Michelle Maue | St. Louis Corporate Yoga

What To Eat Before a Corporate Yoga Class?

To eat or not to eat – this a question. Should you eat anything at all before a class? And if yes, what are the best choices for a light snack?

The jury is still out there on if it is a good choice to eat before a yoga class. We suggest our students that they do not eat a full meal before a class.

On the other hand if you are at work all day and your yoga class is in the lunch break…. You absolutely need to get something to eat to keep you going!

We gathered a few light snack ideas that you can eat before or after your in-house yoga class:

An apple plus a spoonful of peanut butter. Why don’t you try different nut butters, too? We absolutely love cashew butter. Almond butter is also a fantastic choice.

A handful of your favorite nuts (natural not salted). Cashews, almonds and walnuts are full with natural goodness. Have a bag of assorted nuts in the office so you never go hungry during the day.

Mix natural yoghurt with fresh fruit pieces – heavenly. You can prepare this snack at home and take it with you to the office. Don’t just take a fruit yoghurt from the supermarket shelf – those are usually full of sugar and/or sweeteners and contain practically no fruit at all. Best choice to get some organic yoghurt and the fruits of the season and mix your own! If you have no fresh fruit on hand, you can mix some organic jam with the yoghurt.

A few pieces of dried fruit. Just like nuts, dried fruit is very portable and easy to store in the office. Apricots, mangoes, dates, raisins, even prunes (just 1 or 2 pieces) are great energy boosters before your class.

Fresh fruit. Bananas, apples, pears, berries are easy to transport and excellent options for a light but energizing snack. If you have some extra time at home, you can even prepare a fruit salad with a few drops of lemon juice drizzled on it – so good and so healthy!

Veggie sticks with avocado dip – a perfect light meal after yoga. Mash one pitted and peeled avocado with a fork, add lemon or lime juice plus yoghurt and mix well. Add Himalayan or sea salt and pepper to taste and it is ready to go with your favorite veggies sticks: carrots, cucumbers, capsicum, and celery. Enjoy!

One small piece of organic dark chocolate will sweeten your life on a busy day.

Best advice from St. Louis Corporate Yoga: listen to your body and you will know if eating a light snack makes you feel good before yoga or better wait and eat after the class! Follow your body’s advice!

You Need To Stop

If your company is caring enough to organize and invest in corporate yoga programs, make sure you make the most of those classes! We gathered a few behaviors you need to STOP doing during your on-site yoga class to benefit the most.

Stop the comparisons

It is very attempting to check out how your colleagues are doing during class. We all do it from time to time, don’t we? It is OK to peak once in a while… but don’t waste much time and energy on this.

Pay attention to your body instead. Our bodies always try to communicate with us well ahead of time that an illness manifests in symptoms. We just don’t have time and patience to listen. A class can give you this precious opportunity so focus on yourself!

In yoga we are all on our own path. What another student does is not relevant. Judgment or criticism have absolutely no place in a yoga class.

Stop the hard work

Practicing yoga is supposed to be fun. Lighten up a bit, this is no performance sport! You are doing awesome if you make it to the class, practice focused on yourself and enjoy this special hour of the day. Keep your expectations realistic. One class will change your state for some time but will not be able to remedy all your troubles. The longer you practice, the more beneficial changes you will notice in your life.

Stop pushing through the pain

If something hurts, stop. If you feel slight discomfort doing a pose, you might try it again after waiting a few seconds. If you feel pain, stop and ask your instructor how to proceed. She might have a modification that fits your body better or can show you a different pose that will deliver similar benefits to the original. You are taking a yoga class to relax and nurture yourself not to suffer.

Stop the thought carousel

All the problems, the worries, the questions from your work and private life might scream for attention when you finally take some time off your schedule. Why? It is easy to hush away those worries when you have 100 things on your to-do list.

