April/May 2007

Volume 47, Number 5

Ron Arner Teaches Office Yoga at February Chapter Meeting

by Al Kemp

To open the meeting, President Deb Lockwood congratulated chapter member Tammy Van Boening on her article "Growing a Department of One" published in the February 2007 issue of Intercom and announced that chapter member Frank Tagader has been awarded the position of Associate Fellow.

Ron Arner presenting "Yoga for Relaxation" at February's chapter meeting.

To open his presentation "Office Yoga for Relaxation," Arner warned the audience not to practice yoga on a full stomach. He pointed out that Western medicine is good for acute conditions, and Eastern medicine is good for chronic conditions. If you break your arm, go to a hospital emergency room. Yoga can help reduce the pain after the break has been set.

Yoga is possibly 5000 years old and one of the six original branches of Hindu philosophy. Yoga has eight limbs: restraints (such as non-violence and truthfulness), practices (such as cleanliness and happiness), poses, breath, sensory transcendence, concentration, meditation/contemplation, and transcendence of self/bliss.

Arner offered this definition of yoga: "to unite the finite with the infinite, the individual with the universe." Yoga is a way to improve meditation. Many different kinds of yoga are offered today.

Relating yoga to technical communication, Arner stated: "Hard work can kill you!" Technical communication jobs are notorious for both lack of motion and too much repetitive motion. Working usually involves long commutes through rush-hour traffic, long work days, skimpy or skipped meals, poor lighting, poor air quality, and STRESS! Yoga helps "slow down the monkey mind," improves your energy level, and enables you to relax.

The yoga lifestyle involves rising early for meditation, a nutritious breakfast, a large lunch between 10 am and 2 pm, a 20-minute refresher nap (lying on the left side), light exercise, a light dinner before 6 pm, and going to bed by 10 pm. The body's "metabolism window" is between 10 pm and 2 am. During that period the body restores itself best. After describing the yoga lifestyle, Arner asked the audience rhetorically: "Is this what your day is like?"

Breath meditation is an important part of yoga. Traditional yogis teach that if you can control your breath, you can control your life. Arner asked his audience to meditate on breath and practice proper breathing by assuming good posture, breathing deeply through the nose, and placing the hands on the abdomen.

Arner presented a variety of office yoga exercises for various parts of the body: eyes, neck, shoulders, upper body, arms, hands, abdominal muscles, lower body, and feet. For eyes, follow the 20/20/20 rule to avoid computer vision syndrome (CVS). Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

Arner's eye exercises included:

• Rub hands together and then warm the eyes
• "Clock eyes": rotate the eyes as though following the hands of a clock (both clockwise and counter-clockwise)
• Thumb and focal point (choose a stationary point roughly 20 feet in front of you; hold your thumb in front of you; look at the point, look at your thumb, and alternate between the two)
• Thumb to nose (start with your thumb away from your face and watch your thumb while you bring it up to your eyes and then move it away again)

For the other parts of the body, Arner demonstrated and had the audience practice several sets of exercises that can be performed while sitting in an office chair. In addition, he discussed and demonstrated exercises involving standing poses.

Every yoga practice should end with relaxation. Arner demonstrated the soothing effect of relaxing music and aromas as well as several poses appropriate for a 10-minute period of guided relaxation.

In closing, Arner advised: "If you have a problem area, you should strengthen the area around it." He referred the audience to an excellent pose finder at www.yogajournal.com. You select an anatomical focus (such as neck or knees), a therapeutic application (such as anxiety or carpal tunnel syndrome), and a contra-indication/caution (such as knee injury or high blood pressure), and the Web site recommends a set of poses.

Following the presentation, many audience members commented on the therapeutic effects of the exercises they had just practiced.