Mindful Mondays: Yoga and Productivity

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Written by Trisha Bhullar

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Yoga is widely known as a mindfulness tool used to improve your mood, boost clarity and strengthen your emotional health. But what about yoga and productivity? This article explores one of the lesser-known benefits of yoga: its ability to greatly enhance productivity.

Yoga and productivity both involve disciplining the mind

Productivity makes people think of computers and to-do lists. Yoga, on the other hand, invokes images of peace and tranquillity. How could these vastly different subject areas come together? That’s because yoga and productivity both involve discipline.

Yoga involves discipline as it requires you to follow sets of poses, certain mind exercises and even breathing techniques in order to remain true to the art. It’s no easy feat to master the art of being focused and calm. Similarly, productivity requires a world of discipline such that you stick to your tasks and complete them instead of procrastinating.

Tips from yoga that could improve your productivity

Since both these disciplines have a certain level of overlap, why not improve one using inspiration from the other? In simpler terms, you should try applying the teachings from yoga to improve your productivity.

#1 Embrace your discomfort

Yoga instructors often encourage students to embrace their discomfort and breathe through difficult positions. Similarly, you should embrace discomfort at work. Embracing discomfort, in this case, would involve easing into an unfamiliar task. Be brave yet cautious and remain open to new ideas. This is a great way to improve your productivity as it not only opens you to more effective work styles, but also deters procrastination.

#2 Maintain your physical health

Yoga does wonders for the body in terms of improving strength, muscular form, flexibility and blood flow. What does this aspect of yoga have to do with productivity? Well, our physical wellbeing affects both yoga and productivity. After all, we’re only human. In order to succeed at yoga and hold poses of greater difficulty, you must first have a strong body to stay true to form. Similarly, staying hunched over a desk and working all day is terrible for your body. Workaholic practices at work worsen conditions like scoliosis, myopia and fatty liver. In reality, a healthy mind and body is what makes you productive.

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#3 Stay in tune with your emotions

Emotions affect your ability to practice both yoga and productivity. Think about it: yoga is a mindful exercise that should promote self-awareness, while productivity hinges on motivation. If you practice yoga without looking within and understanding your emotions, you might not feel the enlightenment that comes with the practice. On the other hand, those looking for productivity will be disappointed quickly if they do not learn how to respond to their emotions. Exhaustion and unhappiness might call for a break, instead of hours of unproductive work. Similarly, our emotions affect our will to succeed, and by extension productivity.

At the end of the day, both yoga and productivity have plenty in common. These two worlds could collide to bring you a world of benefits, so why not practice both today?