The Work Desk Dozen
Wiggling Wellness yoga hacks in the work place
The work place can be a key environment where we intensely forget ourselves in the pursuit of goals, deadlines, success… or drudgery! And - we spend half our life there!
We are creatures designed to move, to be in nature, to be intuitive, attuned, deal with moments of stress, balanced out by down regulated restful times. Our natural movements, sights, sounds, sensing, oxygen uptake - all contributing to well functioning systems and a feeling good Bodymind. So, what can we do to help mitigate a modern work environment which might not have a lot of that good stuff going on? If your work is sedentary, then you are really up against it. Time to get creative about how you can keep it moving & balanced.
Here are some yoga based ideas to try or to get you inspired to find your own solutions. The bonus is you are actually getting in a yoga practice woven into your day without having to unroll a mat! Add wherever you can, add a dose of nature & / or fresh air - even if its a window or just a view.
Just add one thing to your work day - no matter if it seems trivial, because it is a practice in YOU taking care of YOURSELF in a challenging environment and that REALLY matters.
Then one thing leads to another…
Consider 3 questions to help to bring balance to your situation….
Do I need to move?
Do I need to give my brain a rest ?
How am I breathing?
Do I need to Move?
We need to move. Not moving means structures of our body get tight, short, stagnant and our symmetry is habitually altered to unhelpful, uncomfortable and even painful asymmetrical patterns. When we move as nature intended, blood returning from limbs, our lymphatic system and digestion all get the muscular squeezing action they need to function well and supply or rid your body of essential elements.
So let’s keep it moving!
Get up and move is a must. Every 30 minutes or 1 hour if you can. Set a ping to prompt you. At least make a big pandiculating ‘morning stretch’ - a primordial movement from the tips of your toes reaching up to your finger tips to stimulate, awaken and reset your nervous system and facial lines. You could also routinely reach up high for something. Park the biscuit tin, the tea bags, the coffee cups on a high up shelf where you can only just reach! This provides an excellent full body stretch where you have to get right onto your tip toes with the other leg outstretched to balance you. I also love a pull up bar in a door way to hang from and use the whole integrated functioning body to try to initiate (or complete if you are strong, use a chair leg support if you are not) a pull up or to clamber up the door frame with your feet!
Try this Work Desk Dozen video! Set yourself a desk ping for every 30/45 minutes and pick something from this tool box of ideas. Find out how this acronym can help you…
When Tight Ernie Remembers Something Is Stuck It Is Time To - Bring it on!
Walk n Talk - on the phone or for a mobile face to face meeting. Vary the speed, super slow to dial it down and feel every foot muscle as you peel your back foot off the ground and place the front foot down. Or speed it up with longer strides with fully swinging arms if you need to ramp things up and shift lethargy.The rhythm of walking has a synchronising effect on our brain rhythm to the benefit of creativity, clarity and calm. Just what we need to take back to the job in hand.
Vary your seated position (standing desk, small movements on a pilates ball). If you don’t have a walking desk option, try this simple Micro Movement Working Desk solution.
Do I need to give my brain a rest?
Probably! If we end up spending too much time in our head, the Bodymind becomes very unbalanced and it creates a stressor effect. Like any muscle or organ of the body your brain needs downtime too.
So get out of your thinking head and engage the senses!
You have 5 of them to hand, so how can you get them to take over the show for a while and ‘distract’ your thinking mind, creating some metal stillness and spaciousness? This requires concentrating your everything on something subtle. And don’t worry if it seems surprisingly challenging at first… just repeat, repeat, repeat… you are creating a habit.
Use a mini mindfulness recording to guide you out of mind, into body and into a more neutrally regulated state. You can try this one here
Try something in your immediate ‘desk area’ or in a ‘break space’ that you can move to that you like the colour, feel, smell, or sound of (the taste sense I prefer not to focus on in this scenario for the temptation of moving into unhelpful snacking) :
A photo of your favourite place or view, or a mandala pattern that you find can engross your gaze or even better a large fir cone or succulent with its repetitive fibonacci numbered geometry.
An item that you can have in your hand - a stone, a feather - that is either engagingly tactile or reminds you of a calming or uplifting place or experience. Or perhaps a naturally made mandala bracelet which allows tactile repetitive counting (a bit like counting sheep!) may be the choice for ‘feelers’.
A scent of essential oil (especially quality ones) can have calming, uplifting or clarifying effects. Bracelets or necklaces with volcanic beads are great methods of self infusing an item that can be easily carried with you. Or for a less conspicuous method and more suited to men, try a pen that has an infusible end. Or a desk pot of fresh herbs like rosemary or some lavender - just grab a few leaves or flowers and crush or rub them in your hand. Breathe in the scent and watch the breath, see where it goes. See if you notice any subtle effect on the Bodymind.
The yoga sequence above is also a tool to get out of the head and into the body, feeling the movements in detail.
Breathing exercises are a key tool to dropping out of mind, de stressing or re booting.
How am I Breathing?
Breathe…. No I mean REALLY breathe.
So there is a whole world of incredible techniques and benefits that is too much to delve into in this article. It is however the simplest, easily available and most influential practice on all aspects of health and regulation. Regulate it - and it will regulate the rest of you.
So give it some attention!
Breathe Low
Sit or stand relaxed but upright. Find the top of your pelvis - your hips - at your sides with your fingers. Continue up past the soft tissue area until you feel bone again - the bottom ribs. Dig in if you need to find it! Notice when you inhale if these bottom side ribs receive a little inflated movement along with your belly. If you are sitting then see if you can ‘grow’ this feeling into the lower back of your body so that you feel this area gently and subtly push into the seat back. Try to let your shoulders be very relaxed (you may find it more relaxing to cross your arms so the left hand feels the right lower ribs and vice versa) - maybe dangle your hands down by your sides and imagine they are as heavy as sand bags (but without collapsing and slumping your spine). If this all feels easy for you then experiment letting the inhale ‘grow’ this inflated movement about another 10-20%. Done in the right natural way this is a very relaxing calming signal to your nervous system that helps neutralise or down regulate you.
Watch The Pause
The exhale is naturally a passive activity as the muscles that actively caused inhalation return to their resting state. At the end of the exhale notice if there is a calm moment as the breath turns around towards the next inhale. ‘Relax’ yourself into this calm internal space or experience (with out slumping in the physical body), as if you want to dissolve your internal everything into that moment between inhale and exhale. If there is a natural pause there, then really enjoy that spaciousness. If that’s already a given for you then as you relax into the pause, notice if the pause becomes quietly extended, waiting for the next inhale to naturally arise (without you holding your breath or gasping for the next inhale - this is purely following the breaths auto function).
If you combine this kind of simple breath observation with a practice suggested above that engages the senses, one helps the other. More bang for yer buck.
So just add something daily that is balancing to your work week this week. Experiment. You are a project, you are a beautiful machine that runs so much better with attentive loving care, tweaking, oiling and shining.
Have a shiny week.
Namaste.
