Yoga for workplace wellbeing: insights from Indian thought
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Mental health is a global workplace concern. In our workplaces, we face numerous challenges, and the landscape of these challenges is always in flux. On average, a working adult spends somewhere between 8 and 12 h per day at work, which is a major portion of their productive lifetime (Wagner et al., 2016). Today, knowledge workers face intensifying demands at the workplace. They often work beyond these nominal hours and, over time, experience a range of stress-related health issues (LaMontagne et al., 2014). Recent reports of sudden cardiac events and other similar incidences among young working-age adults have heightened anxieties about stress and health (American Heart Association, 2024). Taken together, these points to our inadequacy and lack of preparedness to meet modern-day workplace challenges, despite what we have learned so far through research and practice.This reinforces the idea that it would be ideal if the solution to the problem could come from the same workplace. For a workplace solution to succeed, it must be brief, practical, and integrate smoothly into existing routines. For long-term sustainability, interventions must consider both short-term and long-term outcomes (Tarro et al., 2020). Interestingly, regardless of the situation, internal or external, it is the way our mind appraises and responds that shapes experience and creates the collage of feelings we live with. Can we discover insights for our mental well-being from the very mind that perceives the challenges and opportunities around us?Yoga is an ancient Indian cultural practice (Newcombe, 2017). While traditionalists have considered yoga primarily as a path of spiritual pursuit, contemporary practitioners consider yoga as a versatile tool for addressing disharmony in body and mind (Varambally and Gangadhar, 2012). Though these philosophical differences will continue, the contemporary trend of adoption is clearly driven by utility: its capacity to address tangible problems in the body and mind. Moreover, the needs of the larger mass in society drive the way a discipline is shaped and developed; this is true for yoga as well. The applications of yoga have been demonstrated across domains such as physical and mental health (Jeter et al., 2015; Della Valle et al., 2020), education (Martin et al., 2024), and even art forms like music (Luo et al., 2023). Today yoga is popular due to its potential health benefits. While the contribution of yoga is evident in other disciplines, in management research and practice it is still in its infancy.In this article, I discuss how yoga, which can be practiced without external aid, harmonizes body and mind, is generally safe when appropriately practiced (Cramer et al., 2015), and is inherently sustainable as a lifestyle, can be fruitfully implemented in workplaces. I also narrate those dimensions of yoga that can be easily implemented at workplaces and what workplaces can do to maximize what yoga has to offer for enhancing workplace productivity.The quest for happiness underlies all human pursuits. This search is often directed outward and very rarely inward. Although external pursuits seem to bring happiness when they culminate in success, they also frequently lead to disappointments. This common experience remains enigmatic. Ancient Indian traditions offer profound insights on the mechanism of the experience of happiness and also provide practical tools for incorporating this understanding into our lives.According to the classical Indian philosophy, the mind has four functional roles: manaḥ (mind), buddhiḥ (intellect), citta (memory), and ahaṁkāraḥ (I-ness/ego), collectively known as antaḥkaraṇa-catuṣṭayam (internal mental apparatus). However, the mind is distinct from the true Self or the Consciousness Principle. The mind exists within the manifest realm, whereas the Consciousness Principle remains unmanifest, enlivening every experience. The equivalence between the manifest world and the unmanifest Consciousness Principle is established in numerous ways within the tradition. The grand statement in the Veda, Tat Tvam Asi (You Are That) (Chandogya Upanishad, 6.8.7) (Swahananda, 2009), conveys this spirit. In yoga philosophy, it is echoed in a slightly different manner in the statement tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpē avasthānam (Yoga sutra 1.3), which means once the mental modifications subside, the Seer rests in its own true nature (Taimni, 1961).It is argued that ignorance of the true Self or the Consciousness Principle is the root cause of all suffering. The mind, responsible for creating experiences, deludes itself through ignorance, relentlessly pursuing external objects of desire. The spontaneous emergence or restless activity of the mind itself is evidence of this fundamental ignorance. As long as this ignorance persists, the mind successfully sustains its existence and continuously proliferates, propelled by various desires. This is the root cause of the proliferation of all mental activities. Due to this, the real is obscured and the unreal appears real. This false attribution of reality makes the pursuit of mind engaging and compulsive, or in other words, one becomes an embodied being with strong identifications with the mind and body, imposing all the imperfections of mind and body onto the Self. This leads to the experience of only suffering, sooner or later. Then, what is the source of happiness that we experience in our daily lives, even if it is transient?When