Mind-body connection can curb overwork, Stephanie Creary writes in Harvard Business Review

November 22, 2021


POISED (Positive Organizational Inclusion Scholarship for Equity and Diversity)
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Stephanie Creary

To Reduce the Strain of Overwork, Learn to Listen to Your Body,” writes Center for Positive Organizations (CPO) Research Advisory Board member Stephanie Creary in the Harvard Business Review.

The article, co-authored with Karen Locke, details the researchers’ exploration of yoga as a tool to put workers in touch with their bodies and how this mind-body connection can improve their lives off the mat. It draws on Creary and Locke’s two year-long studies of yoga teacher training.

“Our research showed that the ability to monitor and adjust their somatic engagement to stop overwork in yoga teacher training was generalizable to our participants’ lives more broadly,” the researchers write. “They now could catch themselves, pause, and pull back from overwork by lessening reactivity, reducing their time working, and reducing physical and mental straining.”

The researchers encourage people who’d like to manage overwork to, “seek out communities beyond work and home that counter the trends of excessive striving and all-encompassing work schedules, and that bring awareness to your body.”

Creary is an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Pennsylvania.


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