Michelle Maue | St. Louis Corporate Yoga

Follow Your Bliss in the Workplace

Follow Your Bliss in the Workplace Today

When it comes to following your bliss, do you have difficulty to find out what you want? Did you know that when you focus on what you don’t want, you bring more of what you don’t want! Let’s stop and take a minute to do a bit of guided imagery or even journaling. If you have a few minutes, take out your notebook and write down some of your thoughts. I assure you, you will find this very relaxing and enlightening way to spend some free time.

Is it impossible to find a deep and honest answer to the question: “what do you want”? You are not alone! Many of us struggle to find out what we really want in life.

The time comes when it is easier to come up with a long list of what you DONT want than creating a list of what you are really looking for. That’s where creative writing comes into play. Take a deep breath and let’s begin this visualization!
Imagine you have a huge bag full of ideas, situations, things, characteristics, images, etc. The bag has a never ending supply of every imaginable thing and thought. Now visualize yourself taking pieces out of the bag. Take one thought, idea, image, opportunity…. Have a look at it and decide if you want it or not. Make the decision as intuitive as you can. Decide quickly, you need to move fast to sort through all those possibilities in the bag.

Take one, look at it, decide, done. Then repeat. Take notes of the things that went to the “don’t want” list. To help you I have come up with different ideas, images, situations and characteristics to help you with this exercise. Below is a random list of possibilities around teaching yoga.

Here is the list:
Ashram , Making money , Comfortable living ,  Coaching others,  Practicing yoga every day,  Practicing yoga as you wish, no set times, Flexibility, Doing what is good for your family/community , Self-appreciation,  Taking care of yourself , Calming environment,  Excitement, Working for yourself,  Passion, great health,   Working for a non-profit, Creating value
Creating new ideas, doctors Alternative medicine, Nutrition, Ayurveda , Acupuncture , Quantum healing .

Now, you can write up the above 30 possibilities on small pieces of paper then put them into a bag, jar or box. Or write them down simply on a piece of paper! Feel free to add to the list above! Now take one piece of paper out of the container, decide if you want that or not. Separate the “want” and “don’t want” items. Keep on going until you worked through the whole list.

When you look at the “don’t want” items, you will have a pretty good idea what it is that you don’t want. And this will be a tremendous help in figuring out what you really really want out of your everyday life and attracting more of the same!

Clayton Yoga has been teaching over 13 weekly corporate yoga classes for more than ten years in the greater metro St. Louis area. We follow our bliss everyday and love what we do. Interested in having more of that energy in your company? Get started with corporate yoga wellness and onsite classes today, contact Michelle at 314-630-1677!

Find Your Best Work Mojo With Onsite Corporate Yoga Classes

Find Your Best Work Mojo With Onsite Corporate Yoga Classes

Did you know that the type of breath you use, correlates with a particular state of mind. A rapid, shallow, irregular, noisy breath equals an angry, afraid or upset state of mind. While a calm, slow, deep, regular breath corresponds with a tranquil, creative and positive mental state. In our corporate yoga onsite classes, we provide all the breathing and stretching tips you will ever need. Our all level yoga classes, whether beginner or advanced, with Clayton Yoga corporate classes are geared for everyone! We often convert empty office space or conference rooms into yoga classes in no time. After each class, employees report feeling more relaxed, energized and confident. While students experience a great deal of work, showers are not necessary.

Fritz Perls, founder of Gestalt therapy, describes “anxiety as simply the experience of breathing difficulty”. We can then, unblock negativity and fear, find creativity, joy and excitement again simply through the practice of deep breathing. Our corporate yoga program now boasting over 13 weekly corporate classes weekly in St. Louis teaches, empowers and shows simple breathing tips to company employees. An increase vitality, energy and productivity results from learning how to breath through work challenges and life stressors.

After spending two decades as a traveling physician searching for potent herbs and other forms of traditional and modern medicine, Dr. Andrew Weil finds that the single most potent and practical tool is our breath.

Proper breathing is the KEY to Great Health Proper breathing cures common conditions and more serious diseases.

This is..

●FREE
●NO EQUIPMENT NECESSARY and RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSE

Stress is widely agreed by doctors everywhere to be a the primary or aggravating cause of illness. In Africa, 95% of all doctorʼs visits are peptic ulcers, neck and back pain and headaches which suggest that even in third world countries, lack of proper breathing is also the main cause and source of problems.

Working with the breath changes consciousness.

♥Provides tools and ability to center our mind.

♥We can turn our direction away from the material to the non-material.

♥Working with the breath, we have the chance to change physiology.

