MIXING YOGA WITH BUSINESS
A SPECIAL WEXFORD CHAMBER DAY PROPOSED THAT THE INDIAN ART IS THE WAY TO A STRESS-FREE STAFF.
The WELL-BEING of employees was the hot topic at a yoga celebration in the Ferrycarrig Hotel with guest speakers including the Indian Ambassador to Ireland and the sports broadcaster and yoga convert Tracey Piggott.
More than 150 people turned up for the free summer solstice event entitled ‘Unlock Your Inner Potential’ which was hosted by Wexford Chamber and Spiritual Earth to coincide with the second annual United Nations International Day of Yoga founded by the Indian prime minister Narendra Damodardas Modi.
The attendance were invited to join in postures, stretches and breathing exercises in short yoga sessions conducted by local teacher Linda O’Grady of Sadhana Yoga and Coladagh McCumiskey of Spiritual Earth.
They were also addressed by Tim Greig, team leader of Corporate Trust Global Client Services at BNY Mellon in Wexford, who spoke about the company’s employee welfare programme; Sandra Farrell, a Limerick nursing home owner and former mayor of Nenagh whose daily anxiety and stress disappeared when she discovered yoga.
Introducing the event, Chamber CEO Madeleine Quirke was speaking from personal experience when she said the application of yoga in daily life can improve well-being and also the bottom line in business.
‘It’s a way to enable us to look after our greatest asset – our staff,’ she said.
Ms Quirke said she dipped into yoga from time to time while living abroad in Scotland and Oslo and found it calmed and focused her.
Then life became busier and her yoga classes were no longer a priority but she felt she would have been better prepared to face the trials and tribulations that subsequently came into her life when she was widowed and her children were left without a dad.
‘I was left trying to pick up the pieces and look after everyone else but there was no room to look after myself’, she said, adding that her lifestyle de- teriorated and she took up smoking again after many years.
She later met Mary Duane and went along to one of her Hatha yoga classes in postures and breathing. ‘I thought something had to be done. I found a friend in yoga and one I will never let go,’ she said, adding that she strongly believes in its ability to improve well-being in the workplace and bring greater clarity to decision-making.
Chamber staff have taken a six-week yoga course with Coladagh McCumiskey who has also conducted yoga training classes for the Chamber’s Skillsnet programme in Wexford
Ms McCumiskey, a former Aid worker who studied yoga and lived in India for four years thanked Madeleine and her team for their encouragement and support in her work.
She said yoga is a science based on exercise, breathing, diet, relaxation and meditation that helps us to achieve true relaxation, to develop more positive thought structures and to connect with ourselves.
‘When we are properly connected with ourselves and our environment we are properly connected with those around us’.
‘When you hae a big open mind, even a big problem seems like a small problem. For business people, it boosts problem-solving abilities,’ she said.
‘Success comes when you are confident and fully grounded in reality. Our mind is our most important investment. It is our sat nav for where we are going in life. It can be our best friend or our worst enemy,’ she said.
Sandra Farrell, the proprietor of St Michael’s Nursing Home in Limerick and the youngest ever former mayor of Nenagh has been practising Japa yoga for a year. In the beginning she struggled to sit with herself and to be in her own company, she said.
‘From the outside I was a successful businesswoman. Inside, I was so full of stress and anxiety that I would have felt paralysed for 80% of my day. Now my day is stress- and anxiety-free.’
Ms Farrell has travelled to India and visited the Ashram where the late Steve Jobs was inspired to establish Apple.
‘I call it my Operation Transformation – I’ve lost two stone since I started Japa yoga. My reaction to work stress triggers has changed. I react calmly to problems rather than shooting from the hip.’
She said the positivity of any workforce is the most decisive factor in the success of any business. She recently arranged for all 90 staff of her nursing home staff to take part in a mindfulness course.
‘Stress in the workplace is regarded as normal but it’s not. Workplace stress tends to be dismissed by those best placed to so something about it. It is our responsibility to ensure the well-being of our staff. Stress-free staff perform better, work harder and are happier,’ she said.
Tim Greig of BNY Mellon, which is the Chamber’s Corporate Social Responsibility Partner, said happy, motivated staff are more productive, more proactive and deliver more back to the company in positivity.
BNY Mellon has a global strategy to safeguard the physical, emotional, social and financial well-being of employees with an assistance helpline, yoga programmes, bike racks, showers for employees who cycle to work or exercise during the day, flu vaccinations, bowel cancer screening, a Grow It Yourself vegetable garden in Wexford, information talks on savings and pensions, mindfulness sessions for 10,000 managers across the globe and a flexible work programme started recently in Wexford in an attempt to combat nineto-five drudgery and treat employees like adults by empowering them to make decisions on their own work schedules.
‘Positive mental health and emotional mental health have largely been ignored. We are trying to train our managers to recognise stress in themselves and in staff. As a company we are definitely moving in the right direction, in treating people on an individual basis,’ he said.
Tracey Piggott said that from an early age she had a sense there was something else in life but couldn’t seem to find it.
She developed emotional problems in boarding school and had an eating disorder for many years which she was ashamed of.
‘I battled internally, shut down and got into all kinds of trouble. I was able to patch up the holes. I travelled a lot and met some wonderful people. I came to Ireland in the mid-1980s and started to relax. I fell accidentally into broadcasting.
‘I loved to communicate but I created this
pressure by putting myself in front of the camera. Sometimes I would sit in my car for ages, paralysed with fear. It was debilitating.’
‘I did some counselling and different types of yoga but I would end up getting distracted and leave it. I found exercise really helped. When I was cycling there was a rhythm about it, a sense of meditation.’
Through a series of coincidences, she found a Japa meditation class two years ago. ‘It gives you such a sense of clarity, an acceptance of yourself. I was great at getting that big stick and whacking myself every day, listening to that voice telling you you’re no good.’
‘I’m very grateful that I’ve come across it. I had a daughter in 2007. I’m a single parent. Japa has given me the tools to help create a guide book for her and to be a decent, kind person,’ she said.
The Indian Ambassador, Radhika Lal Lokesh, explained the background to International Yoga Day, saying the Indian prime minister won approval for the idea at a UN General Assembly.
She read a message from the prime minister in which he said yoga is much more than a physical exercise. It enables us to access a new dimension in ourselves. It restores balance and gives us a sense of clarity.
While in Wexford, Her Excellency visited Wells House and Gardens, the Irish National Heritage Park, Johnstown Castle and Selskar Abbey.
A special message was sent by President Michael D. Higgins, in which he said the ancient art of yoga has the potential to contribute significantly to the way we live our lives today, creating a profound sense of oneness between individuals, nature and the world.