Category: Wellness

“How refreshing it is after a good night’s sleep!”
– TKV Desikachar [1]

We all know this from our own experiences. And we know how difficult it is to get a good night’s slept and this is probably due to the way our modern environment, society and economic system works.

Think about how much harder it is these days to say when work actually starts and finishes. For many of us it is no longer the case that we start a 8 or 9 in the morning and finish 8 or 9 hours later. Smart devices, linked with feelings of insecurities and or the desire to advance one’s career, have blurred the lines between work and play, and work and home life.

These days it is easy to start looking at work emails when we wake up, as we travel to and from work as well as last thing at night.

If you think about it work doesn’t satisfy all our needs. In fact, it can’t. We need to have time for family, friends, community and for to ourselves too.

These days, fitting in a bit of time at the gym or on the yoga mat and fun with family and friends is most likely achieved by cutting down on the amount of sleep we allow ourselves. We deceive ourselves into thinking that a nightcap before bed will help us to sleep and that regular cups of coffee will get us through the day. Self-medicating on evening sedatives (alcohol) and on morning and afternoon caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate) is not an uncommon recipe applied to allow life to go on normally without reducing the quality of our thoughts, feelings and actions.

It turns out that this is not true. Sleep is important.

If you want to be successful at yoga – at anything, for that matter – don’t negotiate away the 8.5 hours of sleep opportunity we need each and every night.

T Krishnamacharya explained, in his introduction to Yoga Makaranda, that

if we do not get the stipulated hours of sleep, “then our physical and psychological nature (svarūpa) will totally be destroyed” [2].

If you have read Matthew Walker’s 2017 book Why We Sleep: the New Science of Sleep and Dreams, you may have been shocked to discover that modern science is also telling us that undervaluing the importance of sleep has serious consequences on the length and quality of life. It turns out that:

“the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. The leading causes of disease and death in developed nations—diseases that are crippling health-care systems, such as heart disease, obesity, dementia, diabetes, and cancer—all have recognized causal links to a lack of sleep.” [3]

I’ve learnt a lot about the importance of sleep from this book. Most importantly, we must sleep between 7 and 9 hours each and every night, without exception, to avoid the harm sleep deprivation causes us.

With less than 7 hours of sleep you can objectively show under performance in ALL systems of the human body. To paraphrase, Matthew Walker:

Sleep is the very foundation upon which we build our lives

If we want to live long, happy, healthy and fulfilled lives we MUST give ourselves the opportunity of getting 8.5 hours of sleep each and every night at the same time each day.

T Krishnamarchya repeated the same wisdom almost 100 years ago: “From sleep, one gets physical health and agility. Further, it is not an exaggeration to say that both the body and the mind get rejuvenated by sleep.” [2]

The Yogasūtra of Patañjali – my turn-to text for many questions on yoga and its practice – has an interesting sūtra [YS I.38]:

svapna-nidrā-jñāna-ālambanaṁ va

which translates roughly as:

Mental stability can arise from reflecting on the experiences that come from dreams [svapna] and deep sleep [nidrā].

It comes in the section that presents a range of methods that calm and realign or stabilise the functions of the mind.

There are many esoteric points to be made about this sūtra, but it seems to me that the very first experience or knowledge of dreaming and deep sleep we have is that of having good nights and bad ones. When we sleep badly our minds are far from stable the following day. We all know how rubbish we are when we don’t get enough sleep. The more sleep deprived we are the more disturbed are minds become.

I feel that our modern digital culture disconnects us from what it means to be deeply human and replaced it with something that glitters like gold but isn’t. The greater connectivity to knowledge, its almost indistinguishable opposite: fake news, and to distant people and communities are mixed blessings that can take us away from what really matters in life.

If Shakespeare is someone to go by, then we know that our ancestors knew the value of a good night’s sleep. Look what happened to Macbeth.

Shakespeare points out in six lines the benefits of sleep as “chief nourisher in life’s feast”, “Balm of hurt minds” and how the lack of sleep contributes to Macbeth’s mental deterioration:

Me thought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep,’ the innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.

