In this blog, we talk to Deepak Tanwar from our Talent team, about the start of Absolutdata’s in-office Corporate Yoga program and why they decided to move it online after the COVID pandemic hit.


 

First, tell us about the Corporate Yoga program.

Corporate Yoga, as the name reflects, is a yoga program for employees at our corporate premises. We started it three years ago. It’s conducted within working hours to motivate employees to harmonize the physical body, the spiritual body, and the mind.

We are living in an age when everyone is so stressed out. There are various personal and professional responsibilities and social and economic pressures. Stress has started giving mental trauma to individuals, and it’s hard to achieve one’s full potential. Also, time management for keeping oneself fit has become a major issue. This was a need that we wanted to meet for all of our colleagues.
 

Why did you choose Yoga?

Anxiety, depression, stress, and negativity are harming humans so much – especially in the ongoing pandemic scenario, but also before it. We needed a therapy that is easy to understand, safe to perform, has no side effects, and takes us back to our roots and feeling closer to nature.

Also, technology and our materialistic aspirations have taken us miles away from nature, losing the sense of togetherness with everything that our bodies, minds, and souls need to live a good and balanced life. We need an effective food for our bodies and minds to stay healthy, which includes essential nutrients for both physical and mental health.
 

Tell us more about the practice of Yoga.

The term “Yoga” comes from a Sanskrit word meaning “union” – the perfect food which creates a perfect combination of physical and mental discipline by managing stress and anxiety. It also increases flexibility, muscle strength, and body tone. And most find it thoroughly relaxing.

The goal is to bring the right kind of balance into our breath, awareness, and thoughts, and thus to live our lives in the most effective way.
 

How did Corporate Yoga get started?

Three years ago, we realized the challenges our people must be facing to their health and fitness. So we started conducting hour-long yoga sessions in our building. Our in-house trainers (who were themselves still in the learning stage), started teaching others the

 basics – physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation techniques.

People participated with great enthusiasm. In fact, the entire program worked so well that many of our employees moved to professional yoga institutes to learn the next levels of this great and ancient Indian practice. The motivation of practicing yoga in-office received a major boost when we saw the interest levels. It went right from the top management to the lower staff.
 

Corporate Yoga was well-established at your office. How did you decide to move it online after COVID struck?

The entire world was gripped by this deadly virus. Lockdown hit people’s mental and physical health the most. With absolutely everything under curfew in our area, people were forced to stay indoors. There was no permission even to go for a walk.

Considering our company was already moving into the ‘work from home’ mode, we moved our in-office yoga sessions online as well. Even the harshest days of the pandemic couldn’t stop us from staying fit at home by participating in ‘Corporate Lockdown Yoga’.

The modern-day version of exercising takes care of the external part of the body only. It ignores the inner purity needed to sustain the pressures of modern life. Yoga now has become a routine part of our lifestyle at Absolutdata. It’s been vital to keep the minds, bodies, and souls of our employees calm, clear, and energized while they work from home.