the mind, driven by desire, achieves its goal, it momentarily subsides or becomes tranquil due to the fulfillment of that desire and the temporary absence of new desires, as if the mind loses its reason to remain active for a brief while. This brief tranquility is experienced as happiness. However, this happiness often goes unnoticed because of its fleeting nature: another desire emerges, providing a new reason to be active in the very next moment. Interestingly, throughout this entire process, the mind mistakenly attributes happiness to external objects whose presence coincides with the experience of happiness. This error arises from the simultaneous occurrence of attaining the desired object and experiencing happiness. The mind fails to recognize that happiness does not arise from external objects but from the state of tranquility when the mind is momentarily quenched, allowing the true Self to be directly and purely experienced. The role of external objects of desire is limited to their instrumental function in nudging the mind toward momentary quietude. But is dependence on external aid necessary to experience even that transient happiness? And even if it were found to be reasonable, would that approach be sustainable? Perhaps not. Time and again, this entire sequence of experiences has only demonstrated that it further deludes the mind and buries us in a state of ignorance.So, the bottom line is that the misunderstanding between the real and the unreal fuels obsessive and compulsive mental pursuits; the moment reality is attributed to the external world, all life energy goes toward pursuing that desire in the external world. Awareness of this mechanism can help individuals disengage from feverish daily pursuits and approach life roles with a sense of trusteeship, an attitude of natural detachment while engaging fully in actions.But how can one cultivate this state when the mind is entrenched in self-ignorance and conditioned by past impressions? Regularly recalling our innate, fulfilled state, rather than seeing ourselves as incomplete and constantly wanting, can gradually reorient our perspective. Practicing this recollection frequently throughout the day, especially before sleeping and upon waking, reinforces the realization that our body, mind, and worldly possessions are entrusted to us. We are merely trustees, not owners; therefore, we need not carry the notional burden of owning the body–mind complex. Our goal should be to perform to the best of our abilities using the body–mind complex provided to us. To aid this, simple yoga practices can help ground the mind and enhance receptivity to these transformative ideas, which are essential for cognitive reorientation and inner transformation.When considering yoga practices that can be implemented in workplaces, care must be taken to assess feasibility and ease of implementation, as workplaces are often constrained by space and time and face numerous day-to-day operational challenges. Therefore, the practices must address daily stressors and be able to tackle long-term appraisal patterns of the mind in response to challenging situations. How can yoga help in such situations with unique needs?Yoga offers a gamut of practices addressing both short-term psychophysiological needs and long-term cognitive grooming. Considering the practicality of workplace implementation, breathing (prāṇāyāma) and postures (āsana) are relatively easy to implement, and, with a bit of creativity and planning, other important dimensions such as ethical culturing (yama and niyama) and pratyahara (the practice of sense regulation) can also be implemented. Taken together, these components are called bahiraṅga yoga (Taimni, 1961), the external means of support, which focuses on preparing the body and mind for optimal growth. In workplaces, the implementation of bahiraṅga yoga can bring transformational results, possibly motivating individuals to practice dimensions of internal means (antaraṅga yoga), including concentration (dhāraṇā), meditation (dhyāna), and absorption/union (samādhi), in their personal space and time for higher dimensions of spiritual unfoldment.Practices that are particularly helpful in immediately quenching stress are breathing exercises, or prāṇāyāma. Given that, on a daily basis, we consume over ten thousand liters of air, adopting prāṇāyāma allows the very process of breathing to serve as an anchor for grounding our mind. The key points to remember while practicing calming prāṇāyāma are slowness, awareness, visualization, and engagement, which can be remembered by the acronym SAVE. Breathing through the nostrils is advisable for most breathing practices, as it helps condition the air that is inhaled before it reaches the lungs. Slowness helps achieve better respiratory muscle control at the physiological level and brings the mind to a state of calmness. Awareness means being conscious of the process of breathing: observing the various physical features of the breath. Visualization, involving a deep breath in and a very slow breath out while feeling the release of all internal strain, rejuvenates the entire being. Adding positive emotions such as love, joy, and contentment enhances this effect. Engagement emphasizes anchoring the entire breathing practice to the body and mind and being fully grounded in the present moment.A quick stretch at the physical level also helps release tension and stiffness in the muscles. The Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India, has developed a five-minute yoga break routine (Ministry of AYUSH, 2021), in which practices