How Yoga Can Improve Your Communication Skills

Let’s face it! I was pretty skeptical when I thought about trying yoga.  I wondered how yoga could ever be a full “workout” without running, biking or doing circuit training and sweating!  But, my friends encouraged me to give it a try and go into it with an open mind.  Just because you are not breaking out into a full sweat doesn’t mean your body isn’t getting a work out, right?

So, I headed over to a local yoga and barre studio to learn more about yoga.  I started out with a basic class to learn the poses and terms.  Downward dogs and sun salutations were not words I was familiar with.  But after trying a few sessions of the basic class, I felt I was ready for something more.  In fact, I felt a little different.  My body felt stretched and limber and I wanted to try something a little bit harder.

As I was in a pose during my Yin Yoga class, I thought about how yoga might affect communication skills.  As a corporate trainer, speaker and communication coach I was beginning to feel over the course of the last few weeks a new sense of calm, more balance and my stress level was down.  Could this be due to yoga?  I began to wonder how yoga would affect my own job performance?

Communication is essential for success in life.  I’ve always felt that success is led by the power of communication.  We send visual and behavioral messages all day long that speak volumes about who you are. These messages, along with your verbal skills can greatly affect your level of impact and achievement.  We all want to be perceived as honest, sincere, confident, knowledgeable and credible in our jobs and communication is a big part of this.  I was learning that with each yoga session and the practice of meditation helped me feel better with my own communication with my family and my co-workers.

So finally, what have I learned about yoga and communication?  It not only helped me with decreasing my stress level, I felt more balanced as a person.  In tense situations in my work, I have learned that by being calm, I can solve problems quicker. I had a better attitude and also became a better listener.  Yin yoga has helped me release unwanted tension in my body which created higher levels of stress in the first place!

I have also found that my confidence in situations where I may not be comfortable has gotten better.  Learning how to pause and “find my breath” have been so beneficial to me!  It has led me to being more mindful and respectful of others even when I may not agree.  We live in an uncivil world today so practicing the art of kindness is so important in our personal and professional lives.

If we all just take a moment to breathe, speak from our hearts and notice the beauty in others not only will the world be a better place, I believe your communication skills will benefit from it!

I will definitely continue my yoga classes with a much better perspective. You’ll be happy to know that I have “upped my game.” I’m now trying vinyasa yoga, which by the way, is a phenomenal workout and I’m sweating off all of my worries and stress. I recommend you give it a try if haven’t already and you will notice an overall improvement in your communication skills too.

To learn more about Treva and her work, visit www.trevagraves.com