Yoga on the job.
Early on in my yoga interest, I found the direct correlation between spending time on my mat and how it influenced the rest of my day. In 1999, I went to my supervisor and requested flexibility around my “lunch hour.” We agreed I would start taking my “lunch” from 9-10:30 and either coming in 30 minutes early or staying late for 30 minutes to cover the time in my contract. This allowed me to go to my favorite yoga class.
Design your day around your desire.
I was fairly new to my job then and nervous about asking to take a lunch so early in the day, but this was the class I really wanted to attend, and it only happened twice a week. I proposed a meeting, and I came with all of the benefits the organization would receive from me attending this class.
I knew I would be:
- More productive,
- More fun to be around,
- Taking fewer sick days,
- Proactive versus reactive,
- Calm under pressure, and
- Clear and focused.
I started going to the 9am yoga class and wound up staying at my job for almost 20 years. It was a good move on both our parts. My work dealt with a lot of relationships, navigating public lands policy, and jumping through bureaucratic hoops. I was always pretty calm and collected about it all, and one day the president asked me, “How do you stay so calm, juggling so much, Rachel?”
My reply was, “headstand.”
Two years later, I started teaching public yoga classes. Five years later I offered “lunch hour” yoga classes to my colleagues. Everyone benefited.
To me, yoga is about consciously placing myself into the laboratory of the body, mind, and spirit.
There is no limit to how our yoga practice can benefit us on and off your mats. The practice of yoga has really taught me to move my consciousness to multiple places in my physical body, help navigate the inner workings of my mental state and mindset as well as boost my health, vibrancy, and vitality through Ayurveda. Yoga in itself is a doorway to learning, growing and expanding. It’s a unique system of overall health that serves us in so many ways.
Be the architect of your life and let yoga work overtime with you and for you.
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Rachel Peters is a yoga teacher, yoga health coach, lifestyle and habits expert, easeful living advocate, and lover of wild places. She leads others towards Embodying Ease through a yearlong wellness & lifestyle journey to dissolve perfectionism, embody daily habits that promote mental clarity, overall ease, and deeper connection to life on this wild ride of modern living. Learn MORE today!