I read an article in a paper and came across the expression “presenteeism”. This is a very interesting concept. It means that the employee is present at work, turns up every day, dutifully, punctually BUT their performance is ineffective or non-existent.

Obviously their mind is elsewhere or they are simply unable to focus on the task at hand. Imagine how inefficient this person is and worse, how many mistakes they make. Let’s hope the person has some sort of office job where people’s lives’ aren’t at risk.

I am sure we all had days of “presenteeism” at work when there were major things happening in our lives. I think this is just part of the deal when you hire a human being. They are not robots. Years ago these things could be dealt with relatively easily with colleagues taking on some of the extra load for a little while and and if the boss was understanding and you were a valued staff member, things returned back to normal after a little while without any fuss.

According to research done by one of the biggest private health funds here in Australia (Medibank Private) this “presenteeism” costs employers a staggering $10.11 billion per year! Imagine what that figure might be worldwide.

What worries me about all of this is the following: this form of being there in body but not in spirit is not caused by major, temporary upheavals in a person’s life. It is caused by chronic, ongoing stress, constant overload at work and eventually the system (in this case the mind and later the body) breaks down.

It is not a temporary problem and to me it seems that it is paving the way to what is referred to as “burnout”. Burnout is a state where the person has absolutely nothing left to give, the mind is in tatters, the body displays all sorts of strange symptoms. I have seen students in this state - it takes a long time to recover and the sad thing is - some people never fully recover.

Don’t let this happen to you! Take action before it is too late. Attending regular Yoga classes will certainly go a long way to prevent total disaster but in the long run you need to look at your career, your job, your life.

Connie,

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://yogainahurry.com

I know that many of you are interested in the powers of the mind, and realise that your thoughts do in fact create your reality.

I don’t expect you all to believe that creative visualisations actually work. Just imagine for a second that they do work, that you can achieve what you turn your mind to. How important do you think is it, to control your mind?

I mean how important is it - really - to be in possession of an optimistic, expectant, intention-based mindset? Is life REALLY Good?

What do you think?  Hold that thought for a minute?

What was your answer?

Did you answer — both?  Good AND Bad?

So did most everyone else…

Do you “do what you like and like what you do”?

Is the glass “half full”?

Is the leftover pie on the plate half eaten?

There is a line that is crossed with each result we have in life.

Ask yourself these questions:

Is your weight “half empty” or “half full”?

How about your purse?  Half empty or half full?

What about your relationships?

How about your health?

What about your general *luck* in life?

What about your self esteem?

How about your looks?

“Half empty” or “half full”?

What are your results in those areas that are “half empty”?

What about the ones that are “half full”?

See what I mean?

Let’s face it, we all don’t have hours every day for each of these issues to go and meditate on a mountain top somewhere to solve these problems.  However, your bank account, concentration, health, kindness, weight, happiness, expectation, optimism and intention can all be improved each day — every day in a row — with some amazing CDs (downloadable).

Have a look here https://paydotcom.com/r/47928/ConnieY/20228651/ I really love them, they are great!

They even come with a 30 day guarantee! 

The only thing you need to do is relax, listen to these audios as the most calming, soothing voice places incredibly positive messages into your subconscious mind.

Everything else will take care of itself!

It just happens!!

Give it a shot and check it out for yourself!

https://paydotcom.com/r/47928/ConnieY/20228651/

Choose your future today.

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com 

An article in the Sunday Telegraph of 17.8.08 caught my eye. It was entitled: “Outdoor sports loosing players”.

It began by stating that statistics showed that less people were participating in traditional outdoor sports. Participation had declined over the past 5 years. The number one reason seems to be  lack ot time. One in five people did not exercise at all.

The sports for which numbers decreased were:

Tennis by 33%, bushwalking 24% and swimming 19%. Golf, basketball and netball participation also declined.

Aerobics, walking, cycling, touch football, weight training, running and cricket had increased participation rates.

The star performer was yoga  - with a 53% increase in participation in the state of New South Wales.

