Yoga and Ayurveda Perspective on Workplace Well-Being

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Yoga and Ayurveda are two ancient traditions originating from India that emphasize multidimensional and holistic well-being of all. Workplace well-being holds a significant place for people considering the centrality of work in their lives and the sheer amount of time and effort expended.[1]

This article discussing workplace well-being from the perspectives of Yoga and Ayurveda has been taken from the paper "Well-Being at Workplace: A Perspective from Traditions of Yoga and Ayurveda" (2020) by C. Dagar & A. Pandey in S. Dhiman (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Well-Being.

परिचयः ॥ Introduction[1]

The term happiness is frequently used analogous to terms such as well-being and quality of life and signifies both individual and social welfare.[2]

A broad examination of the history of happiness highlights that its definition has evolved over time.

The spiritual view of happiness emphasizes the internal orientation that aims at the freedom from external sources of pain and pleasure and accepting the world with all its beauty and distortions.[3] Venerable to the spiritual view of happiness, Haidt[4] explains that one has to delve internally, and the external world cannot bring more than momentary happiness. He also mentions that there are some externals (relationships, work, the degree of control) that matter and are worth striving for to enhance the level of happiness. Haidt reconsiders happiness and states that it engenders from the link between self and others, self and work, and self and the beyond which is something bigger than the self.

Flourishing as a concept is associated with happiness[4] and high levels of well-being[5] and is defined as a state of complete or maximal well-being coupled with optimal functioning.[6] It is a holistic and broader representation of well-being comprising of intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions.[6][7]

As noted, work is one of the determinants of well-being and a potential means to flourish. Also, as per the report by World Health Organization (WHO) (1995), workplace constitutes a premise where individuals spend a substantial amount of time. Therefore, it is pivotal that individuals thrive and flourish at the workplace.

Yoga is a mind-body-based contemplative practice that aims at the integration of mind, body, and spirit. Its objectives include to cultivate a state of equilibrium, harmony, and a sense of awareness.[8] The Sanskrit word Ayurveda means “science of longevity.” It is not confined to being merely a system of medicine to prevent and treat diseases; it is a way to lead a healthy and fulfilling life.[9] Similar to Yoga, it is a holistic system that perceives a (whole) person as a combination of body, mind, and soul.[10] The practices underlying the traditions of both Yoga and Ayurveda aim at the complete well-being of an individual encompassing physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions (e.g., Rioux 2014).[11]

The aim of this article is to understand well-being in the context of the traditions of Yoga and Ayurveda and how the underlying philosophy and practices in these two ancient traditions have implications at the workplace and in management scholarship.

Health, Well-Being and Flourishing[1]

The conclusion of World War II that left the world in suffering and distress initiated the need to systematically study better life and multifold well-being.[12] The initial studies of Jahoda[13] and Gurin et al.[14] that are seminal works on mental health have made way for subsequent research on mental health through the study of subjective well-being.[12] Furthermore, the study of hedonic[15][16] and eudaimonic[17][18] aspects of well-being has formed the pillars that define flourishing.[6] This section presents an overview of health, happiness, and well-being literature and its connection with flourishing.

Health and Well-Being

Considering the concept of health, Keyes[19] notes that throughout our history, health has been defined with respect to three paradigms. Namely,

  1. Pathogenic ie. health as absence of disability, disease and premature death.
  2. Salutogenic ie. health as presence of positive human capacities and functioning.
  3. Complete state that is derived from ancient word for health, hale, denoting whole and strong.

Historically, the pathogenic approach has been dominant as earlier curing illnesses took precedence. However, the focus of the healthcare system to improve health by merely curing-preventing illnesses has come short of addressing the notion of complete health.

If we look at well-being, two schools of thoughts exist :

  1. Subjective well-being (hedonic) that includes happiness, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect.[15]
  2. Psychological well-being (eudaimonic) that consists of a sense of purpose or meaning, personal enhancement, and so on.[17]

Subjective well-being refers to an individual’s evaluations of one’s own life comprising of both affective and cognitive aspects.[20] An individual with high subjective well-being experiences more pleasant than unpleasant emotions, more pleasures than pains, is engaged in interesting activities, and is (generally) satisfied with one’s life. Although numerous facets underlie a valuable life and mental health, the subjective well-being view emphasizes the individual’s own evaluations of one’s life.

