it's going to help them, and they know how they can use the work that they're–that you are, or that I am, or that the practitioner is bringing to them–this is crucial and key.

So if I were taking my 12 or 13 years of teaching yoga to a corporate space and guiding a yoga class, I would want to know much more than just where the practice would be held and how many people would be attending.

I would want to know who are these people? What are their job titles? What are their concerns, where is management and leadership needing more support? Or where would the leadership team like to see more growth, and why?

Because all of that can be incorporated into your employee wellness practice and breed so much more impact. And just an overall better employee experience. And that's why we do what we do when we bring wellness into the workplace, or when we introduce woo woo into work.

We don't do it just because, right? We do it because it can be effective, but it's really only effective when we can connect those dots.

So this was really just an introduction to bringing yoga and wellness or somatic modalities to the office. We will definitely come back to this and talk about this more and more and more in depth. Potentially with an expert, by the way.

I'm working on bringing one of my yoga teachers and mentors who comes from the corporate space, who also caters to the corporate space, who is just such a skilled practitioner and service provider and wonderful human who would be a gift to your ears and to your work.

So, stay tuned. Reach out if you have any questions. Visit www.youressentialteam.com if you're interested in exploring somatic modalities or mindfulness in your work. I would love to connect with you directly, I would love to talk with you about it, and to create something custom for your team and your situation that will absolutely not fall flat.

Thank you so much!

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Thank you so much for listening to The Spiritual 9–5 Podcast. I'm your host Marie Groover and I am beyond honored that you are here. Please follow, save, and rate the show and if you can, share your favorite episode with a friend. It makes the world of a difference.

Connect with me on LinkedIn. I would love to hear from you what you think about the show or my work, so don't be shy.

And I'm always here to connect and support you or your business through coaching, team building, and leadership development. You can find my work in the show notes.

Until next time, Big Love.

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Shownotes:

This episode is the second episode of our woo woo at work series here on the Spiritual 9-5 Podcast. In it, we discuss:

the benefits of bringing somatic modalities like yoga, breath work, meditation and mindfulness, into the workplace
why these modalities may not be as effective as you think
how to maximize the effectiveness and benefits of bringing these modalities into the workplace

Stay tuned for upcoming episodes with special guests and experts on topics like astrology, human design, gene keys, feng shui, somatics, breath work, yoga, and more.

Links:

Marie Groover ⁠https://www.mariegroover.com/⁠

The Corporate Psychic ⁠https://www.thecorppsychic.com/⁠

Essential Teams ⁠https://www.youressentialteam.com/⁠

Connect on LinkedIn ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmariegroover/⁠

Join the Mailing List ⁠https://thecorppsychic.myflodesk.com/e7bmhjidj4⁠

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The production of this episode was in collaboration with ⁠Lyndsee Nielson⁠. See her work here: ⁠⁠www.lyndseeloves.com⁠