Macbeth (2.2.46-51)

Again, modern science is showing the importance of sleep and pointing out what happens when you don’t get enough.

In the short video that follows, Matthew Walker lists some of the awful results routine lack of sleep has on our health span, which can be shorter than our life span.

Lack of sleep:

• will actually prevent your brain from being able to make new memories
• will lead to an increase in your risk of going on to develop dementia in later life
• will age you by almost a decade in terms of that aspect of virility and wellness.
• impacts your immune system. So after just one night of four to five hours of sleep, there is a 70% reduction in critical anticancer-fighting immune cells called natural killer cells. And that’s the reason that we know that short sleep duration predicts your risk for developing numerous forms of cancer
• impacts your cardiovascular system because it is during deep sleep at night that nourishes your heart
• gives a 200% increased risk of having a fatal heart attack or stroke in your lifetime

It seems that we can be awake for about 16 hours before needing about eight hours of sleep to repair the damage of wakefulness.

“Wakefulness”, says Matthew Walker, “is essentially is low-level brain damage.”

In this context, it may be reassuring to know that taking up and maintaining a suitable daily yoga practice, which often is simple and easy to do, improves sleep duration and quality. In my experience, improvements in sleep is one of the key benefits reported by people taking up yoga. From a wellness point of view, giving sleep its proper value and priority should be the cornerstone of any strategy to improve quality of life.

Notes & References:

[1] TKV Desikachar, 1995, The Heart of Yoga, p.161

[2] T Krishnamacharya, 1934. Quotation is from p.44 of the Yoga Makaranda: the nectar of yoga. Originally published in the Kannada language in 1934. Revised English translation by TKV DEsikachar with the assistance of ER Ramaswamy Iyengar, 2011

[3] Mathew Walker, 2017, Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams, p. 164

Is there a business case for yoga classes in the workplace? I set out to try and find an answer to that very question. I started by phoning a good friend of mine who has been teaching corporate yoga. That’s yoga in the workplace.

Both of us have experience with teaching yoga in the workplace. But there are a number of challenges to teaching yoga in this context. I’ll get to those later.

In the meantime, yoga is said to be good for employees because it can:

• reduce stress and tension
• increase energy
• help increase strength and overall fitness
• help reduce neck, shoulder and back pain
• improve focus and concentration
• improve posture
• improve relationships with colleagues

But businesses are there to make profits. So what’s in it for businesses if they pay for their staff to attend yoga classes? As another friend of mine has pointed out whenever I mention any form of compassion in the workplace:

“Michael, businesses are not therapy clinics! They exist to maximize profits. So what if their employees get stressed in the process of making loads of money for their directors and shareholders?”

Is my friend being too cynical, I wonder? I think we can say that there are some benefits of yoga for businesses and employees. Yoga in the workplace can:

• boost productivity
• reduce health care costs
• improve staff retention
• reduce absenteeism
• make the workplace feel more humane

While the above all sound honky dory and obvious, I know there is a problem with this analysis.

Why is it that business meetings start getting booked at the same time as yoga classes are supposed to take place? As an employee, you simply can’t decline a meeting request because you would like to practise yoga on your firm’s premises and your lunch / rest time.

Why is it that senior business leaders, who approve the spend on yoga classes for staff, don’t themselves attend those yoga classes?

Do colleagues really get on well enough with each to practise yoga together in the company board room?

Why is it that the people who really champion yoga in the workplace don’t themselves attend?

And why do businesses only give these sort of wellness initiatives short periods of time to prove their value before wanting to try something else?

My feeling is that businesses, like the rest of us, don’t get what yoga is really about.

There is a quotation attributed to the American master yoga teacher, Gary Kraftsow, a student of TKV Desikachar’s, which tells us something crucial about yoga’s true purposes.

Gary explains that:

“The way I was taught, yoga is more about managing and transforming our thoughts, emotions, and behavior than about stretching our hamstrings. And the real work of yoga is about mastering our minds, not mastering handstand.” [1]

When expressed in these words, it’s easier to understand that Yoga is about the Mind. And that realisation should then make it easier to see that Yoga is in fact a school of meditation, for meditation is all about the mind. If yoga is really about managing and transforming our thoughts, emotions and behaviours, then yoga is also about skill action.

