The term stress was first coined by the endocrinologist Hans Selye in the 1930s and defined as “the consequence of failure of organism- human or animal- to respond adequately to mental, emotional or physical demands, whether actual or imagined” (Selye, 1956). Health and Safety Executive (HSE) (2010) defined work-related stress as “an emotional and psycho-physiological reaction to aversive and noxious aspects of work, work environments and work organizations” (p. 2). Another common definition of the stress agreed upon by most experts is “a perceived threat (real or imagined) to our mind, body, spirit or emotions” and distress is “a state of physical and emotional suffering produced by excessive demands for adaption” (White, 1997, p. 5). As reported by the American Institute of Stress (AIS) (2018) job pressure (meeting and beating deadlines, multi-tasking, role mismatch, role conflict, role overlap, co-worker tension, bosses, work overload, poor pay scale, job insecurity, work-life conflict, odd and long work hours), monetary need (loss of job, reduced retirement, medical expenses), health issues (health crisis, terminal or chronic illness), impaired relationships (bullying, divorce, death of spouse, arguments with friends, loneliness, over indulgence), poor nutrition (inadequate nutrition, caffeine, processed foods, refined sugars), media overload (television, radio, internet, e-mail, social networking), and sleep deprivation (inability to release adrenaline and other stress hormones) are potential stressors of the workplace. Stress costs economy more than $ 100 billion and organizations $300 billion in healthcare, workers’ compensation, absenteeism and turnover per annum; and stress caused annual productivity losses also hover around $17 billion (AIS, 2018).
At individual level, persistent stress causes cardiac diseases, stroke, cancer, respiratory disease, arthritis, gastrointestinal disorders, genitourinary problems, musculoskeletal disorders, insomnia, psychological disorders (depression, suicide, anger, inadequacy, anxiety, sensitivity etc.), psychosomatic illnesses, dermatological disorders, chronic aches and pain (Losyk, 2005; Tennat, 2001). At the organizational level, persistent stressful working conditions are associated with increased absenteeism, tardiness, personnel turnover, unsafe working practices and accident rates, complaints from clients/customers, violent events, occupational diseases, and costs through all of the above; and decreased performance & productivity, growth rates & profit, and quality of work & products.
Yoga, an optimal way of practicing healthy behaviors has emerged as one of the inexpensive alternatives and common means for holistic healthcare. Substantial research evidences support that yoga techniques may improve physical and mental health through down-regulation of the Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal (HPA) Axis (Ross & Thomas, 2010), reduction of stress hormones- cortisol, epinephrine & nor-epinephrine (Selvamurthy et al., 1998); elevation of immunoglobulin-A (Stuck et al., 2003) & natural killer cells (Rao et al., 2008), decrease in inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 (Pullen et al., 2008) & lymphocyte-1B (Schultz et al., 2007); reduction of anxiety & salivary cortisol (Michalsen et al., 2005); and increase in Heart Rate Variability (HRV), emotional, social, & spiritual well- being (Innes, Bourguignon & Taylor, 2005). Studies also showed that yoga decreases blood glucose (Gokal & Shillito, 2007), heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (Posadzki, Cramer, Kuzdzal, Lee, & Ernst, 2014).