Yoga class might be the only 60 minutes in a week when you have a single focus: you are doing yoga so it is impossible to call somebody while reading email and trying to put some files away. Of course problems and life’s big questions will try to take over this sacred time! If this happens, focus on your breath again and again. This can be a challenge, we know. Please try again… and again…and again.

Stop being late or leaving early

Arriving too late or leaving minutes before a class finishes is not very considerate to your fellow yogis. We know that it is sometimes not easy to get away from your desk! And there might be very good reasons for leaving the class early. But please do not make a habit of this behavior!

It disturbs the flow of the class for all participants. And it also kills the whole purpose of you taking these classes. Make a commitment to respect yourself and your fellow yogis!

Can’t wait to meet you in a corporate yoga class very soon!

Get Unplugged For More Serenity

When was to last time you totally unplugged from the modern distractions of life? Switching off phones, e-mail and social media notifications? Or even going offline for more than a few minutes?

Getting unplugged has so many benefits like getting back your serenity and perspective on life. Especially if you have a stressful job or a demanding phase of your life… be brave and give our suggestions a try!

Just for 10 minutes?

What if you actually switched off your cellphone right now? Closed your email? Cut off social media? For just 10 minutes – not more. Just to get a breather. Just to be able to look out the window and feast your eyes on the blue of the sky?

How do you feel? Your anxiety skyrocketing? Don’t worry it is a totally normal reaction. Not being attached to the distractions will trigger your fears big time. Let them be. Acknowledge the fear of missing something important or fun. It is OK. And it will pass.

If you only feel irritation and fear creeping up with no serenity in sight, know that it will pass, too. Maybe not when you do this little experiment for the first time, maybe not even for the second time. If you keep taking 10 minutes unplugged and give yourself this gift every day for a few weeks, you will end up craving your 10 minutes of freedom. And this is great craving to have, don’t you think?

An hour?

How about taking one whole hour in the evening with no digital distractions? No phone, no TV, no radio, no FB or Pinterest! Just you and your thoughts. You and your body. One hour just to BE. When was the last time you experienced just being? Without anything planned for 60 minutes? I know, it might get scary… this “nothing planned” time on your hands. The freedom to enjoy this time as you wish.

Your immediate reaction might be to look for something to do. Like clean the house, clean up your desk, read a magazine, chat with your partner. Go ahead and do these things. Or decide to get radical and just watch the moon and the stars. Then go to bed and enjoy a good night’s sleep. How rejuvenated would you feel the next morning?

For the brave: Unplug for a whole weekend!

Now imagine going offline for Saturday AND Sunday! No media, either – for 2 whole days! Panicking already?

How will you fill 48 hours without your favorite distractions? A few ideas:

cook a meal from scratch
go to an Art Fair
invite your friends to a picnic
work on a creative project you always wanted to do: paint, take a dance workshop or write
practice yoga both days – take your time on the mat
meditate twice a day
create a vision board.

Will you miss something exciting by not being online and on social media for the weekend? The world will go on, news will come and go without you knowing about them. Be assured if it was meaningful, important or serious news, it will be waiting for you on Monday. You will not miss much – but gain an aspiring, rejuvenating weekend as the best start for a productive week ahead!

St. Louis Corporate Yoga Shares with Students the Benefits of First Chakra Clearing

In our corporate yoga onsite wellness programs, Clayton Yoga instructors share with their students beneficial ways to feel empowered, creative, less stressed.

In noticing our breath, we create a neutral, calm, peaceful center and transform tension, negativity into vitality and joy.

The specific Chakra meditation helps us to clear out our fears or blocks by connecting first with our powerful energy process centers called chakras.

The first energy center is our foundation. It is interested in physical well-being and self-preservation. As well, our first chakra determines for us our perception of whether or not physical needs are being met.

You may enjoy reading this script with a recording first, then laying comfortably on your back, playing back the audio and listening. Many of us have powerful lines of energy in our body. All we need to practice is learning to listen and receive them. Sitting comfortably or lying down with eyes closed, begin to become aware of the breath. Feel the breath as it enters with a cool feeling and then warming the breath as it gently travels down into the lungs.

