Office Yoga | St. Louis Corporate Yoga

Energy Boosting Foods For You

Do you feel lacking energy to get everything done at your job? Balancing your work and your personal life seem to be an unachievable goal? Do you wish for more energy during the day?

Let your food be your energy booster! We show you how!

Here are 7 top food choices to boost your energy during the day:

Water: Without drinking enough water during the day you will get automatically tired! Dehydration will cause fatigue plus you will not be able to absorb all those valuable nutrients you receive from healthy foods. So take a water bottle with you to the office and drink often. Don’t wait until you feel thirsty as that is too late you are already dehydrated. Introduce a new habit: drink a glass of water every hour.

Bananas: No wonder most of us love bananas, they taste sweet, easy to transport and eat “on the road”. The best healthy convenience food! Bananas will energize you due to their high potassium content. Bananas are great smoothie ingredients, too. A few days ago we made a banana- raspberry smoothie and it was divine! Just throw a banana and frozen raspberries with a few ice cubes and milk into your mixer. Do you crave ice? Just use the banana with the frozen raspberries without adding any liquid. No added sugar needed!

Almonds: Looking for mental clarity? Adding a few almonds to your daily menu can work wonders. These little nuts are chock full of monounsaturated fats and Omega-3 oils, essential to combat fatigue and low energy levels. Always keep a pack of almonds with you. They will be your “lifesaver” snack on those low energy afternoons.

Chocolate: Yes! Chocolate is good for you. Of course you need to choose dark chocolate not the full-of-sugar milk chocolate you usually eat. Dark chocolate increases your energy level with the compounds known as tyramind and phenlethylamine. Moderation is the key, of course. Usually you will feel totally satisfied with just a few small pieces of good quality dark chocolate. Mix your almonds with a few chocolate nibs for a divine afternoon snack!

Green tea: If you drink tea pure, you’ll get the perk you need to stay awake and keep on going. If you absolutely need a sweet kick, add Manuka Honey to your tea. Manuka Honey is unique as it tolerates being added to hot tea without losing its healing properties.

Oats: Perfect morning food option! Eating oatmeal for breakfast can set you up to have energy throughout the day. Oats provide B vitamins that can turn carbohydrates into energy.

Salmon: Perfect choice for a light lunch or dinner. Just add a salad or steamed veggies and you have an easy, quick meal on the table. Extra virgin olive oil, a healthy dose of lemon juice plus some pink (Himalayan) salt will transform this fish into a symphony for your taste buds. The Omega 3 acids in the salmon will help you stay alert and maintain a high energy level.

Don’t forget about your weekly yoga classes, either! They will support you to get through even the toughest day. No corporate yoga classes at your workplace? We would love to help, just call us at 314-630-167!

Happy At Work Through Finding New Perspectives

Do you feel happy at your workplace? Can you even imagine being happy at work?

Even if you feel stressed during the workday, sure you can find parts of your job that you love. On maybe your coworkers make a great team and support you during those stressful intervals.

As with many things in life, feeling happy and optimistic about your work is a decision. You can decide every morning to enjoy the 8 hours you spend at work. Of course you can also set yourself up to feel really miserable the whole long day if you view your job as a necessary evil.

Having the chance to take an hour out of your work schedule and enjoy a yoga class can make all the difference. That 60 minutes are yours to enjoy. Your employer organized the yoga classes to give you a chance to manage your stress levels and just take a break from your tasks.

Practicing the different yoga poses changes your perspective. As your body flows through the motions, your mind can wander and look for new perspectives for old problems. This flow helps you notice things that would never make a blip on your mind otherwise. Breaking up thought patterns that keep you from seeing through new eyes.

How can you facilitate the perspective change?

Try this: At the beginning of your class, pick a question that is occupying your mind. An example: you have a very difficult relationship with one of your coworkers. You try to avoid working closely with the person. But this time you are in the same small group project so you cannot avoid cooperating with your colleague.

Here is the question you can ask: “How can we work together successfully throughout this project?”

It is important that you inquire about the “how” not the “why”. If you ask the question: “Why can’t we cooperate?” – you will not concentrate on finding a solution. The “how to make this work” type of question will send your mind looking for possible solutions to reach your ultimate goal of successfully cooperating with this person.

When you asked your “how” question, just let it go and don’t even consider pondering it during your yoga class. Just let it go!