A good indication that patients had this imbalance, he would find cold hands. Too much sympathetic means that our system is hardwired for “the fight or flight” response too much of the time.

Some other very serious indications of an over active sympathetic nervous system include:

■high blood pressure
■slow digestion
■increase blood flow to the skin and surface of the body
■constant stimulation
■irregular heartbeat
■body responding to constant threat that never goes away
■drugs suppresses tendency of the body to rebound

Based on expansion and contraction, the stars and the body simultaneously breath. Breath is a concentrated, still essence of being. We are not trying to change the breath, simply observe the breath. Eventually, Dr. Andrew Weil believes you may reach enlightenment.

If you are interested in feeling positive mojo in the workplace again, please contact us! We can be reaching Monday to Friday from 8am-6pm, at 314-630-1677. Namaste.

Yin Yoga for Workplace Stress

Yin Yoga is a unique style of yoga that emphasizes relaxation while also providing a beneficial stimulus to the bone and connective tissue of the body, promoting optimal functioning. The emphasis is on holding poses for long periods of time while relaxing the muscles of the body.

Jack Lalanne, who passed away at 96, worked out 2 hours per day and contributed regular exercise and nutrition to his longetivity and great health. In the early 1950’s, many people avoided exercise believing that exercise was detrimental to one’s overall well-being. Jack Lalanne, coined the term “use it or lose it”. Many people at that time avoided exercise, believing that exercise wasn’t helpful and even posed a risk to one’s longevity, diminishing the number of heartbeats. Imagine…

In a very similar way, Yin Yoga educates us about the powerful proactive steps we can take to reduce the fixation and immobilization of joints and improve the overall mobility and posture of our body. Up until recently, doctors believed that it was not wise to put pressure or to exercise the joints, believing joints would only wear out.

Yin Yoga can help to promote meditation and general relaxation, the important of which should not be underestimated. A wide range of health conditions are stress related and any practice that reduces stress will have far reaching effects on the general health of the individual. In addition when people are calmer they will be more likely to engage with their family, friends and all others that they encounter in a positive way, which then will improve the ealth of the social environment on more subtle levels.

Prolonged pressure (without force) increases synovial fluid and hyloraunic acids, keeping joints supple and pliant (opposite from atrophy, imbalance, fixation, dried out, brittle, hard, and more susceptible to injury)

☀Feeling of calm and balance

☀Regulated energy levels (chi-energy)

☀Greater strength

☀Improved health

☀Stress levels lowered

☀Greater stamina

☀Flexibility of the body’s connective tissues and joints

☀Slowed signs of aging

☀Improved meditation

☀Deeper Relaxation

☀Improved practice of yang yoga

☀Conditions you to sit longer and more comfortably

☀Also helps lengthen response time, stregnthens limbic system, hypothalamus, aid in the treatment of drug and alcohol, pain and trauma recovery, and eating disorders.

To start your onsite workplace Yin Yoga class, contact 314-630-1677. We have been teaching Yin style yoga in addition to our regular Vinyasa classes for over ten years!! Feel good. Namaste.

Two Productive Hours

Do you crave getting concentration back in your workdays or even in your private life? We need to fight more distraction than ever before. And we all pay a high price for it every day.

In our previous blogpost we shared our suggestions for the time between waking up and getting to your workplace.

How to make the most of the 2 most productive hours in the morning?

One of the well-known productivity advice out there is to ignore your email for the first few hours of the day or at least not check it first thing in the day. But how realistic is this in the workplace? Not at all.

Here is what we suggest: check ONLY the important email first thing when you get to the office. Only from team members, your boss, most important clients and suppliers. The messages might have a big impact on the priorities of the day! On the basis of these crucial messages, you might need to rework the list of the most important projects you need to take care of today.

The next step is to get rid of distractions. Close email, close the door, tell your co-workers to respect your next 1,5-2 hours as focused work time.

It is unrealistic to expect that you will be able to work with 100% focus for 2 hours. You need to take at least one break. Begin with focusing for 45 minutes and then taking 15-20 minutes off. Don’t forget that you have your own rhythm. Maybe you prefer to focus for 60 minutes and then take a break. You supposed to take a break at 45 or 60 minutes but you are in flow and work nearly effortlessly? Use the power of flow and take your break when you feel ready.

Use RescueTime as an app to help you cut back on distractions. You will even get some statistics on your online usage patterns from this useful app.

Managing 2 hours of truly productive and focused work is most probably more than any of your colleagues do in the morning.

One last tip: take an on-site yoga class if it is offered at your company. The 60 minutes that you spend away from your office is the secret of better focus and productivity in the afternoon!