Some of the human qualities such as kindness, humility, and forgiveness have a universal positive appeal for the very reason that they represent morally virtuous behavior and strength of character.[21] This perspective directly links to the eudaimonic view of well-being that stresses on the principles of expression and achievement of highest aspirations and inner potentials of an individual. Research highlights the strong association of specific values (hope, zest, gratitude, love, curiosity) with happiness and life satisfaction for both youth and adults.[22][23]

Flourishing

The research done on health, happiness, and well-being has served as the foundation to conceptualize flourishing. Flourishing as a term, in contemporary psychology, appears in the work of Corey Keyes[6] where he defines the continuum of mental health, separate from the continuum of mental illness, as comprising of a state of complete well-being (flourishing), moderate mental health, and languishing (incomplete mental health). Emphasizing the point that mental health is more than the absence of mental illness, Keyes[6] (2002) defines complete mental health as a state where an individual is free of all mental illness and is flourishing. There are four conceptualizations of flourishing by

  1. Keyes[6]
  2. Huppert and So[24]
  3. Diener et al[25]
  4. Seligman[7]

They highlight that flourishing has been operationalized in different ways. However, there exists a similarity with respect to two aspects.

  • Firstly, flourishing is associated with high levels of subjective well-being.
  • Secondly, well-being represents a multidimensional construct that cannot be adequately measured using single-item assessment.[5]

The primacy of flourishing in the various domains of life is evident from the research that indicates that happy people when compared to those who are less happy tend to function competently in life; they are relatively more productive, seek more social engagement, and tend to earn higher incomes.[20][26]Also, people who experience higher happiness or subjective well-being than those low in subjective well-being exhibit a more self-enhancing and enabling attributional style, and this suggests the key role of positive emotions in engendering positive cognitions, which consequently promotes further positive emotions.[27]

There are examples in experimental social psychology that specify the benefits of positive emotional experiences such as the influence on people’s perception and how they interpret social behaviors and initiate social interactions.[28] [29] Other upsides of experiencing positive emotions include people making positive evaluations (for both themselves and others) and lenient attributions, expressing more confidence, optimism, and being more accommodative in social relationships.[30][31][32]

Well-Being at Workplace

Well-being at work is defined as an experience, which is influenced by factors, such as the internal culture and organizational ways of functioning, and by personal internal resources (Biggio and Cortese 2013). Three general sets of factors have been posited that influence well-being at the workplace (Danna and Griffin 1999). These encompass

  1. Work setting (health, safety hazards)
  2. Personal characteristics (Type A or B behavior, locus of control)
  3. Occupational stress (factors pertaining to the job, role and relationships at work, career progression, structure and climate of organization).

Additionally, two interrelated sets of consequences of well-being in the workplace have been noted (Danna and Griffin 1999). They comprise of

  1. Individual-level physical, psychological, and behavioral consequences.
  2. Organizational-level consequences, which are health insurance costs, productivity, and absenteeism.

Workplace well-being has been conceptualized as comprising of hedonic well-being, eudaimonic well-being, and social well-being. Additionally, workplace concepts display an extent of overlap with the three components of well-being:

  1. Subjective well-being ie. job satisfaction and positive attitudes, positive and negative affect.
  2. Eudaimonic well-being. For e.g. engagement, meaning, growth, calling.
  3. Social well-being For e.g. quality connections, satisfaction with coworkers, high-quality exchange relationships with leaders. (Fisher 2014).

Significance of Workplace Well-Being

Considering that people spend a substantial amount of time at work, it is essential to note that whether the work they do and the related conditions enable them to enhance their well-being and further towards the state of flourishing.

Relevance of workplace health and well-being can be seen from the fact that among the five domains comprising overall well-being, career well-being is regarded as the most important for most people (Rath and Harter 2010). It is also significant firstly because workplace represents a source of social and emotional involvement as a modern form of collective life (Gupta 1996), thereby having a strong bearing on the relationships and associations people form. Secondly, work has become more than just a part of the life of an individual, that is to say, that even after leaving from the workplace, the work and its ancillaries still accompany the individual. Put alternatively, workplace well-being has trickle-down effects and connections with other domains of the life of people. And well-being has the potential to affect both workers and organizations in negative ways. Workers with poor well-being may be less productive, make hasty decisions, and be unprofessional towards work, which would be detrimental and diminish overall contributions to the organizations (Price and Hooijberg 1992).

Meaning and Orientations Towards Work

As discussed earlier, certain external conditions (e.g., work) go beyond the adaptation principle and represent specific changes that are worth striving for and can result in lasting happiness (Haidt 2006). People relate to their work in one of the three ways. Namely,

  • A job ie. transactional, money-oriented.
  • A career ie. broad personal investment, promotion-oriented.
  • A calling ie. intrinsic fulfillment (Bellah et al. 1985).

Work as a calling is seen as an opportunity to contribute to the greater good or a higher purpose and is marked by frequent experiences of flow and without any resentment to quit. It is the pursuit of the right goals that mark the essential part of conditions that contribute towards flourishing. Right goals concerning the work one undertakes offer the avenue to create the states of flow and engagement. These two states have been described as nutriments to joy, absorption, meaningfulness, and well-being of a person (Csikszentmihalyi 1990; Nakamura and Csikszentmihalyi 2003).