Now we will begin. Bring your awareness back to the meditation and when you become distracted, know that this is natural. Always with gentleness, you will return to this present moment and be able to once again access powerful energy.

We start by closing our eyes and bringing our awareness to the tailbone located at the base of the spine. Bath your Root with red: empowering, embodying, and grounding you in the ‘here and now’. Let your Root take what it needs.

When we relax and practice yoga, we give our self space to dance with life’s changes and enjoy the fluidity of life’s mysteries. One of the benefits of this practice is to feel more at home in the busy waters of our everyday life.

Allow your eyes to comfortably close, and come down into your breath, into your body, relaxing your belly, softening your mind. And say the words: “I am here”. I have a right to be here, as I am”. “The Earth supports me”.

Fill the lungs with a deep inhale, bringing in energy, vitality and prana, the life force. As you exhale, feel the body releasing toxins, stress and any negativity that has accumulated. This root chakra allows the life force to circulate between two poles, on in the physical world of the body and the other in the realm of pure consciousness.

Feel yourself as an energy being. Feel the healing energy and light at the base of the spine, moving all the way up the spine. Fill the whole body with divine healing light and energy. Allow that energy to fill the whole body with divine healing light. Allow that healing to completely fill any empty areas or feelings of loss and hold the thoughts of those intentions as you allow the healing energy to bring your deepest desires to life and intentions into reality. Hold yourself in your own center. Stay with this deep, relaxing, peaceful feeling of bliss. Now send this same peace to those you love and to the world. May we live at home in these murky waters…Namaste!

For more information about getting a corporate yoga class started in your workplace, please contact Michelle Maue, 314-630-1677, info@claytonyoga.com today!

Have a Good Night’s Sleep!

Lack of sleep depletes your energy fast. It is easy to feel stressed and overwhelmed when you didn’t get enough sleep. Even one night of broken sleep will have considerable impact on your mood and alertness the next day. Now imagine what one week of broken sleep can do to your body!

The amount of rest the body requires depends on age. Infants sleep as long as 15 to 16 hours, kids usually sleep 11-12 hours per day. At the other extreme, elderly people rarely enjoy an unbroken rest of greater than 5 to 6 hours.

Modern life bombards us with stimulation: television, cellular phone, radios, and late night celebrations are regularly reminding us to remain alert.

Our ancestors did not have these obstacles to rest. They did not have homes with dark shades to avert early morning sunshine, neither did they have light bulbs, to stimulate them at night. Their biological clocks were being tuned to the natural dark and light cycle of our planet.

Staying up late is on epidemic that influences our well being at a deep level. Not getting enough sleep and not being able to wake up easy on the next day are the result.

Have a good night’s sleep!

Your bed must be comfortable! Choose the right bed and cushions. You will certainly enjoy this comfort about one-third of your life. Every few years take a critical look at your bed – do you get a good night’s sleep? If not, you might need to search for a new mattress. If you don’t want to wake up with back or joint pain every day, it is necessary to find the best mattress for you. The return of this investment you will appreciate every morning!

Make sure your bedroom have a relaxing atmosphere. Choose your colors wisely. Red, orange and bright yellow are not sleep inducing colors. Safe these energizing hues for your living room and kitchen. Greens and cool blue colors help relaxation and might help you dose off easier. Ban TV, laptops, and any electronic devices from your bedroom if possible.

Create an evening ritual. Try to go to bed at the same time every night. Drink herbal tea in the evening, listen to some relaxing sounds or read a book – your body will gradually learn your routine and just going through the different steps will prep you for rest if you adhere to your daily ritual.

Be certain to steer clear of coffee, soft drinks, and chocolate in the evenings. They are too stimulating and make it more challenging to fall asleep. Heavy and spicy food is also not helping in this respect so it is better to eat a light meal in the evening.