Here is the truth: it is impossible to give the ultimate advice on how to focus. You are a unique person with unique habits and energy patterns. All the advice we or anybody can give is just that: advice. It shouldn’t feel as written in stone and a must. Please try out our advice for a week consistently. If you feel it works for you: awesome, keep going! If you feel that you need to customize the tip to your own energy patters: do that! And if you feel that a tip is impossible to integrate in your life (after trying it out), then just let it go.

Our goal is not to add stress to your already stressed life. Not all tips will fit everybody!

Would you like to create an on-site yoga program to increase focus and productivity at your company? Just call Michelle at 314-630-1677 or contact us through the website.

Morning Focus

Focus is one the most coveted skills of the 21st century. Let’s continue our quest to find your own path to success through more focused work.

As we established in our last article: being able to concentrate on what matters and being able to stay focused is a skill you really need to work on. You will get more done and improve the quality of anything you do.

Did you have the chance to look at your patterns of concentration during the usual workday? If not, you can go back to this exercise shared in our last blogpost.

If you consistently note your experience with focus for at least a week, you will begin to see some patterns. What is helping you to concentrate and deliver your best work? What is your biggest pitfall? What causes you loosing concentration? Which are your best 2-4 hours of focused work during the workday? Which are the notoriously unfocused times?

Did you know that research shows that our most productive times are usually after 2 hours of waking up? This productive period lasts for 2 hours approximately. So if you wake up at 7am, you can hope for a focused work time between 9-11am. Which would be in line with the typical workday begin at least in the office. This suggest that we need to get to the workplace in less than 2 hours of waking up.

How is your morning shaping up? When do you wake up? What is happening in the first 2 hours after waking up? Is this one of the most stressful period of your day?

When do you get to the office? What do you do spend those 2 hours after arriving? How do you spend the morning? Do you check email, chat to your co-workers or get a coffee? Write everything down to get the awareness of what is really happening with your time. you know, awareness is the first step in any changing process.

Now the next step is to identify what would need to change in order for you to invite more concentration into your morning.

Here are a few suggestions for the time before you get to the office:

–get to bed early the night before so you can wake up easier and on time the next morning. This might mean cutting back on TV…. and might be just the best action step for you!

–create streamlined habits for the 1st hour of the morning. This might mean systemizing what you wear. Getting your clothes out and ready to wear in the morning – do this the evening before. Pick your 3 most loved breakfast choices and only prepare those. Don’t need to get creative with your breakfast every morning. If you love smoothies, gather and prepare all the ingredients the evening before. What if the whole family could agree on only one breakfast choice?

–use your commuting time for learning or relaxation. You could listen to audiobooks or podcasts on the way to the office. Or simply but consciously take calming, deep breaths while sitting in your car. And yes, do listen to fun stuff. Laughing out loud is the best relaxation!

In the next installment of this series we will talk about how to make your workday more focused.

Concentrate For More Success

Do you suffer from your attention spreading too thin? Do you have the feeling that if only you could concentrate more, you could probably accomplish your big goals? Or at least way more than you can currently? Our new article series is just what you need to read!

You have heard this many times: Success often comes down to who is willing to work the hardest. Hustle is still working.

You can achieve more in your job by hustling a bit. Have you ever thought about how many hours of your working day do you actually spend producing optimal results? Research shows that employees only work concentrated only for a couple of hours a day. And the rest? Checking e-mails, chatting with co-workers, surfing the web or sitting in meetings – these activities might be not so productive and still take up a few hours of the workday.

What if you could concentrate a bit longer? Or you could work a solid 3 hours every morning and afternoon out of the 8-hour workday? Now that would show up in everything you do. You’d accomplish more than any of your colleagues. Would your boss notice this change? You bet and it would only be a matter of time before your salary reflected your improved productivity. You could cut back on overtime and even get to leave early on Fridays!

Improving your concentration level will affect your private life, too. Imagine how much better your relationship would get if you were giving your partner your full attention. What positive impact this could have on your parenting skills? And your friends would seek out your presence even more.

Concentration helps you master crisis situations, too. You become more alert and more focused when you’re out and about. Your situational awareness will increase This makes you better at responding to a crisis you might be facing.

Before you search for the ultimate answer on how to get more focused every day, let’s look at your patters of concentration.

Do you have periods during the workday where concentrating is easy for you? Maybe you find focusing on what matters easy right after getting to the office. Maybe your focus time is the 2 hours before lunch break. Take notes of supreme concentration for at least a week. When did it happen? What were you concentrating/working on? Why do you think it was easy to focus in that period of time or on that particular task? Gather your notes in a notebook or on your computer – whichever feels easier.