Workplace Well-Being and Performance: Evidence

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 C. Dagar & A. Pandey (2020), Well-Being at Workplace: A Perspective from Traditions of Yoga and Ayurveda, S. Dhiman (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Well-Being.
  2. ↑ Veenhoven R (2015), Happiness: history of the concept, Wright J (ed), International encyclopedia of social and behavioral sciences, 2nd edn, vol 10. Elsevier, Oxford, pp 521–525.
  3. ↑ Ricard M (2013), A buddhist view of happiness, David SA, Boniwell I, Ayers AC (eds), Oxford handbook of happiness, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, pp 344–356.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Haidt J (2006), The happiness hypothesis: finding modern truth in ancient wisdom, New York: Basic Books.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Hone LC, Jarden A, Schofield GM, Duncan S (2014) , Measuring flourishing: the impact of operational definitions on the prevalence of high levels of wellbeing, Int J Wellbeing 4(1):62–90.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Keyes CL (2002), The mental health continuum: from languishing to flourishing in life, J Health Soc Behav 43:207–222.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Seligman ME (2011), Flourish: a visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being, (1st free press hardcover ed). New York: Free Press.
  8. ↑ Feuerstein G (2011), The encyclopedia of yoga and tantra, Boston, Shambhala.
  9. ↑ Wujastyk D (2003), The roots of Āyurveda: selections from Sanskrit medical writings, London: Penguin Books.
  10. ↑ Atreya (2002), Perfect balance: Ayurvedic nutrition for mind, body, and soul, New York: Penguin Penguin Putnam Inc.
  11. ↑ Rioux J (2014), Whole-systems Ayurveda and yoga therapy for obesity: complete outcomes of a pilot study, J Altern Complement Med 20(5):A145–A146.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Keyes CL (2006), Mental health in adolescence: is America’s youth flourishing? Am J Orthopsychiat 76(3):395–402.
  13. ↑ Jahoda M (1958), Current concepts of positive mental health, New York: Basic Books.
  14. ↑ Gurin G, Veroff J, Feld S (1960), Americans view their mental health, New York: Basic Books.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Diener E (1984), Subjective well-being, Psychol Bull 95(3):542.
  16. ↑ Diener E, Suh EM, Lucas RE, Smith HL (1999), Subjective well-being: three decades of progress, Psychol Bull 125(2):276.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Ryff CD (1989), Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being, J Pers Soc Psychol 57(6):1069.
  18. ↑ Keyes CL, Shmotkin D, Ryff CD (2002), Optimizing well-being: the empirical encounter of two traditions, J Pers Soc Psychol 82(6):1007.
  19. ↑ Keyes CL (2007), Promoting and protecting mental health as flourishing: a complementary strategy for improving national mental health, Am Psychol 62(2):95.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Diener E (2000) Subjective well-being: the science of happiness and a proposal for a national index, Am Psychol 55(1):34.
  21. ↑ Peterson C, Seligman ME (2004), Character strengths and virtues: a handbook and classification, vol 1. Oxford: University Press.
  22. ↑ Park N, Peterson C, Seligman ME (2004), Strengths of character and well-being, J Soc Clin Psychol 23(5):603–619.
  23. ↑ Park N, Peterson C (2006), Moral competence and character strengths among adolescents: the development and validation of the values in action inventory of strengths for youth, J Adolescence 29(6):891–909.
  24. ↑ Huppert FA, So TC (2013), Flourishing across Europe: application of a new conceptual framework for defining well-being, Soc Indic Res 110(3):837–861.
  25. ↑ Diener E, Wirtz D, Tov W, Kim-Prieto C, Choi DW, Oishi S, Biswas-Diener R (2010), New wellbeing measures: short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings, Soc Indic Res 97(2):143–156.
  26. ↑ Judge TA, Thoresen CJ, Bono JE, Patton GK (2001), The job satisfaction–job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review, Psychol Bull 127(3):376.
  27. ↑ Ryan RM, Deci EL (2001), On happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, Annu Rev Psychol 52(1):141–166.
  28. ↑ Forgas JP (ed) (2001), The handbook of affect and social cognition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Mahwah.
  29. ↑ Isen AM (1987), Positive affect, cognitive processes and social behaviour, Berkowitz L (ed) Advances in experimental social psychology, vol 20. Academic, New York, pp 203–253.
  30. ↑ Forgas JP (2002), Feeling and doing: affective influences on interpersonal behavior, Psychol Inq 13(1):1–28.
  31. ↑ Forgas JP (ed) (2006), Affect in social thinking and behaviour, New York: Psychology Press.
  32. ↑ Sedikides C (1995), Central and peripheral self-conceptions are differentially influenced by mood: tests of the differential sensitivity hypothesis, J Pers Soc Psychol 69:759–777.
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