My take on this:

Cycling and walking may have increased due to spiralling petrol prices. Bushwalking has gone down because of the time factor combined with high petrol prices. Most people have to drive a fair way to get to the start of a walk.

I also believe that sports go in and out of favour like fashion. Some are more trendy that others at the moment. Outdoor sports may also have gone down in popularity because people are worried about too much sun exposure, especially for their children. Most children spend a lot of time in front of computers and with other gadgets, walk less and are generally much unfitter than the last generation. Sport and outdoor play is not something all children naturally gravitate to any more.  

Why has yoga become so popular?

My guess is that people are discovering how great they feel after a class, that it takes care of their mind and body. No other form of exercise leaves you feeling quite the same. Even a so-called “stretch-class” feels different. This is not my biased opinion! A lot of my students have said so!

It is the one space of time in an otherwise very hectic week during which they don’t have to worry about anyone else except themselves. It is peaceful and quiet. Minimal equipment is needed. 

Maybe I should ask my students what is the most important benefit for them and why they started attending classes.

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com 

After I published my last post about how we should be mindful with our words, I received an email containing the following story: 

A bishop met a woman at the markets. It was known that this woman spread all kinds of gossip everywhere she went.  The bishop took the goose which the woman had just bought, plucked all the feathers and scattered them in all directions.

The woman was wondering about the bishop’s strange behaviour and asked in astonishment why he was doing this. The bishop replied to her: “Go and collect all these feathers, every single one of them!  You carelessly cast all your words to the wind. I scattered the feathers in all directions the same way you spread your words. Go and see whether you can get all the feathers back again. “  After the bishop said this to the woman, she suddenly understood that words, once spoken, are very difficult to capture again.

From this time onwards the woman was much more cautious with her words.

Thank you Irmgard for this lovely tale.

Till next time,

Connie,

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com
 

I had an interesting discussion with a friend of mine just a couple of days ago. Her daughter, who is only 12 years old, wanted her own personal website. After a lot of family discussions it was decided that she was going to have her own site. There would be strict rules attached in regards to the management of the site.

One of the things her mother said to her was: “Remember, once you put something out there onto the web, once it is published, it is out of your control, you cannot take it back, no matter what you do.”

I had never really thought about the web this way. I suppose the word  “web”  says it all. Think of the spider web - whatever gets trapped in there doesn’t ever get out. If it is not eaten straight away it gets wrapped up and conserved by the resident spider to be consumed another day.

It suddenly dawned on me that removing something from my blog or site does not really remove it from the web or the world. Whatever I write will possibly stay out there forever. Quite a scary thought. What if I change my mind about something? Of course it also depends on how widely read my blog is, but nevertheless an article could circulate in weird and wonderful ways till the end of time. (or till the end of civilisation as we know it!)

The lesson is: only write and publish things that you can live with, that are in harmony with your being, your philosophy, your way of thinking and that do no harm to other beings in any way.

Of course the same goes for thoughts, words and deeds. Once a word is spoken, a thought is thought or you have done something it also cannot be taken back, cannot be undone. You might think that at least words or thoughts are not written and there is no trace left.

Yogic thinking is very different. Everything is energy, also thoughts and words. Very focused thoughts and strong intentions are particularly powerful. Once you send your words and thoughts out into the ether, they take on a life of their own. Beware especially of negative thoughts and words. Don’t put them out there. In a way they are going to be out there forever too, just not as tangible as something that I publish on the web. The energy of those thoughts and words may be changed into something else but in essence energy never gets lost, just transmuted.

Somewhere I once read that it was lucky that most people only had fairly muddled, shallow and scattered thoughts. Those thoughts were out there, floating around and muddying the waters so to speak, but they were not powerful and therefore didn’t do much damage. They never amounted to anything much. In contrast, laser-sharp focus and clear, directed thoughts were extremely powerful and always created tangible results. For this reason you have to be very careful what you wish for….

I heard all this a long time ago, long before it became “fashionable” to think that way. I firmly believe that the mind and the web are very powerful tools for creating all sorts of amazing results. Just use them wisely.

Till next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com