Take only short naps during the day. Not more than 15-20 minutes otherwise your sleep pattern might be compromised.

Avoid brilliant lights in the evening and in your bedroom because your brain will think it is bright daylight even if it is midnight. This can lead to difficulty falling asleep and elevated states of stress and anxiety.

A gentle yoga practice during the day can also help getting a nurturing good night’s sleep.

What helps you to sleep as a baby? Please share in the comment section below!

Music to Your Stressed Out Ears

If you cannot escape stress, let’s at least find ways to relieve the situation.

Music can help you cope with everyday stress! It helps to calm your mind and change your mood.

The wonderful impact music has on our lives is known for ages:

“Music has charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.” – William Congreve

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” – Plato

“The only escape from the miseries of life are music and cats…” – Albert Schweitzer

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” – Victor Hugo

Naturally, it makes a big difference what type of music you decide to listen to at the times of stress. Hard rock, or fast paced dance music will create the opposite of the experience you are looking for. Your heart rate, your blood pressure might increase while listening to that type of music. Which can be very welcome, of course when you are looking to increase your energy or get into action.

For relaxation try to opt for soothing melodies, soft piano pieces – both classical and modern.

Classical music is known to reduce stress. Did you know that your breathing and heart rate will match the pace of the music you are listening to? Your brain waves are also changing in accordance – gifting you with a few sacred minutes of relaxation and joy.

What if you don’t like classical music? There are a lot of “new age” artists producing relaxation inducing tunes. Don’t forget about jazz – for some people jazz music will also do the trick.

The important thing is that you take a bit of time to explore which music soothes your nerves. Select a few favorites and have a playlist ready to listen to on your iPod. If you have a stereo headphone, you can listen to a few minutes of music even in your office.

One of the best places to explore the music you like and search for new pieces is YouTube. Just search for relaxation music, or new age or classical. You will get a wealth of videos to choose from and listen to. Look for Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky clips.

A few of our favorite music “videos” on YouTube:

Tchaikovsky – Lake in the Moonlight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P65WNm48p0

Mozart – Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 [complete]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTc1mDieQI8

Frederic Chopin – Nocturnes complete: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V60USaluxGA

Relaxing Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYe92a4vG-Y

LONG Playlist of Relaxing Soft Piano Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCYk9CRx0g8

Why don’t you spend on evening looking for the best relaxation music for you instead of watching the same old shows on TV? I am sure you will have a much better time and falling asleep like a baby will not be an issue, either.

Please share your favorite relaxing music pieces in the comment section below so our community can benefit from your recommendation! Thank you!

Find a New Way to Respond to Stress!

Let’s continue our series around stress in the workplace! In our last installment we discussed better ways to deal with the source of stress in the office.

Let’s explore ways you can change your stress response!

First I would like to become aware of your typical stress response. What happens when you get a call to appear in his/her office immediately? Or any other stress inducing situation happen? Do you begin sweating? Reach for a piece of chocolate? Feel your heartbeat getting quicker and quicker? Feeling dizzy and weak?

Our stress response is as varied as we are. I encourage you to get awareness for your own response to stress. Try to take just a few seconds and notice what is happening. If you forget to do this when stress is flooding your system, no problem. Try to take a minute after the immediate stress is gone to reflect on what has happened.

Explore new ways to react to stress:

Take a deep breath – immediately as stress hits you. One the typical stress response is taking fast and shallow breaths. Stop the craziness and breathe. Just one deep breath has the power of putting you in a better state of mind.

“It shall pass” – remind youself that whatever causing your stress now will eventually pass.

Ask for time. If you are expected to report to your boss or answer a complex question immediately, try to ask for a few minutes to prepare yourself. Most managers and colleagues will understand the need to gather your thoughts and even appreciate your initiative to come prepared. This way you don’t waste anybody’s time.