Now turn your attention to the periods of time when you failed at focusing. When is this happening? Maybe right after lunchbreak? Maybe after you get to work and get overwhelmed with a full desk and dozens of emails bombarding you? Please note the reason behind this difficult, sometimes outright confusing and unconcentrated period of your workday.

In our next article we will support you to find your own patterns of focus and how to make the most of it for more success and less stress in your life!

A Breather Of Inspiration

Feeling stressed as the year approaches it‘s end? Tired and desperately needing a breather before the new year begins? You are not alone!

What if you gave yourself permission to take just 10 minutes to breathe slowly and deeply? Instead of entertaining the constant worrying you feel, just take your attention to something else. Maybe read a chapter of a favorite book or watch a funny cat video on YouTube. You need to get out of your stressed state!

Of course watching a funny video will not solve any of your issues causing the stress in the first place. But it will get you to feel more positive. A healthy laugh can work wonders!

We gathered a few motivational quotes for your reading pleasure. Why don’t you pick one that speaks to you, print it out and keep it on your desk? This way you have the inspiration you need right in front of you!

Which quote will be your favorite?

“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

“You will never win if you never begin.” – Robert H. Schuller

“Change before you have to.” – Jack Welch

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

“Whatever you do or dream you can do – begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it”. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” ― T.S. Eliot

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison

“There is always room at the top.” – Daniel Webster

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John R. Wooden

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” – Tony Robbins

“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.“ – Helen Keller

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.“ – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair

“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Nothing is impossible; the word itself says ‘I’m possible!'” – Audrey Hepburn

“There is little success where there is little laughter.” – Andrew Carnegie

“The beginning is the most important part of the work” – Plato

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford

Here is our favorite:

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Workplace Stress

We got to the point that stress is a constant factor in our lives. Stress is particularly high in the workplace. Instead of constant suffering from the impact of stress why don’t you try to find ways to reduce your stress and enjoy your work life? Do you think this is impossible?

Here are a few easy tips to help you with stress reduction!

Create your day. It is so easy to get caught up in the negative atmosphere in a workplace. That is why it is paramount that you decide to create the experience you want to have. Resolve each morning that you will focus on the positive and not indulge in gossip or any other activity that brings down the morale at the office. Focus on the best and strengthen the good you find in your work and in your company!

How can you create your day? It is best done the day before:

Plan ahead of time so you know what to focus on the next day!
Decide how you want to feel when you wake up tomorrow morning.
Prepare your dress, your breakfast in advance for an easy start tomorrow. Pack a healthy snack or even a lunch so you never stress about eating something healthy.
Take at least a minute (or more if you possibly can) and create an image of tomorrow: how you feel, what you get done, etc.
Remember to breathe! Take a relaxing, deep breath whenever you notice stress inching its way into your life.

Give yourself plenty of rest. Sleeping between seven and eight hours a night gives the body time to repair you. Lack of sleep causes jitters, lack of concentration, irritability, and health problems. How can you get more sleep? Decide how much time you want to spend with media consume. Nowadays it is our media consumption that cuts back on our sleep time. you are just a decision away from having more relaxation time and getting to bed earlier! Don’t forget about social media, that counts as media consumption, too!

Leave early for more Zen. Traffic jams, accidents, car problems, kids waking up late and noticing a run on your stockings… and stress is programmed in the first hours of your day. Build in time for error, especially if you stress out easily. General rule of thumb: plan twice as much time as you think something will take. So if you believe your commute will take 30 minutes tomorrow morning, try to hit the road an extra 30 minutes earlier. What if you arrive 20 minutes earlier at your office? Enjoy the sanest 20 minutes of the work day! Can you imagine how much focused preparation and planning you could get done with minimal distractions before everybody else arrives totally stressed from the daily commute to work?

If you take action on just one of the tips you just read, you will experience a reduction of pressure. Don’t just read these tips! Pick one and put it into practice right away! And please share your experience below in the Comment section.

6 Ways Yoga Increases Your Self Confidence

We all want to feel good about ourselves, don’t we? Confidence makes us feel better emotionally and mentally. Our behavior changes as a result and the quality of personal and professional relationships improves. No matter if we want to attract a new work opportunity or a new partner, feeling confident just makes all these endeavors so much easier.

Exercise generally and yoga practice specifically can be one of the best ways to boost your self-confidence. And of course let’s not forget about the great health benefits, either.