When will you get answers to your question? You might get a new perspective during the class already or sometimes afterward. It is impossible to say when exactly you get the idea to help you create a better working relationship. But trust us on this, this will work! Just keep on open mind and listen to your hunches and intuition.

We hope this quick tip helps you create new perspectives around your work.

Your organizations doesn’t offer corporate yoga programs yet? Let change this soon. Why don’t you call Michelle at 314-630-1677 to learn about the customized wellness programs we offer in and around St. Louis? We will be happy to advise you!

Health Is Your Wealth

How many times do you hear about health being your most important asset? In all honestly: Are you really taking care of your health?

Being ill costs a lot of money. If you ever had to deal with a chronic condition, you know exactly that financing the cost of healing can be a huge burden on any budget. An accident can throw your finances out of balance in seconds. Not to mention that some illnesses have a direct impact on your employment future. Getting ill is not a good “business move”.

How can you keep your body, mind and soul vibrant and strong? Let’s begin with nutrition!

It is true – you are what you eat. Now looking at what you ate today what are you building? A strong healthy body? Or a second-hand, run-down organism?

Eating healthy can be a challenge especially if you expect your eating habits to change from one day to another.

On the other hand, all those small healthier choices add up. What small changes could you integrate into your workdays to experience more vitality and health?

Eat less processed food! Eliminating all processed food from your diet might be not realistic for you. But you can start with small steps!

Try to eat clean! Avoid artificial ingredients in food. The best is to eat closest to its natural form. Snacking on raw veggies is easy to add to your day.

Drink more water! Most of us don’t drink enough water. Start measuring how much you drink per day. Are you drinking at least 6-8 glasses of water per day? If not, the easiest solution is to train yourself to carry a water bottle with you and drink every hour even if you don’t feel thirsty.

Drink less soda! Yes, diet soda counts, too! Cut back on your consumption of those beverages and you serve your body well. You consume less empty calories and sugar. High sugar consumption leads to many health issues – but of course you know this already.

Did you know that March is National Nutritional Month? We put together a few suggestions for easy and light meals for your corporate yoga class days. These delicious meals can be prepared at home. Just take them with you to work.

Veggie Sticks with different dips: Carrots, celery, cucumbers are great for dipping – add your favorite veggies to the mix. The different dips will turn the boring veggie pieces into a tasty meal. Prepare a quick avocado dip at home or take some organic hummus. Here is my avocado dip recipe: Clean the avocado, remove the seed then mash it up with a fork. Add a healthy portion of lemon juice, sprinkle with Himalayan or sea salt plus some pepper and you are ready to go.

Fruit Yoghurt: mix organic Greek yoghurt with your favorite fresh fruit mix. Frozen fruit will do too! Cut up the fruit at home then mix the Greek yoghurt with the pieces at the office. You don’t need any added sugar to make this a yummy treat.

Apple-carrot salad: Clean an apple plus a carrot, grate them, mix them. Add some lemon juice so the salad doesn’t turn brown and enjoy. You can add some honey if you would like. If you decide to do that, take Manuka Honey which has great health benefits.

Try these easy meal options on days when you have a corporate yoga class. Enjoy!

We Really Are What We Eat. Try These Nutritious Food Ideas for 2014!

This time of the year, it is especially exciting to think about taking supreme care of our bodies. Did you know that one of the main reasons for our growing popularity of onsite yoga wellness classes is the additional support and tips we offer our clients to help them make better lifestyle changes? Our corporate yoga wellness onsite program include interesting research on many subjects including better nutritional support for your body.

Take a look below at this sample blogpost and discover new tips for an even healthier you! Here are Five Great Nutritional Tips to get us on the right road to great health.

TIP ONE

Portion Control. Avoid large dinners. After a long, hard day at the office, it is so very tempting to sit and have a big delicious meal. The problem is that your body will go to sleep soon and convert nutrition to fat. If possible, try to slow down in the middle of your workday and have a nice lunch. It will keep you from craving an enormous dinner. Whether you prefer small breakfasts or large dinners, it really does not matter nearly as much as the size of your meal. Eating small portions allow the food enzymes to get to work and help you to conserve that much needed energy throughout the day!

TIP TWO

Enjoy your healthy fats. We have been taught by many big money companies that the key to staying fit in today’s world is a having a fat free diet. Ingesting chemicals that do not belong in the body instead of enjoying natural healthy selection of fats is never a good idea. On a daily basis, enjoy olive oil, avocado, nuts, and other wonderful foods from nature.

