Women make up nearly 30% of the total workforce in India. Till date, there has been no single, comprehensive, large, scale study carried out in the country which does justice to the problems faced by women in the workplace.
For 90% of the working women, the workplace is often the second job that they shoulder – even when they are career oriented women. All studies on stress therefore have to be focused taking into account the multiple stressors that women have to face.
5 myths about stress
- Long hours of work can stress you
If you always believed that working long hours was the perfect trigger for creating stress, think again. Professor of Management and Department Chairman, Walton College of Business, Dan Ganster and his team have found that it is not how long you work but how you work that causes stress.
- It is the company CEO and senior manageress who is most stressed.
Dr. Andrew Steptoe of University College, London found that, it was the senior executive women who suffered more stress. Where as stress induced heartburn and headaches happened lower down in the male workplace
- Has Stress no effect on a woman’s fertility
- Stressed women are more vulnerable to menstrual pain
Doctors in China have found that women who are stressed have double the risk of suffering pain during menstruation than women who are not stressed.
- Housework is not stressful
Only a home maker knows how much stress she undergoes each day as she rushes to get the kids ready for school, the tiffin ready for her husband, children and herself even as she juggles with endless number of unfinished chores.
Yoga is an ideal stress buster for the working woman
Yoga is an ideal way for working women to combat stress.At Arogya Dhama we have researched on the effects of several different yoga practices and have found that the regular practice of Bhujangasana, Salabhasana, Dhanurasana, Malasana, Sasankasana, Supta Vajrasana, and Bandhakonasana, Viparta Karani Kriya, Sarvangasana, Matsyasana, Halasana, Sirsasana, followed by shavasana, nadishuddhi pranayama and meditation on om for about 5 mins can be beneficial to women who suffer from menstrual Issuess like decreased flow, pain during menses, irregular and reduced frequency of menstrual cycles. As mentioned about stress is not in the situation but it is your response pattern that causes all the distress. As a human race we all have the inbuilt freedom to change our response pattern towards a healthy and harmonious way. Yoga is the trick to do this. To reverse your pattern of response it is very important to practice slow breathing with awareness several times in a day even during working hours. The natural ability of a mother to nurture soft feelings of pure devotion is to be cultured as a special trick to handle stress.
Baddha Konasana
Baddha means caught, restrained. Kona means an angle. In this posture, sit on the floor, bring the hells near the perineum, catch the feet and widen the thighs until the knees touch the floor on either side. This is how Indian cobbler sit.
Technique
- Sit on the floor with the legs stretched straight in front.
- Bend the knees and bring the feet closer to the trunk.
- Bring the soles and heels of the feet together and catching the feet near the toes, bring the heels near the perineum. The outer sides of both feet should rest on the floor, and the back of the heels should touch the perineum.
- Widen the thighs and lower the knees until they touch the floor.
- Interlock the fingers of the hands, grip the feet firmly, stretch the spine erect and gaze straight ahead or at the tip of the nose.
- Place the elbows on the thighs and press them down. Exhale, bend forward, rest the head, then the nose and lastly the chin on the floor. Hold this position from half a minute to a minute to a minute with normal breathing.
- Inhale, raise the trunk from the floor and come back to position (step 5)