This last point is actually a famous definition of yoga found in the Bhagavad Gītā:

“Yoga is skill in action”

Yoga’s practices lead to people with greater skills, especially clarity of thought and insight.

But, I hear you say, isn’t that what every business wants: employees who are skilled in action? Yes, it is. So why this focus on stress reduction and better posture while sitting at a desk?

While researching this article, I came across many stories of CEOs who practise one form or other of the meditative arts.

For instance, I came across Bill George. According to Wikipedia, Bill George started his career in the United States Department of Defense. Then served as a senior executive of Honeywell and Litton Industries. In 1989, he joined the American healthcare giant, Medtronic, as president and chief operating officer. He is a full professor at the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. He has also served as executive-in-residence at the Yale School of Management. Bill George also serves on the boards of directors of Exxon Mobil, Mayo Clinic and Goldman Sachs. He has also sat on the boards of Novartis AG and Target Corporation.

According to the Financial Times, who interviewed him in 2012, he started meditating in 1974.

Bill George is an advocate for bringing meditative practices into business, and has written articles on the subject for the Harvard Business Review. He told the Financial Times in 2012 that:

“The main business case for meditation is that if you’re fully present on the job, you will be more effective as a leader, you will make better decisions and you will work better with other people. I tend to live a very busy life. This keeps me focused on what’s important.” [2]

I also came across international management guru, Laurens Van Den Muyzenberg, while researching this article. He interviewed many business executives in the Asian Tiger economies for the book he co-wrote with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Leader’s Way, which was published in 2008. His research tells us what the real business benefits are for fostering meditative practices as a key business skill. Business leaders and managers who practise meditative arts like yoga exhibit:

• increased ability to deal with a crisis
• better decision making
• better relationships with people directly reporting to them
• the need for fewer meetings
• better execution of decisions
• more creativity
• high levels of enthusiasm for the work they do [3].

This is really very interesting to me. What it suggests is that yoga teachers should not just be bringing yoga mats into board rooms. Yoga mats and the āsana-s (yoga postures) with which we are so familiar encourage the view that yoga is only a form of excercise. Given the limited amount of time available in the workplace to activities that do not obviously look like work, yoga mats / āsana-s are much more suitable for other situations, usually outside the work place. They are generally good for helping one to reduce stress, and increase the functional efficiency of the body, for example, by reducing back and neck pain.

What Van Den Muyzenberg and George seem indirectly to suggest is that yoga teachers might better address the real concerns of business leaders and managers by bringing zafus with them and teaching the yoga arts of prāṇāyāma (attention to the breath) and dhāraṇā (meditation).

The Yoga Sūtra-s and other primary yoga texts, have also something important and useful to say about business ethics, and corporate governance.

Imagine how the effectiveness of businesses and the well being of the people businesses employ and deal with might improve, if leaders started and ended their working days with 15 minutes of seated yoga practices? Or, if there was a monthly exploration and discussion of yoga philosophy, psychology and logic?

How radical would it be to give an experienced yoga teacher an office for a day or two each week and allow business leaders, managers and employees half an hour of one-to-one time to evolve a tailored yoga programme for true personal development.

Yoga is in the business of personal transformation. Business is about transforming stuff too. One meaning of the word Yoga is, in fact, business, enterprise and work. Some would point out that Yoga was not designed to make employees better servants of industry but rather to set them free or to develop peace, love and connection. This is probably true. But Yoga is very much about reducing suffering. It is possible to think about the goals of Yoga and Business as complementary, at least up to a point.

Yoga teachers can’t tell a business leader or manager how to do their job. However, what they can do is help people to improve the way their minds work. To remind them that they have the wherewithal to find the necessary wisdom and courage to make difficult decisions. To encourage confidence in the face of difficulties and to understand the role compassion plays in the long-term authenticity, integrity and success of a business.

