For the past few years, I’ve experimented with Yoga. Ten years back, I co-authored a motivational book on entrepreneurship ‘Make the Move’ – it is an attempt to explore and demystify the factors surrounding an entrepreneurial journey.

My affair with Yoga is relatively newer than entrepreneurship. It didn’t happen at a Yoga gym, or with a Yoga Guru, but through ways of learning through reading and melding it in my daily routine. In a short span of time, Yoga had created an ineffable symphony in my life, and helped me imagine ways of how I can help entrepreneurs like you.

‘Making The Move’ with Yoga

I have already written in the book that the most elementary thing for an entrepreneur is to ‘Make the First Move’ – it is applicable in every good thing you begin with. But, since the same psychological makeup does not fit for all, the biggest answer which one needs to find before they practice is their own ‘why’. In this case – ‘Why should they juxtapose Yoga and entrepreneurship at the same time?’

Through my journey so far, I have met many successful startup founders (not wantrepreneurs) who have been practicing Yoga. Some based here in France and Luxembourg, have been thankful to me, whose idea of Yoga was probably limited to a Yoga studio and a mat.

It is important to understand that when I say the word ‘Yoga’, I am not talking about taking a few casual stretching or doing an asana, but controlling the mind, the body and the spirit, while one is engaged in slow physical movements. Yoga is more about the celebrating the trinity, and an entrepreneur for this purpose, is someone who needs to balance out various cognitive signals.

In my book Make The Move – Demystifying Entrepreneurship, anatomy of an entrepreneur has been sub classified into: Fire, Knowledge and Passion.

Once you consider this anatomy, you should also know that it is important for an entrepreneur to balance the trinity, while letting it ignite. And, Yoga like a nuclear reactor can help manage the constituents of our entrepreneurial anatomy.

The point here is not to find if it has a sine qua non. Reading books about Yoga like Mudras for Modern Life will help one introduce to the influence of Yoga. But for an entrepreneur, Yoga can have deeper influences than that for anyone else. An entrepreneur understands how to respond in difficult karmic situations similar to when you are in a pose where you need to react diligently. Yoga helps you understand how you will respond to tricky / unforeseen situations in business and life experientially.

The famous science fiction writer Wiliam Gibson once quoted, “We see in order to move; we move in order to see.” As an entrepreneur, it always important to swim against the current, and interestingly, some postures help gain an alternative perspective. For many days in my daily routine, one of the major Yoga postures would include the inversion asanas (upside down).

From Sirsasana (Headstand) to Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand), these physical inversions slowly translated into making my ideations better, and helped me gain a clear vision on decision-making. And although they had multiple physical and mental benefits, I enjoyed them the most because I knew they were helping me in my professional development.

Through the various postures in Yoga, one can experience unique voyages while relating the movements to your own journey. Introducing yourself to the ancient art of Yoga would help you find answers, which weren’t revealed, to your own self.