Yoga: The Entrepreneur’s Self Care Weapon for Resilience and Success

Just like every other Kingston Chamber member, I’m keen to develop my small business. That’s why I joined this group. I also signed up for the Go Growth Programme and have learned something useful to apply in every single session. One of the latest workshops delivered by Giselle Monbiot was on wellbeing for business owners, which is a topic that’s very close to my heart. I run a local yoga therapy studio, Be Happy Yoga.

Personal wellbeing is one of the things that a hard-working small business owner is least likely to make time for and yet it has the potential to be their biggest gamechanger. Taking a bit of time to care for yourself means you will have more to give to others – customers, employees and your friends and family. SME owners invest in marketing automation, new websites, CRM systems, management accountants, SEO and so on, but tend not to invest in themselves. And yet in many cases, they are the driving forces behind their businesses.

It is why studies during 2022 and 2023 consistently demonstrated high levels of burnout and stress among small business owners, with percentages ranging from 37% to 56% experiencing burnout or negative impacts on their mental health. Not surprising because as we all know, starting and running a business is probably one of the most difficult challenges anyone can take on. It requires huge amounts of energy and personal resilience.

Giselle Monbiot describes resilience as developing a ‘window of tolerance’ to stresses. When resilience improves, the window widens and you become less susceptible to the negative effects of stress. As a yoga therapist it was familiar ground and something I’ve worked on personally for myself over many years. Most people think yoga is something you do if you want to become more flexible, but that’s only a small benefit. The real changes run much deeper.

Yes, yoga makes us look good in Lululemon. It gives us abs, pert bums and a toned body, but more importantly, it also affects the way our brains are wired. It tones our nervous systems and directly influences our automatic responses to the inevitable stressful situations we all encounter when running a business. Yoga does this by changing how the vagus nerve – the largest nerve in our bodies and one that controls our stress responses – operates. Instead of going straight into a ‘fight or flight’, agitated response mode, we can learn to remain calm in a more relaxed nervous state. We develop a greater window of tolerance and become more resilient to stresses, with what medics call improved heart rate variability or vagal toning.

Athletes work on building their heart rate variability to recover quickly from extreme physical exertion, but it’s a skill that’s particularly beneficial for small business owners. Resilience is our ability to recover from everyday challenges and bounce back quickly from stressors.

Many independent studies have demonstrated that yoga helps to balance the autonomic nervous system by increasing parasympathetic activity while decreasing sympathetic activity. This leads to improved vagal tone and heart rate variability (HRV), which in turn improves resilience, boosts cognitive functioning and enhances overall performance. The results are observable in a short timeframe.

4 Ways Yoga Can Support Entrepreneurs and Business Owners

• Improved Cognitive Functioning and Emotional Resilience – Better focus and decision-making capabilities.

• Stress Reduction and Better Emotional Regulation – A calmer, more balanced approach to handling business challenges.

• Enhanced Overall Physical Health – Reducing the risk of common ailments like shoulder and neck tension, lower back pain associated with sedentary working.

• Higher Performance Under Pressure – Improved negotiating and presentation skills.

Lesley Muir is an award-winning Yoga Therapist and Teacher, specialising in offering yoga practices that emphasise the total health and wellbeing benefits of yoga. In February 2024, Be Happy Yoga, the yoga studio she founded, won Best Sports and Fitness at the Kingston Borough Business Awards.

After a mistaken belief that ‘yoga was for old people’, she became hooked in her 30s, when her dad gave her a book of basic postures and advised her to ‘slow down’. She used this to develop her own home practice, it was the start of a life changing journey.

She is a graduate of one of the world’s most advanced yoga therapy diploma training programmes for experienced yoga teachers, the YogaCampus Yoga Therapy Diploma. This training is unique in taking a medicalised approach, focusing on the many health benefits that can be achieved from yoga – addressing musculoskeletal problems; digestive problems; cancer; respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, mental health issues and all aspects of women’s health including menopause and pregnancy. She also teaches teens, encouraging them to develop yoga as a life skill and is a peripatetic yoga teacher at local schools.

Before re-training as a yoga therapist, Lesley ran her own PR agency and was a visiting lecturer on MSc programmes at the London School of Economics, where she co-convened the MSc Corporate Communications elective. She loves being in nature and exploring, outdoor swimming, family life and of course, yoga!

Be Happy Yoga is a boutique studio offering individualised yoga therapy, one to one yoga sessions and inclusive, small group classes that cater for each person’s needs. Teaching is based on the belief that ‘yoga is for every body’ and should be enjoyed and accessible by anyone, regardless of health issues.

For more information visit www.behappyyoga.fit or call 07796 148400.

Improve Your Resilience with Yoga: I offer 60 min stress buster sessions for busy business owners looking to improve their personal wellbeing and resilience.

Chamber Members Special Offer: 10% discount on 10-session block bookings.
Contact me via l[email protected] for more details.

Further Reading:

If you are interested in understanding how researchers have studied the resilience-building benefits of yoga, here are three good studies:

1. Randomised Controlled Trial (2021) – Significant improvements in heart rate variability after 12 weeks of yoga therapy compared to a control group:
https://yogauonline.com/yoga-practice-teaching-tips/yoga-research/yoga-and-the-vagus-nerve/) and (https://www.livescience.com/does-yoga-stimulate-the-vagus-nerve).

2. Conceptual Study on Yoga and Vagal Toning – Yoga reduces sympathetic activity and increases parasympathetic activity, improving vagal tone:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359892291_Yoga_Practice_and_Vagal_Toning_A_Conceptual_Study) and https://wisdomtreeyoga.com/news/feeling-better-from-brain-to-belly-befriending-your-vagus-nerve-with-yoga/.

3. Open-Trial Pilot Studies – Improvements in well-being measures and increased rate of recovery during a cycling challenge: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728954/).