Yoga, a 3000-year-old practice, has now taken over the world as a form of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) because of its holistic benefits to a human’s mind, body and soul. Regular practice of yoga promotes-
- endurance
- flexibility
- resilience
- calmness
- overall better health
Beyond the physical benefits of yoga, it also highlights the underlying workings of the human body and how our surroundings impact our wellness. This World Yoga Day, we’ll dive into the four principles of yoga to understand in today’s time, how yoga isn’t just beneficial for personal wellness, but how it helps in achieving community wellness.
Yoga Is For Everything & Everyone
The first principle of yoga signifies that the human body is a unified system comprising interconnected dimensions, where the health or illness of one dimension influences others. Second, recognising the uniqueness of individuals and their needs, tailored approaches are essential.
Thirdly, yoga empowers individuals as their healers, fostering active engagement in the healing journey and promoting autonomy. Lastly, the state of an individual’s mind significantly impacts healing, with a positive mindset facilitating swifter recovery compared to a negative one.
How can YOGA’s Principle navigate CSR initiatives?
It is often thought that CSR activities are only about supporting causes financially and to an extent this is true, but Corporate Social Responsibility as a whole institution is to empower the underserved sections and transform them into sustainable communities so that national welfare is achieved.
In this scenario, the above mentioned four principles of yoga can be useful, as corporates can help the less privileged families by empowering them with resources that can uplift their health and environment, which can invariably help them to live a well-balanced life.
Secondly, rather than following the same theory plan for every individual living on the margins, corporates can collaborate with NGOs in India for different causes, who are operating large projects on the ground and have first-hand experience on what shall benefit that particular underserved section.
Furthermore, with the continuous support of corporates, these communities can continuously strive to uplift themselves, replacing unending scarcity with sustainable livelihood resources that can help them lead a dignified and economically stable life.
By adapting these practices continuously, the corporates and its many thoughtful employees can help many children, women and youth to develop a positive mindset. This will intrinsically develop them as individuals aspiring to make a lasting positive transition with a mindset of continuously improving their and their families lives for a better future.
Thus, considering the magnitude of the positive impact Corporate Social Responsibility can make on society, it gets interesting to see how this World Yoga Day can be a turning point in the relationship between corporates and society– how can this relationship achieve community wellness holistically?
Why do corporates need to care about Wellness?
Mental Health and Wellness are integral to our social structure and its relevance increased significantly during the pandemic when the concept of “Work From Home” became a new norm. However, post pandemic, the culture of corporate wellness has reduced.
Globally, 65% of professionals feel that increased stress has negatively affected their work. In India, 76% of employees feel that stress is affecting their performance and 49% feel that the stress is taking a toll on their mental health.
Therefore, given the intense and competitive work environment, corporate wellness is as crucial as employee productivity for fostering a strong society and economic growth.
Employee Engagement Programmes- Yoga & Corporate Wellness
Many people wonder about the need for Corporate Wellness programmes. Often, the question asked is–
"How does an employee wellness activity help a company?"Studies show that companies who give high importance to employee engagement by focusing on their wellness programmes often witness an
- 81% lower absenteeism rate
- and 14% increase in overall productivity.
Experts believe that regular wellness programmes such as yoga workshops, fun outings and activities for social responsibility through NGOs helps corporations foster a culture of belongingness amongst each other as well as towards the organisation.
Benefits of Corporate Yoga Programmes for Employees
- Increasing Productivity and Focus
Yoga as a practice boosts cognitive abilities. It improves concentration, sharper focus and better memory retention and can help employees achieve higher levels of efficiency resulting in better performance results for the company.
- Enhancing Employee Engagement and Morale
By regularly incorporating practices like yoga as employee engagement activities, a sense of encouragement is given to them that invariably effectuates loyalty towards the company and personal job satisfaction. Overall, it helps in reducing chances of burnout among employees.
- Fostering a Positive Corporate Culture
Introducing yoga at work fosters a positive and inclusive corporate culture by providing a shared activity that boosts team unity and promotes collaboration. This inclusive practice accommodates employees of varying fitness levels and backgrounds, fostering diversity and unity.
- Less Absenteeism and Healthcare costs
By incorporating yoga into one’s daily life, employees can significantly improve their overall health with better immunity resulting in fewer chances of chronic diseases and lifestyle-related health issues. The better the immunity of an employee, the lesser the chances of falling sick and being absent from work while also saving costs of healthcare for the company.
- Enhance Professional and Personal Development
By taking part in employee engagement initiatives such as yoga or any other new activity, the employees can learn new skills, enhance their leadership skills and discover new talents which can invariably help them in enhancing their professional performance.
World Yoga Day 2024- Extending Wellness Beyond the Workplace with Smile
Corporate social responsibility extends beyond money to supporting less fortunate individuals. By expanding wellness initiatives beyond the workplace and engaging underserved communities, a socially-conscious corporate like yours will demonstrate solidarity towards collective good. Your employees and our beneficiaries get a one-of-a-kind opportunity to share unique experiences, making possible new learnings and memories.
To continue the chain of community wellness, collaborate with us by participating in our soulful yoga sessions curated by specialised trainers. To add a fun twist to this employee engagement activity, we have planned interesting interactive activities with our beneficiaries from underserved communities, as they too look forward to spending special days like the World Yoga Day with people who care for them.
Let’s unite to celebrate ‘wellness’ by harnessing corporate power as changemakers to positively transform the lives of underserved communities, guiding them towards a secure, dignified and sustainable future.
For more information on World Yoga Day Employee Engagement Activities, kindly get in touch with our Corporate Partnerships team hero at [email protected]