There is some evidence from those who practise meditation / yoga and who are in senior positions in business around the world is strikingly pointing towards meditation as a way to develop the various abilities to do the right thing, at the right time, and in the right way. Those decisions, often quite tricky with serious consequences, can be made easier when supported by meditative practices such as yoga.

Business like yoga, it might be said, can both be seen as Skill in Action, although their ultimate goals are different.

References:

[1] I have tried to find the source for this quotation but can’t find it anywhere. But I like it very much and it seems to me to be just the sort of thing Gary Kraftsow might have said.

[2] Financial Times article published 2012 – https://www.ft.com/content/d9cb7940-ebea-11e1-985a-00144feab49a

[3] The benefits listed come from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Laurens van den Muyzenberg’s 2008 book, The Leader’s Way, p39f

[4] Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

I am practising a little light fasting today, and to keep my mind off food I’m alternating writing about it and practising āsana-s and prāṇāyāma-s.

Here, then, is a good opportunity for me to bring together some of what I have discovered over the years about yoga and food.

1. Yogī-s tend to follow a moderate diet

The Bhagavad Gīta (VI.16) tells us that yoga is not for those who over eat or for those who don’t eat enough.

Long fasts are off the to-do list, then, as are snacks!

In hard-core yoga circles, there is a well known formula regarding eating and it goes like this:

A moderate diet (mitāhāra) is rich in foods that provide stability and strength to the body, satisfying three-quarters of one’s hunger, by filling the stomach with two parts food, one part liquid and leaving one part empty

[Haṭhayogapradīpikā (‘HYP’) I.58].

2. What we eat influences the functioning of the mind

I met a chap a few years back, big into yoga, who rather hoped he didn’t have to become a vegetarian to practise yoga when he signed up to train as a yoga teacher. He rather liked a good Sunday roast and couldn’t see himself giving up meat. He ate meat everyday, more or less.

I met him again several years later on a yoga study weekend and was surprised to note he was eating vegetarian. Really? I asked him. And he explained that the change had come about gradually and not on purpose. He felt better in mind and body when eating a plant-based diet. He still eats meat, but mostly it’s a vegetarian diet for him.

My guess is that yoga practices, done regularly, generally have a calming, soothing effect upon the practitioner’s mind and this in turn leads to a greater sensitivity and clarity about who we are, what we are really about and how we want to live.

We become aware that foods influence us in different ways and that some foods echo the positive effects of yoga practice.

There is a Sanskrit word for this and it is Sattva. When we practise yoga, Sattva begins to predominate in an individual resulting in the Sattvic qualities of wisdom, lucidity, detachment, happiness and peacefulness appearing.

3. The link between food and the mind is ancient

The Chāndogya Upaniṣad, possibly composed in the earlier part of 1st millennium before the Roman Emperor, Augustus, says annamayaṁ hi saumya manaḥ, which means something like:

As is the food, so is the mind

Indeed, the subtle link between certain foods and the quality of Sattva is well known.

The Bhagavad Gīta (XVII.8-10), which was composed around 2,500 years ago, tells us that for those people who tend towards this Sattvic state of being (and that is just about everyone who loves and lives yoga), find agreeable those foods that promote life, strength, health, happiness and satisfaction.

Those foods are not stimulating (Rajasic), like bitter, sour, salty, excessively hot, pungent, dry or spicy foods.

Neither are they heavy (Tamasic), like foods that are stale, tasteless, putrid, over processed or going off.

They tend to be foods that are savoury, smooth, firm, hearty and pleasant to the stomach. They are mostly plant-based foods with a little dairy, especially ghee (clarified butter).

In short, Sattva promoting foods are light and nourishing, and they support us not cause us difficulties. From my own experience, some dishes that include meat or fish can be Sattva. Often these are slow cooked with plenty of vegetables.

4. The power of compassionate eating

Yoga offers us an enlightened way to living and one based on non-violence (ahiṁsā). This non-violence or compassion extends, ideally, to all beings, whether human or not. It follows therefore that killing an animal for food is contrary to this aspiration of compassion to all living beings.