6 ways how yoga can boost your confidence

A better mood. How do you feel after a good yoga practice? Of course you feel much better emotionally and physically. A yoga workout will stimulate brain chemicals like dopamine and serotonin, which promote a general feeling of well-being. The results are a reduction in stress and anxiety. If you lack time to get to a yoga studio before or after work, do take advantage of on-site yoga classes!

Keeps the body in shape. Being is shape involves having a well-toned body and better posture – all aspects connected with self-confidence. When you feel good about yourself, it’s so much easier to make friends and create more professional connections. In return having a flourishing personal network will make you feel more confident.

More energy on demand. If you don’t have the energy to do things, then everything becomes a chore. That can lead to feeling bad about yourself. Regular exercise helps the whole body work more effectively. Instead of dreading chores you can decide to become responsible for your actions and results. And this small shift will make you feel better!

Sleep your way to feeling awesome. It is proven that sleep is necessary for feeling great every day. Getting enough sleep is also the cheapest way to look better. Just imagine preparing for an important meeting and looking in the mirror and seeing dark circles under bloodshot eyes – how confident will you feel? Having that spark in your eyes and spring in your steps will start you on the path of more success – who wouldn’t want that? A gently yoga practice helps you prepare your mind and body for sleep. And you can even practice near bedtime.

Getting clarity. One of the best ways to clear the mind is to exercise regularly. Yoga especially gives you a chance to wipe the slate clean and start from new. In the midst of confusion or having difficulty finding a solution for a problem you face? Get on the mat to find the space for thinking without boundaries and letting go of “the way it should be”. Often, what you thought was a major problem before starting your yoga practice might turn out to be an opportunity in disguise.

Improved focus. Exercising helps you develop the necessary skills to concentrate on the task in hand. Focusing on the most important tasks every day will lead to better results at the workplace and even in your private life. And all the praise you get will make you feel more confident.

Don’t wait to experience the benefits of yoga! Get started today! You can visit Clayton Yoga Studio for a nice class. Or even better yet, set up your on-site yoga program right at your workplace with the help of St. Louis Corporate Yoga. Just give us a call at 314-630-1677!

Freedom In Imperfection

Perfection comes up often in yoga classes. You want to be able to achieve the perfect pose. Many times all you get as a result is imperfection. You need to practice further… or be able to find the freedom in your imperfection.

The same is relevant at work. While we might strive for perfection in the office, we need to face that we are all imperfect human beings. We do our best, we develop ourselves, we grow. And all the while we must accept that not every presentation will be perfect and not every meeting will deliver the perfect results – but it is possible to improve.

“I am Me – Accept me as I am”.
It doesn’t mean that you won’t change detrimental habits because you are embracing who you are. It also doesn’t mean that you are promoting laziness or lack of ambition. What it does mean is that you have taken a look inside of yourself and seen who the person inside truly is. There are things that you like about yourself and also things that you don’t, but it all works together to become the person that you are today.

True change in your life is an act of love. You become a better presenter when you love who you are right now even if your last presentation was a bit heavy on PowerPoint slides. It means that your life, self-esteem and happiness are not tied to your last performance.
Anything done out of self-hate doesn’t usually last because you will be always criticizing your efforts. Nothing is ever good enough because you start off not liking yourself from the beginning.

Imperfection says that the only way through is with love on board. Accepting and embracing you by celebrating why you are unique. It is getting reacquainted with yourself through a few steps that show the value that was there all along.

Here are five ways to truly be free by letting yourself perform and be as you are.

1. Look at yourself honestly. Write down what you find positive and what is negative in your eyes. Find ways to change the wording of those negatives so they are now positives that you can embrace. If you believe that you cannot meditate, find the gift of awareness in the moment. Holding a yoga pose for a minute during your corporate yoga class gives you the gift of full concentration – use it to visualize your afternoon full of great interaction with your colleagues.

2. Say No. Become brave enough to say “no” to events or activities that don’t foster your interests just because it’s a “cool” or “acceptable” thing to do.

3. Bring new experiences in your life. Try new poses and yoga sequences. A new fitness trend? Why not give it a try? Experiment with new looks to accentuate your strength and give yourself a confidence boost.

4. Laugh more. Laughter promotes feel-good endorphin release. It is restorative and also promotes health. And works wonders at the office, too!

5. Explore your creativity. You might believe that you are not creative at all. Or find that your creative efforts are not up to par. So what? Enjoy any creative pursuits just for the fun of them without judging yourself or having expectations. Paint, write, sing to your hearts desires.
All in all, please allow yourself to be human, flawed and free by embracing your imperfect life.