Can Yoga Help Decrease Stress in a Workplace Environment?

Can Yoga Help Decrease Stress in a Workplace Environment?
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Introduction
In the modern society there is a growing concern over the increasing occurrence of stress in the work place. The existing state of economy has led to an increase in un-conducive working environment where workers often overwork, experience low degrees of job satisfaction, job insecurity and also lack autonomy. Workers in the course of their duties sometimes have to respond to situations that pose challenge or threat. Such situations requires significant amount of mental or physical effort (Bickford, 2005). Stress comes in two forms; eustress (good) and distress (bad). Eustress is a form of stress resulting from some work pressures and that results in achieving higher goals or propelling through challenging situations. On the other side, distress causes significant emotional and physical discomforts hence impacts negatively on the performance of workers (Colligan & Higgins, 2005). Several studies have shown that workplace stress leads to low performance due to absenteeism and low motivation at work place. There is a need therefore to prevent or alleviate stress at work place. This paper is aimed at demonstrating how Yoga Help Decrease Stress in a Workplace Environment.
Stress has been considered as a normal adaptive reaction to stressors within our environment. Every person has a set of automatic responses that deals with stress. These primitive responses ‘fight or flight’ are only effective for the short term when we are faced with instant danger. This means that the biological adaptive responses are not effective in dealing with stress. It has been demonstrated that physiologically, the body reacts in a similar manner to all types of stressors. When a person is exposed to stressors for a long, like experiencing lower but constant stress at work, these systems remains activated and never reverts to the state of being turned off. This reaction is considered as generalized stress response and presents as follows among the stressed employees; high blood pressure, higher rates of blood clotting, increased stomach acid, increased metabolism, high rates of blood sugar production, decreased rate of protein synthesis, decreased intestinal movement (digestion), decreased allergic and immune response, localized inflammation (swelling, redness, heat and pain), increased fatty acids and cholesterol in blood to facilitate energy production (Bickford, 2005).
When the body remains in the state of generalized stress response, an individual portrays signs and symptoms that are psychosocial, physical or behavioral in nature. Some of these signs and symptoms include; headaches, chest pain, pounding heart, high blood sugar, constipation or diarrhea, fatigue, indigestion, clenched jaws, insomnia, frequent illness, anxiety, sadness, defensiveness, irritability, mood swings, anger, apathy, hypersensitivity, depression, racing thoughts or slowed thinking, feelings of hopelessness, helplessness or being trapped, loss of appetite or overeating, quickness to argue, impatience, procrastination, drug abuse, poor job performance, withdrawal or isolation, strained relationships etc.( Bickford, 2005).
Stress in the work place is a global chal...