I mentioned that a little dairy in the diet promoted Sattva. The milk being collected, in traditional Indian living, from the cow after its calf has had its needs met. The milk is shared between calf and humans, with the calf taking priority. In other words, the calf has not had to die for us to collect the milk, as happens in the West.

The ancient commentators on Patañjali’s Yogasūtra-s, discuss the possibilities that arise when one practises non-violence and this, of course, extends to whether one nourishes one’s body at the expense of another creature’s life.

Violence of every colour diminishes through holistic yoga practices, that is, those that go beyond the yoga exercise system commonly experienced by most of us in the West.

Again, it is a result of the emergence of the quality of Sattva that can happen when you practise yoga regularly and whole-heartedly over a long period of time.

You are not forced to become vegetarian to practise yoga: that would not be a compassionate approach. You should not be criticised for eating whatever you eat for the same reason.

A ‘superpower’ – Siddhi in Sanskrit – develops in someone for whom non-violence / compassion is firmly established and that Siddhi is that hostility disappears in others (YS II.30 & 35).

There is a lovely story of a famous yogī, commonly known as the Buddha. His cousin, Devadatta, was so jealous of him that he unleashed a mad killer elephant on the Buddha. Being so deeply established in compassion (which is the highest form of non-violence), the Buddha radiated loving kindness to such an extent that the elephant could feel it. Just a few steps before it was about to crush the Buddha, it stopped in its path and calmed down.

4. A balanced approach to Plant-based eating

I used to identify as a vegetarian (sometimes as a vegan) only to discover that when on holiday in some parts of the world it meant eating one thing and one thing only. No matter the restaurant, the vegetarian option was spaghetti with tomato sauce. OK, I’m exaggerating, there was also pizza with tomato topping and a green or mixed salad. Yes, I’m still exaggerating, but you get my point that the options can be limiting and not particularly healthy. In fact, it seems to me that the meat eaters get a better selection of vegetables than the vegetarian.

At home, my family and I predominately eat vegetarian or vegan. When we go out, half my family will choose a meat option. I might choose the meat option too – but one that comes with vegetables, because I love eating them. I’ll do this because the vegetarian choice is often more Tamasic than a fish/meat option.

I also discovered that some people, people I really loved, held my dietary stance secretly against me because it seemed a political statement being forced upon them. It was also a faff and a worry for them cooking for me. I woke to the idea that my vegetarianism was, for some at least, a form of hiṁsā – violence. I now accept meat dishes offered by others when doing otherwise would cause upset or offense.

Restricting one’s own diet can be a form of violence to oneself. A friend of mine, also a yoga teacher and longtime vegetarian, needed an operation. Her recovery was not as quick as she expected. After much reflection, she came to the realization that she had to re-introduce meat into her diet to enable her body to repair and heal. It worked. And now she listens to her body, which mostly desires plant-based food and every now and then a little meat.

5. What’s my approach to eating

Over the years, I’ve noticed that my approach to eating has not been the same. It’s been ‘normal’ up until I was 20 when I gave up meat as part of a Lent fast. It was at the end of that fast, while eating a sirloin steak that I realised that I preferred the energy and lightness (Sattva) that comes from plant-based foods to the heaviness (Tamas) of meat.

I eat plants 98% of the time. Lots of different sorts, although today’s supermarkets restrict the range of vegetables.

The 2% allows me to eat meat if I am unwell – it’s difficult to dismiss the healing powers of a well made organic chicken and vegetable soup. The 2% also allows me to eat eggs and cheese and allow my friends to be more relaxed about cooking for me. I can eat out and not be forced to eat vegetarian foods that are Tamasic or Rajasic.

More recently, I have become more willing to understand how animals reared for food suffer.

My food choices happened when I was ready to make them.

If you think what or how you eat is making you ill, please seek some professional advice. Some advice is advisable if you find that your a ready to change you diet to support you better.

Bibliography

TKV Desikachar’s The Heart of Yoga

Eknath Easwaran’s translations of The Bhagavad Gita and The Upanishads

Frans Moors’ translation of The Yoga Sūtras

AG Mohan’s translation of Haṭhayogapradīpikā