Have a buddy. Hopefully there is at least one co-worker in your workplace whom you can totally trust. Buddy up with him/her to support each other. Have a short chat during the workday, take your lunch hour together and vent if you need to. It is better to vent than bottle up all your frustration inside. The important thing is not to stop at venting. After you had those negative emotions out of your system, make a commitment to look for a solution. How can I handle this situation best? What good could come out of what I experience now? How would Bill Gates, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Madonna (or any of your inspirational heroes) handle this situation?

Bathroom break – there is one place you can escape to if stress is getting unbearable: the bathroom. Take a minute and visit this sanctuary if all else fails. Use this as the last measure, though as you cannot use this escape every time somebody stresses you out. Still, it is perfect if you need a few minutes of undisturbed time to get calm yourself down and gather yourself.

We hope these tips will help you next time you feel stressed out. Please share below in the comment section how you deal with stress on an everyday basis!

What exactly is Meditation and Can I Begin Practicing in the Office, too?

This blogpost is a description into the everyday magic and natural easefulness ongoing meditation can bring to the workplace. With so many people feeling overwhelmed with their workload today, meditation is a great practice and only requires five minutes when you know what to do.

When you train your mind to stay focused on the breath, you begin to feel at one again with the present. It is this place, that you are likely to feel more calm, empowered and able to make clear choices. Ghandi once said “you must be the change you would like to see”.

It is not about the mistakes or being perfect or pleasing others.

Meditation frees up energy so that we can clearly remove those criticisms and reflect on all the good. And with ‘loving metta’ or awareness, we begin to touch this wisdom that interconnects us all.

Breathing with conscious awareness brings the mind into greater balance, ease, vitality and awareness. We learn through the practice of “meditation yoga” directly that we are always connected. We use this inner faith and apply transformation into any area of our life by seeing the ‘vritti’ or chatter of our mind and not getting caught. The metaphor as being a fish, seeing the hook, but not taking the bite.

So, we come back to our breathing, that indivisible wellspring of goodness and bring it into our everyday life to discover that the power, and faith has always been within. Letting go of our need to know why things happen or unfold as they do and practicing this prayer of surrender reconnects us to our ‘inner mystic’.

With more continuous practice sessions of 5 minute witnessing our breathing throughout the day, we become more confident that a healthy attitude is the way to accessing true potential, wisdom and health.

Meditation reduces stress, anxiety and depression. Other benefits include increased energy, more confidence in reaching goals, greater clarity, improvement in our decision making and better sleep patterns. It is from this harmony that is there all the while, we just need to be still, that we attract the right people, the right circumstance and all abundance. Rumi has said once that all we need to do to tap into this infinite strength is “to sell our cleverness and purchase bewilderment”.

According to spirit, the source of all problems begins when we believe we are separate from spirit. It is when we believe that we are somehow separate that we create problems. The heart of any compassionate practice is to shift your focal point away from these worrisome and distracting thoughts back onto the present moment.

When we place our awareness in the breath, we train the mind to remain neutral. The truth is always that in order to make a difference in the world, we must first make the change from within.

Start a corporate wellness program in the workplace today. Please get in contact so we can help you find the best solution for your company’s needs! Call 314-630-1677.

How To Deal With Stress In Your Workplace?

Stress is part of life – there is not much you can do about it! But that doesn’t mean that you must suffer from the different symptoms stress will cause you.

A bit of stress can be actually good for you as many times it adds to your motivation to take some action to get rid of or change the circumstances that add stress to your life. If you feel overwhelmed with your projects at work and feel stress mounting up inside, a healthy stress response would be to go to your manager and ask for help or ask for a new deadline. You take action to solve the issue and this helps to relieve the tension inside.

What happens if you get no support from your manager in that situation or nothing changes even after you asked for help a few times? When you see no way out from a situation, no chance to solve the issue or influence the solutions – a small irritation can turn into a major stressor in your work life.

Too much or constant stress will not only kill your motivation to do your best work, it can threaten your physical and mental health, too.