TIP THREE

Diversity or mix up your diet. Eat crisp, fresh, diverse colors, like dark green vegetables, spinach, broccoli or edamame. Also radishes, celery, onions and try sprouts on your plate. Generally the less you cook your food, the more colorful, different and fresh will be the outcome. Try new, colorful and different types of vegetables and for new and added increase of energy, try some sprouts too.

TIP FOUR

Choose Sprouted Breads. You may or may not be allergic to gluten. Many people in today’s world do not agree with flour. Flour of any kind is like glue in the body. Great for hanging art on the wall, but not so wonderful for your digestion. If you do eat flour, look at the ingredients and make sure you have whole wheat for the ingredient, not wheat flour. If you have snack bars, make sure the ingredient is whole grain. When the digestive system is slowed down by too much flour, bacteria start to take over causing you to re-absorb toxins meant for elimination. Reestablish your internal nutritional system by adding wheat bran and looking at your ingredients to make sure it says, whole grain rice, whole grain oats, or whole wheat flour.

TIP FIVE

Keep your food fresh. Our bodies thrive on an alkaline diet. And our body naturally heals itself of illnesses when we eat fresher and we use less energy to digest the food. Processed or long shelf times produce higher acidity levels in the blood. Food with hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup are to be avoided completely. These ingredients contain sugar that is manufactured in a building, not grown in nature. This type of sugar enters the bloodstream before the body has a chance to process it. The best solution is use honey, or stevia. Stevia is a natural, pure sweetener that comes from the stevia plan and tastes great!

St. Louis Corporate Yoga offers 3, 6 month and 12 month corporate special packages!

We are just a phone call away to answer all your question around on-site yoga. Please call Michelle at 314-630-1677.

Let’s create the prefect yoga program for your organization!

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!

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.

Stay Cool In The Office

Summer has finally arrived. As much as we can’t wait for summertime to come, this time of year might challenge our productivity at work.

A few easy tips for hot summer days in the office:

Drink, drink, drink! The best choice is water, of course. If you crave a different taste, prepare spa water! It is so easy to prepare this even at the office. Just take sliced fruit with you from home, fill up a big jug with water, and let it chill for 2 hours so the fruit flavors infuse the water. Invite your co-workers to enjoy a refreshing glass of spa water with you!

Here is a Pinterest board with lots of different spa water recipes for every taste: http://pinterest.com/spawaterrecipes/spa-water-recipes/

Quick cool down

You are dreaming of a cool shower after being outside in your lunch break? Run cold water on your wrists for a minute. Splash your face with cold water, too. If you don’t want to ruin your make-up, simply use a facecloth soaked in cold water. Yes, this is the same method your Mom used when you had a fever as a kid. It works wonders on hot days, too!

Difficult to get some much needed sleep during hot summer nights?

There is nothing that will influence your productivity as being dog tired as a result of a sleepless night. Try to cool down your bed. The way you would use a hot bottle to warm your bed in the winter, use a “cold bottle” to cool it down in summertime. Just fill up the hot bottle you use in the winter with chilled water.

An extreme method is to pack your sheets in the freezer for an hour before going to bed. If all else fails, this might bring you a sweet cool down experience! Put the sheets in a plastic bag before you put them into the freezer.

Your beautiful office shoes killing your feet in hot weather

Especially if you have problems with water retention during the hot summer months, soaking your feet in cold water will help a lot. It will cool you down, too. The best time for this is in the evening. It is so easy to include this into your evening routine. Have your feet in a bucket filled with cool water while watching your favorite shows or checking your emails.

Two yoga postures that help to cool down during summer:

There are some excellent yoga postures to practice to keep cool in the coming hot months ahead. Try Downward Dog with your legs hip distance or more apart and your knees bent. Place the hands closer together with the thumbs touching. Bend your knees and allow the blood to flow to the head.

Try Uttanansa, too! A great summer time cool off posture. Walk your feet from Downdog to your hands and bend the knees. Simply hang in this forward fold and allow your back to relax and soften. Keep your feet firmly planted and your legs strong. Remember legs active, spine passive. Breathe!!

Ask your yoga instructor for more tips during your corporate yoga class!

One Minute Meditation at Work

“A few times per day, while sitting at my desk, tension begins to creep in and take over. I may be sitting too long and working too hard.” Most people agree that work related stress is the single worst contributor to poor health.

