The Corporate Desert

The corporate space is tough and unrelenting. One needs to be at the top of one’s game to succeed. Yoga shows us the way on what we could do to achieve peak performance—not only to survive the draining corporate desert but also to thrive there. This article is primarily for those who are dependent on their corporate jobs for their financial sustenance.

The daily grind is an all too common metaphor that most people in the corporate world know quite well. Every morning, we wake up to face yet another day filled with chores and challenges. Though the monetary rewards, experiences, and? achievements are exhilarating, there is a price to pay. Reality hits hard around 35 years or mid-career when we realise the price we pay—the loss of one’s vitality.

Initially we don’t pick up on the gradual loss of vitality, even though the signs are out there—the body starts creaking, weight and metabolic parameters like HbA1c start creeping upwards, unhealthy habits (w.r.t. food, sleep, & sex) accrue, relationships become drier, and so on. Our aspirations become a distant dream; the constraints of having to earn and provide for the family take priority over those dreams.

That there is a price one has to pay while on the quest for money is not something new in human history. 2000 years ago, Killi Mangalam Kizhaar, a Tamil poet, wrote about what happens when we separate from that which we love / our dreams

like an egg abandoned by its mother,

one slowly rots from within

to death

(Kurunthogai 152)

How can we stem this slow rot from within??

In order to deal with the chores and challenges of everyday life, the following aspects should be in place:

• Body with less aches and pains
• Good energy level and concentration?
• Healthy engagement of emotions?

To do this, one needs to cultivate new habits, particularly around food, sleep, and exercise. This is where yoga helps. A precisely customized practice (considering age, gender, body structure and nature, health conditions, life context, and personal preferences) can bring in results - not just with respect to body aches and energy levels but eventually, emotional equanimity as well. Sustained practice can yield lasting benefits.?

Identifying the correct set of practices is not the hardest part of the problem. Cultivating and sustaining long-term habits around these is. As an adult, this is not an easy problem to solve. Status quo has heavy inertia. Often, people quit their practice when they recognize the demand of hard work and commitment to cultivate and sustain healthy habits.

Unfortunately for most of us, while we struggle with unhelpful habits, the world continues to? become increasingly challenging. The constant political turmoil around the world and the arrival of technologies like AI & ML amplify the uncertainties in the corporate world. The Saharan Silver Ant ventures out when it is the hottest in the Saharan desert. When all others hide or die, this ant goes to find food because it can handle the extreme heat. Similarly, yoga can help us to deal with the extreme pressures of the corporate world.

Corporate work demands that we engage in behaviours that we may not be comfortable with: dominating people will sometimes have to cede space? while introverted people will be pushed to confront and fight. Once every few years, we may have to quite radically reinvent ourselves. These demands pose significant challenges to our inner world and if we don't know how to respond optimally, we will allow things to fester and rot. This is where self-reflection, combined with āsana and prā?āyāma, helps deeply. Some examples of work contexts that typically test our emotional mettle are situations of failure and of increased load.

Typical responses to such situations are:

1. Outbursts
2. Sulking and avoidance of work and people?
3. Overcompensating in food, alcohol or sex

Typical inner struggles are:

1. Not knowing how to exercise, sleep and deal with food/sex cravings optimally when under pressure
2. Struggle with relationships when loved ones suddenly experience a lack of your presence
3. Poor boundaries (Not knowing where to draw the line at work and risk displeasing someone in power)

A reflective question that may help here is, What is my typical behaviour during disappointments? What’s the price I am paying for the current behaviour? Can I do better?

Dealing with this involves committing to cultivating healthy habits around food, sleep, and exercise and continued self-reflection, as guided by the praxis of yoga. The key aspect here is sustaining practices over long periods of time.

It requires the energy of a warrior to persist with this over time. It is easy to ignore these difficult choices of investing in oneself and merely continue to manage the context. This is what people often do and that is when the rot that Killi Mangalam Kizhar referred to creeps in! But, often, the warrior in us wants to come out and fight it out. When the warrior is moved by something they are passionate about, they come out and fight with even greater determination!

Like this poet from Kurunthogai, on her quest for her lover.

Kurunthogai 130 - by Velli Veethiyar

Where could he have gone?

He could not have disappeared into the earth

Neither could he have climbed up into the sky

Nor could he have walked across the oceans

He is here somewhere

I shall search

I shall search every country

Every village and every house

I shall find him!

When moved by this energy, perhaps the rot within may be stemmed and we give ourselves the chance to unfold into deeper beings!

PS: Picture credits - ChatGPT