How can Yoga be Transformational for Working Women?

More than ever before, women today play many different roles in their lives. They are professionals, mothers, spouses, friends, caregivers of elderly relatives and volunteers in communities. Maintaining a balance between family and work is tough enough; to find time for yourself on top of that is nearly impossible. Spending all their time juggling your responsibilities between nurturing the home, fulfilling the demands of a hectic career, and taking care of the family, can take a toll on a woman - increasing stress and anxiety, and diminishing the health. In this fast-paced world we are looking for an amalgamated solution that delivers results and is time sensitive. Yoga is this solution. Yoga is beneficial for working women in so many ways.

It is an entire instructional guide on how best to live your life - through guidelines, which are the 8-limbs of Yoga, ashtanga, on diet, staying physically able, how to stay emotionally grounded, managing time, detachment, and attaining inner peace

The important thing to remember about Yoga is it isn’t only a set of physical exercises, asanas, and breathing exercises, pranayamas. It is an entire instructional guide on how best to live your life - through guidelines, which are the 8-limbs of Yoga, ashtanga, on diet, staying physically able, how to stay emotionally grounded, managing time, detachment, and attaining inner peace. Using these guidelines, a working woman can help manage her life more efficiently.

Working women often are victims of prioritizing everyone above themselves, leading to diminishing health, high stress levels and weight gain. In order to have holistic development we need to focus holistically – diet, physical fitness and emotional balance.

The right food can support your mood, boost your energy, and help you maintain a healthy weight. As women, many of us are prone to neglecting our own dietary needs. Eat whatever you’d like, but make sure you don’t overeat and eat in intervals. This keeps your metabolism up and you’ll always have energy to keep up with the tasks at hand. Another way to keep your weight in check is to drink warm water. In East Asian countries, they say drinking warm or hot water can increase your metabolism; because hot water increases your body temperature, and when your body temperature increases, so does your metabolism!

This keeps your metabolism up and you’ll always have energy to keep up with the tasks at hand. Another way to keep your weight in check is to drink warm water.

The physical rigor of your yoga workout depends on which form of yoga you choose. Techniques like hatha and iyengar yoga are gentle and slow, and ashtanga-vinyasa are a little fast-paced. Once you’ve got your diet in check, implementing some simple asanas in your daily routine for staying fit can go a long way - such as the Surya Namasakar. Surya Namaskar is the mother of all asanas. If you aren’t able to accommodate any other poses in your practice, doing 2-3 Surya Namaskars a day can do the trick, because it targets, strengthens, and stretches almost every muscle group in your body, whilst making you sweat!

Yoga can help a woman nurture her physical fitness as well as keeping her mental health in balance

Yoga can also give a lot of emotional strength and stability, an important trait for a woman managing the home and a career. Gaining control over emotions that could overpower you, like anger and frustration, can be done by practicing pranayamas and meditation. Pranayamas like Bhramhri and Ujjaya breathing force you to take control over your breath, which then allows you control your emotions. You’ll notice that when you’re upset or frazzled, the pace of your breathing increases, but when you slow your breathing down, your mind starts to calm down as well. The fusion of breathing exercises and meditation is very powerful, and can help not only a working woman, but anyone, take control of their body.

Maintaining the responsibilities of a wife, mother, daughter, etc. can get overwhelming for a person; Yoga can help a woman nurture her physical fitness as well as keeping her mental health in balance. Yoga can truly be a transformational practice for anyone who adopts it.