Did you know there is a way to transform our tension without having to get to a yoga class? Research shows that deep breathing is the single best way to counteract anxiety and keep the mind calm, clear and empowered. When we breathe with more awareness, we breathe deeply and nourish our heart, support better digestion and even improve our immune system too!

How about One Minute Meditations? When we breathe deep even for one minute, we find our center, and have greater access to sustained levels of energy throughout the day. Try this, as soon as the moment of tension arises, take a step back, and notice your own unique breath move through the nostrils. Take a few deep and natural breaths in and out. Allow yourself to sit comfortably with your back to the office chair. As you begin to make any adjustments, give yourself permission to sit tall, and relax the shoulders.

Notice any muscles that are still tense, the shoulders, face, arms and see if you can release their tension on the exhale breath. Begin to notice how the breath slows down and lengthens the more you place your focus upon it.

Continue to breathe a few more rounds. Take the breath from the belly first, and also exhale from the belly first. If you like to try a counting breath, think of 4 on the in breath, pause and 8 on the out breath.

Small moments of meditation at key moments when tension is arising can be very useful in finding again greater ease at work. This will flood the body with feel good hormones such as serotonin. We can increase peace of mind and take good health back into our own hands.

Everyone has a unique breath and different lung capacity and tidal volume. Allow your breathing to feel natural and supportive to you. If your mind begins to wander and you have gone away too, simply reassure yourself that every one of us does the same thing too. It is as if we have two brains, one that is intimately connected to our peace and one that is hardwired for distraction and survival.

Staying with the breath reminds us how to access the higher mind and simply experience what is actually happening. For each of us, life is constant change, and there is no amount of controlling it, that will stop this unfolding process. When we stay with our breath, we can witness without attachment, and experience greater space, inner security, pleasure, and joy!

St. Louis Corporate Yoga currently offers 9 weekly yoga onsite wellness classes to various companies throughout St. Louis. If you would like to get a yoga class started, please contact us at 314-630-1677 or info@claytonyoga.com.

Eye Strain Remedies

Have you ever counted how many hours per day you spend in front of computers? Or any other screens for that matter? It is not just computer monitors stressing our eyeballs… it is your smart phone, iPad, and any other handheld device you use regularly.

With all the screen time, most people began suffering from the consequences. Itchy eyes, tearing, blurred vision and even headaches – this is the price we pay for too much time in front of these devices.

Let us give a few very simple eye “exercises” that will remedy the situation. The best part you can do these at your desk, you don’t even have to wait for your company yoga class.

Most of the time when looking at screen, you focus on things directly in front of you. This puts a lot of strain on your eye muscles. Just think about it: your eyes are designed for both long distance and short distance use.

When was the last time you actually gazed into to distance? Urban living and office work cuts back on the opportunity for this. No wonder it is so easy to lose sight of “the bigger picture” in our lives.

Why don’t you look at the clouds for a minute or two? Try to focus on the clouds one by one. Look behind them. If there is no cloud on the sky, concentrate on “dipping” your eyes into the blue of the sky. You prefer trees or sky-scraper? No problem. Pick an object that requires you to look into the distance.

Your eye muscles need some exercise, too. Those muscles help you focus and keeping them flexible might improve your sight and keep your eyes healthy.

Let’s get back to the cloud or skyscraper you were gazing at in the last exercise. Now try to move your eyes around the edges of the object. Use your eyes as a paint brush or pencil and paint/draw the edges of the cloud. You don’t have to draw every tiny edge, though. If you look at a tree, your draw the trunk and an outline of the crown – this will give your eye muscles the necessary workout.

Go ahead, roll your eyes! Slowly circle your eyes around an imaginary clock. Make the movement smooth and slow in a clockwise direction a few times. Then repeat in the counterclockwise direction, too. Breathe in deeply and exhale twice as long during this exercise.

When exercising your eye muscles, speed is not desirable. You might get dizzy as a result. Take your time and rather do only 1 repetition than rushing to do 4.

It is best to practice these easy to do eye-loving movements every day. It takes only a few minutes at most and your eyes will thank you for it.

An extra tip: when looking on the clouds, get your creativity going. Try to come up with names for the clouds on the basis of how they look. Create a short story. Do you see any images, even faces? After taking a few minutes of creative gazing, you come back refreshed to your projects. Don’t be surprised if you find a few extraordinary solutions…
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