The first signs of facing a stressor can be procrastination and avoidance. You try everything not to face the reality of the situation, begin procrastinating on projects or missing meetings. The problem with reacting this way is that the problem will not go away. You will have less time and chance of renegotiating with every minute you procrastinate. And this will lead to even more stress. A never ending circle!

In every stress situation there are 2 important factors:

1.the source/cause of stress: the stressor

2.and your reaction to the situation: your stress response.

Let’s look at both factors separately!

You should deal with the source of stress in your life, there is no way around it. You might opt to take pills or herbal medications to deal with your stress response, but if you don’t do something about the source of this problem, the solution you picked might be short-lived.

A few tips:

-before the situation gets out of hand, try to set up a clarifying meeting with your boss. Even if you tried talking with him/her once, try again. Your manager has a vested interest in keeping you motivated and doing the best job you can. Important is that you don’t complain – that rarely solves anything. Concentrate on setting up priorities and renegotiating.

–create a better solution. Use the freedom you have in your job and come up with a better work organization. Try out the new solutions, gather proof that your ideas work then share with your manager.

–clear expectations. Many times misunderstandings around projects, confusion around the deliverables will lead to much unneeded stress. The only way to deal with this: discuss with your team and create clear, manageable, realistic and measurable goals. A system for follow-ups will help tremendously, too.

Most important is this: The more proactive you are, the less powerless you feel. The feeling of being able to influence the outcome will decrease stress levels immediately.

In our upcoming blogposts we will look at the options you have to change your stress response and heal the damage stress is causing in your life. Stay tuned to our new articles in the coming weeks!

In the meantime, starting a corporate wellness program is proved to help alleviate stress in the workplace. Please get in contact so we can help you find the best solution for your company’s needs!

Stress Be Gone!

Stress be gone! How many of your employees and colleagues have this deep wish in their soul every day of the week?

Would you like to guess? What percentage of your colleagues suffer from stress on a daily basis? 10%? 50%? Or even more? Here is the scary answer: Around 75% of US population experiences physical and/or psychological symptoms as a result of stress. When did life get so stressful for most of us?

What is causing our stress?

The top 3 causes of stress are

job pressure,
money and
health.

Job pressure means co-worker tensions, work overload and difficulties with bosses and supervisors. If you ever experienced any of these situations, you know how difficult it is to get things done in an efficient productive manner every day at work. And the impact of this stress doesn’t stop as soon as we leave the office, either. Fatigue, headaches, stomach pain and other health issues make life less enjoyable every minute of the day.

The major reasons why we stress about money is the fear around losing our jobs! Worry about covering living expenses during retirement and paying for medical expenses adds to the money stress.

Health is an important stress factor in other respects, too not just financially. Health crisis, terminal or chronic illness are high on the list of things we worry about constantly. Nothing has greater impact on the quality of life than the lack of health.

Nearly 50% of people say stress has a negative impact on their personal and professional life. 31% of employed adults admit that they have difficulty managing work and family responsibilities.

Employers face very high costs as a result of stress related health care expenses and the cost of missed work. The annual costs are around $300 billion!

Stress impacts corporations not just financially, of course. Tension among co-workers, bad corporate climate, and low employee job satisfaction add to the crisis on a human level.

It is interesting to see that the work life causes most of the stress we experience nowadays. But does it have to be this way? Is there anything companies could do to help their employees to enjoy a more relaxed life in the office and after work?

What if there was a way for effective stress reduction? What if your people didn’t even have to leave their workplace to get a few serene moments of relaxation? What if the results for your organization were easy to measure and prove? Would you be interested?

St. Louis Corporate Yoga has proved its yoga corporate yoga programs work. We recently ran a case study with impressing results at one of our recent partner companies.

We would be more than happy to share the case study results with you! Please call Michelle to get the details and explore how your employees could experience the same increase in their quality of life! Call us a t314-630-1677 or email to info at claytonyoga.com. Can’t wait to design the perfect solution for your organization, too!

All statistics by http://www.statisticbrain.com/stress-statistics/.