Office yoga is here! We are all intelligent beings, and within our amazingly intricate heads exist our sensing organs, beautiful hair, and the most important of all — two cerebral/brain hemispheres.

While it may seem as though the left hemisphere is the most important because it is what helps us analyze and be sensible and business-like, it’s still true that whatever your occupation may be, you will no doubt benefit from the right hemisphere as well. This is where creativity and intuition lives, regardless if you’re a business manager, secretary, bookkeeper, chef, or driver.

Generally, the left brain hemisphere is responsible for sensibility — it processes what you hear and it also makes logical calculations that are required. If you need to recall a fact, for example, it’s the left hemisphere of the brain that will search and find it from everything in your mind.
The right hemisphere, on the other hand, is largely responsible for spatial abilities, recognizing faces, and processing music and visuals to understand what we are sensing. It can do some math as well, but it is mostly restrained to comparisons and evaluations. The right hemisphere also plays an important role in communicating, mainly to follow context and figure out the nuances of the speaker’s voice.

Therefore, it is very important for us to use the power and advantages of both hemispheres at once (and office yoga exercise can help there)! Of course, we already do that. But the question is, how can we make maximum use of it?

If you combined the capabilities of both hemispheres — and we do that at every moment — we can both analyze numbers and socialize pleasantly. We can both understand the seriousness of situations and find creative solutions to them. We do this already, but we can boost that ability to be even better at it!

How? Quite easily! It is well known that the right hemisphere of the brain commands the muscles of the right side of the body and the left hemisphere commands the left side.

Therefore, to activate the right hemisphere, it’s helpful to draw or doodle for a few minutes with the left hand! And only then should you start performing the task you needed to boost your abilities for!

TIP:
At your next meeting, put both hands’ fingertips together under the table (or on it) — this will help you connect the abilities of both cerebral hemispheres in the sense of yoga philosophy. Try it to see if you feel a difference!

Office Yoga Exercise: Alternate Nostril Breathing

Time it takes: 3 minutes

Before an important meeting or performance, try this alternate nostril breathing technique.

Alternate nostril breathing activates both brain hemispheres, in the sense of yoga. The office yoga exercise is suitable to be done at any point throughout the day and balances the whole organism.

Photos: Kristin Hansen

To perform this office yoga exercise, sit in a chair with your back straight and your eyes closed. Close your right nostril with your right thumb and breathe in through your left nostril. Then alternate — close your left nostril with your index finger, and continue slow and deep breathing (breathe in for at least 4 seconds and out for the same amount of time) and change nostrils/fingers after each breath.

Keep your nostrils open towards the ceiling. Continue for 3-5 minutes and sit for 3-4 breaths after that, with your eyes still closed.

When you open your eyes and carry on with your daily tasks, you will feel more balanced and relaxed, which will, in turn, make your brain better at its tasks.

Start document management with managing yourself with office yoga! 😉

Have a good workday!