Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign hello and welcome to Deep in your yoga practice. I'm Lauren Leduc, the owner and founder of True Love Yoga in Kansas City, Missouri. And today is a practical episode for many of you modern folks who sit a lot. So this is yoga for office workers, for, for people who drive a lot, basically for anyone who sits and uses tech. So I know that that encompasses many of us and I'm hoping these tips help improve your health and wellness in life. Whether you're working from home or clocking long hours at a desk, this one is for you. We'll talk about some common physical imbalances caused by desk work, some simple yoga stretches and postures and breath work you can do throughout the day to help create a little bit more ease in your body, ideas for setting up a more body friendly workspace, and the philosophy of movement in modern life. So I hope you find this episode helpful. You might want to take some notes if this is you.
[00:01:10] So why do desk workers need yoga? Well, there are some negative postural impacts from the amount of sitting that many of us do. At times. This can cause things like the head being forward. It can cause tight hips, rounded shoulders and low back pain, even foot pain as well. The whole body is this connected hole. So when we intentionally or intentionally create a misalignment somewhere, it can impact the whole system and create aches and pains which can also cause mental and emotional distress. Office work and sitting can lead to stress, fatigue, tension, headaches, stress, shallow breathing, and then the posture really feeds into that. So our system can really be out of whack really on a mind, body, spirit level. Yoga can offer relief by releasing the chronically tight areas like your hips, shoulders and neck, restoring postural awareness and alignment and reconnecting to your breath and to nervous system regulation so that you're not feeling so much stress in your being. So here are a few mini yoga practices you can do at your desk. One is for neck and shoulder relief, a few neck rolls. So that means taking your chin to your chest, then rolling your right ear toward your right shoulder, keeping both shoulders down, bringing the chin back to the chest, and then rolling the left ear toward the left shoulder. It's almost as though you're drawing a crescent moon or half circles with your nose. You can also do seated shoulder shrugs and rolls. So moving the shoulders up, intentionally tensing them and and then gently releasing them down and away from the head, doing that a few times or maybe rolling the shoulders forward, upward, backward and down, and then the other way, backward, upward, forward and down. You might Find eagle arms. That can mean just giving yourself a big hug with one arm on top of the other and then switching arms, other arm on top of each other. Or starting with the hug and then wrapping your forearms around each other so that the backs of the hands meet or the palms meet together. You might find a few stretches for spinal mobility. One would be a seated cat and cow. So you'd sit at your desk with your feet on the ground. And as you inhale, you take your chest forward and lift your chin.
[00:03:32] And as you exhale, you round your spine and take your chin toward your chest, taking the shoulders forward. So inhale, open up, heart forward, chin lifts, exhale round the spine, take the chin toward the chest. You can take a seated twist. So that might mean taking the left hand to the outside of the right knee or thigh and the right hand behind you to your chair and taking a couple breaths there and then doing the opposite side and also a lateral stretch. So reaching right arm overhead and then finding a side bend to your left. You might even place the head, the hand behind the head for a little more support and then doing the other side. If you. And those spinal mobility moves are allowing you to find the six movements of the spine, which help create more freedom and space through the spine and help relieve some pain there. You also wanna take care of your wrists and hands. So you might circle your wrists one way and then the other, maybe shake out your hands. Maybe you're interlacing your fingers and then pressing your palms away from your body. Those are a few things you can do. You can show your hips and low back. Some love. One would be through a seated figure four stretch. So by that you are sitting, placing your ankle over your opposite knee. And then you can sit upright or hinge forward. Make sure you do both sides. You can do a seated forward fold over your legs. So that means laying your body over your thighs. They might. It might not touch the thighs, that's okay. But allowing the upper body to drape forward. You might even get up and take some standing lunges. And you can use the chair for stability and support. I also have some breathwork recommendations, especially for when things start to feel a little stressful or maybe you're feeling some brain fog dog. One would be a box breath. So that's an inhale, a hold, an exhale and a hold. And I usually like to do it to a count of four or six, but it depends on you. You might do three, but for example, you'd inhale for a count of four, hold for A count of four, exhale for a count of four and hold for a count of four. So that's one really great exercise. You might find a longer exhale, then inhale to help calm your nervous system.
[00:05:37] That might mean counting in for four as you inhale and counting out for six or eight as you exhale. And when you lengthen your exhales longer than your inhales, it helps down regulate the nervous system and it's really effective. It can can work very quickly, so I definitely recommend that. And you might take a moment to bring your awareness inward, finding what we call pratyahara in yoga. But that might mean closing your eyes, maybe even covering your ears, or putting in some noise, canceling headphones for a few moments and taking a few deep breaths, maybe noticing what you're feeling in your body and shutting off the noise for just a little bit before you return your focus and attention to your work. So a few words on ergonomics and some movement philosophy. It's really important to move your body every day, and Even moving for two minutes every 30 to 60 minutes can be really helpful. I've done what are called pomodoros before, where I set a timer for 25 minutes and do focused work for that. And as soon as it's done, done, I get up and walk around a little bit. Even like two minutes of a break, of standing up, of taking a little stretch, drinking some water can really help you reset. You might set up some reminders for yourself of the habits that you'd like to achieve, like drinking water, of your stretches of your, your movement so that you like maybe set a timer or have a notification that goes off and you remember to do it because it's very easy to get absorbed in our work and to forget. You might also consider optimizing your space. So that means adjusting your screen height so you can sit nice and tall and keep your eyes straightforward. It might mean finding a chair with lumbar support or some kind of pillow keeping your feet grounded. And just remember that although a lot of jobs require sitting all day, we are made to move. So do schedule in those breaks. Or if possible, you might find a standing desk or even find like a walking pad, which can really help stimulate the mind as well and get you moving. Get those steps in while you're doing your desk work. From a yogic perspective on movement and modern life, we can think of adding this mindfulness and movement and breath to your daily desk work as ahimsa. And ahimsa is the number one ethical principle in yoga, and it means non harming. So sitting all day without these mindful movement practices can be a form of harm because it can cause pain and stress in the long term, misalignment, et cetera. You can also think of the concept of apari graha, which means non clinging or non grasping. So that means letting go of maybe your fixed ways of working, of your habits and trying something new. Being open to the possibility that you can feel better in your mind and body while you're working and outside of work as well. You might invite in a sense of swadhyaya, which means self study. So that's noticing how your body feels throughout the day and making changes accordingly.
[00:08:29] And you can think of cultivating mindfulness and presence with your posture and breath. And being able to do that adds a whole layer of intentionality to your day. You don't need to be perfect in this, just consistent. You might try one stretch, one breath practice or one posture reset daily. Maybe set yourself a reminder and see how it feels to take that pause in your workday. And eventually you might create a daily desk reset ritual. So maybe every 30 minutes, every 60 minutes, you take two minutes to drink your water, maybe to do your twists or your shoulder circles or your wrist circles, and to take an intentional moment to reset and notice how that affects your day. I invite you to share this episode with a coworker or family member or friend who has to sit for long periods each day, helping to encourage them to find more mindfulness, intentionality and wellness in their daily life. And I want to close with gratitude for you and just a reminder that that your body was made to move and to honor that daily. You deserve it. You deserve to feel good in your body. And we don't want to sacrifice our mental and physical wellbeing for work. It's just a part of our lives. It isn't our whole lives. So I want to thank you so much for listening today. Have a beautiful work week. Get in those stretches. Get in that breath. Om Shanti Om. Peace.