are carefully chosen to provide essential body movements that relieve the most common sources of physical strain at work. Again, slowness, awareness, visualization, and engagement while practicing postures will enhance the benefits.The incorporation of yoga-based ethical practices, yama and niyama, requires some modification to suit contemporary needs. At the workplace, the essence of the practice of yama is to consciously restrain those mental expressions that cause disharmony both inside and outside. In yoga, this can be considered conscious control of rajas and tamas. Similarly, the practice of niyama is to consciously promote those mental expressions that cause harmony both inside and outside, which is called sattva. The terms sattva, rajas and tamas will be explained shortly. When these dimensions are meticulously practiced, the ability to regulate the senses (pratyāhāra) becomes more feasible. These practices will indeed bring good stability to an individual's body and mind, preparing the person for any life challenges.While these short breathing and physical movements help bring quick calm to the mind, they are not adequate for the long-term management of the patterns of stress appraisal in our body and mind, and we need a little more. What do we mean by long-term stress management strategies? These are sets of practices that can help regulate the cognitive processes involved in the stress response that set off stress alarms. This is long-term because it requires sustained training in cognitive behavior and substantial reorientation from a dysfunctional pattern of stress appraisal to a thriving one. Yoga philosophy, at its core, addresses this issue.The tricky thing about managing our mind is that it acts as its own barrier; we never know how and when it tricks us into paralyzing thinking. To tackle this issue, we need to work at the fundamental level, refining the origin from which all our thoughts and behaviors emerge. Citta, mental modifications, as described in yoga philosophy, should be trained and tamed. Understanding the configuration of activities in our mind is helpful; these are sattva, rajas, and tamas, the triguṇa in yoga philosophy (Ilavarasu et al., 2013). Sattva is the balanced mode, characterized by happiness, serenity, contentment, etc. Rajas is the hyperactive mode, characterized by uncontrolled restlessness, agitation, passion, etc. Tamas is the hypoactive mode, characterized by dullness, confusion, delusion, etc., which manifests to veil the true essence.A simple rule of thumb is as follows: the more the mind remains in a state of uncontrolled rajas or tamas, the more likely it is to emulate a dysfunctional stress response. Conversely, the more a mind remains in the state of sattva, the more naturally it will express a thriving stress response, regulating the expression of rajas and tamas. This does not mean that only sattva is desirable and not the other two; rather, conscious mastery over rajas and tamas using sattva is needed in the initial stages, and later even regulating sattva is essential for achieving unconditional happiness. Ultimately, it is essential to recognize that it is only in the state of pure sattva that our mind can experience lasting happiness. Therefore, to practically implement this in our daily life, all that is required is to consciously engage in actions that help promote sattva. Increasing sattva capital over time will serve as insurance against all the odds that a mind predominant with rajas and tamas might throw at us. One might ask: how long will it take to see a perceptible change? Well, depending on the intensity and magnitude of investment, returns can be expected in a correspondingly similar time frame. Diligent practice can start showing signs of change within a couple of weeks.Using the triguṇa, we can even trace pitfalls in our practice. Whenever there is an overplay of rajas or tamas, there is a chance we might slip from our dedicated path of progress. So, keep watch and consciously use the guṇa for a fulfilling life. Having said that, if at any time things become overwhelming, it is always advisable to seek professional help to assist in crisis situations.Managers in organizations have a significant role in understanding the mental health needs of team members; a bit of vigilance and sensitization toward others' needs can prevent unnecessary psychological turmoil across the organization, and managers can be catalysts in discovering solutions at their source. To sustain and scale such efforts, management academia should also consider offering courses in Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) focused on management and its practical needs, and, at the national level, establishing centers of excellence in IKS for management studies can help to build the human capacity to translate traditional Indian wisdom into modern management skills, empowering the next generation of leaders to meet global challenges. By embracing yoga, we can discover our path to inner peace, strength, and harmony for a fulfilling and happy life.The ancient Indian approach to mind management has successfully benefited many who have understood and embraced it. It is sustainable and effective. If efforts are taken to systematically implement it in our education system and in workplaces as a working philosophy, it can yield rewards beyond expectations. Meanwhile, at the individual level, let us also give it a sincere and open-hearted attempt.
Source: IIMT Journal of Management
Author: Judu Ilavarasu
Institution: Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4416188782