Yoga conference in Hong Kong: beat workplace burnout with these five gurus

Stress, anxiety, lack of sleep and fatigue are some of the known side effects of long working hours. Nowhere is this more relevant than in Hong Kong, where employees put in some of the longest work hours in the world.

A corporate wellness programme is a new feature at this year’s Evolution Asia Yoga Conference, running until June 16. It will present tools and techniques to heal the body, calm the mind and restore vitality.

Renowned gurus will present 16 sessions over four days on meditation, breathing techniques, yoga postures and yoga therapy.

Meet five of the experts offering their tips and advice for beating executive burnout.

1. Markus Giess

The prominent yoga teacher from Europe, will conduct a half-day workshop on the anatomy of back pain. Lower back pain is one of the most prevalent medical conditions in the world, with 80 per cent of people afflicted by it at least once in their lives. Giess will discuss the importance of yoga for maintaining a pain-free body and why yin yoga is an effective and therapeutic method to cure back pain.

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Yin yoga is slow paced, with poses held for long periods of time – from three to five minutes. It targets the body’s connective tissue – the tendons, fascia and ligaments – to increase circulation in the joints and improve flexibility.

Giess, 49, has more than 25 years of teaching experience and his unique style comes from a broad background of dance, anatomy, yoga and meditation. Before discovering yoga, he danced professionally for 16 years. The constant physical and mental demands of dance led to a herniated disc, chronic back pain and eventually to the end of his dancing career.

After enduring years of pain, Giess was introduced to Yin yoga. After just two sessions, he remained pain-free for half a day; after two years of consistent practice, the pain disappeared.

He aims “to impart a deeper understanding of the reasons [why] back pain occurs and explore the physical, emotional and mental components that need to be addressed for healing to occur”.

“We observe how our physical state changes every second, triggering thoughts, emotions and reaction patterns. We learn not to attach to a physical sensation, or a thought, but observe how everything is in a constant state of flux. When we embody this, we calm down, becoming less stressed. A more meditative approach to yoga, yin yoga creates an awareness of the silence within,” Giess says.

Mindfulness is the focus of another of Giess’s sessions. He started meditating when he was 24 years old, studying under two Buddhist monks. He has been practising Vipassana meditation for 20 years and teaching meditation for the past decade.

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“In the beginning, every time I sat down to meditate, it showed me my anger, fear and jealousy. After much practice, I realised that I was behind my own suffering and that no situation or person could create stress in my life, or make me happy, but me,” he says.

“My wish for students is to discover the deeper meaning in their yoga practice, life, work and relationships. By observing ourselves in the practice, we can then observe ourselves in our lives without constantly reacting.”

2. Tymi Howard

International yoga teacher Tymi Howard will lead a two-hour workshop on yin yoga and yoga nidra. Howard helped pioneer the vinyasa and yin yoga movement in the United States, China and Indonesia. Her introduction to yoga began in New York City, in 1993, when, as a professional ballet dancer with several nagging injuries, she found her way into a yoga class.

“Yoga nidra is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, like the ‘going to sleep’ stage, induced by a guided meditation. It’s an active meditation in which the body is completely relaxed, and the practitioner becomes increasingly aware of the inner world by following a set of verbal instructions,” Howard says.

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The regular practice of yoga nidra has been found to reduce tension and anxiety, the 48-year-old says, adding it has been used to help soldiers returning from war cope with post traumatic stress disorder.

“Yin yoga heightens the experience and power of yoga nidra. Because of the long holds in yin yoga, the practice becomes like a series of mini meditations strung together, leading up to the ultimate yoga nidra. The yin practice opens up the nadis (energy channels) found in the fascia of the body, making it the perfect preparation for surrendering to yoga nidra,” says Howard, who will also have sessions on balancing the chakras and vinyasa flow at the conference.

3. Chris Su

In a workshop titled Develop Harmony Inside Out, yoga teacher Chris Su will take participants through a powerful sound healing meditation, which is said to release tension and negative energy from the body. Su is a pioneer of mindfulness yin yoga training in Malaysia and conducts yoga retreats around the region. He will also conduct sessions on yoga therapy and yin yoga.

“Yin yoga is not only an external physical exercise, it is also the development of one’s inner self. It brings awareness back to the body by observing the breathing process and silences the mind. Only through practice can you experience the benefits,” says 41-year-old Su.

4. Omanand Guruji

Guruji will be teaching pranayama – or breathing – techniques. His workshop will cover a selected pranayama practice, its method and therapeutic benefits.

“Prana or breath is the king of the mind. Pranayama is the awakening, balancing and observing of the prana. When our prana is balanced, the mind will be balanced. Just like we clean our physical body, similarly we need pranayama to cleanse our mind,” he says.

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Pranayama is known to strengthen the immune system, remove stress, anxiety and anger. The 57-year old master has inspired and guided more than one million people in seminars and workshops the world over, he says.

When he was just eight years old, he met his guru, Parmanand Giriji, who gave him the spiritual name Omanand (“Om” means the sound of the universe and is a sacred mantra in Hinduism, and “anand” means bliss). He will also conduct workshops on meditation and yoga therapy.

5. Emily Large

The licensed physical therapist and certified yoga therapist will lead a workshop on yoga for inflexible people. The practices and sequences she teaches are designed to reduce stiffness caused by sitting for long hours, or through sports activities and injuries.

“Krishnamacharya [often described as the father of modern yoga] proclaimed that, ‘If you can breathe, you can do yoga’. I hope to give participants a broader experience of yoga, and have fun while debunking the myth that yoga is only for people with flexible bodies and focused minds,” says Large.

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The 47-year-old founder of Living Large therapeutics, Large combines the science of physiotherapy with the practice of yoga. By integrating western medicine, neuroscience and yoga, Large has developed an effective, easy to learn practice.

“The practice of yoga is holistic in nature and has the potential to profoundly impact every dimension of our human experience from our physical structure to our mental health and vitality … to address unpleasant conditions that may be bothersome physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually,” Large explains. Her sessions will focus largely on therapy for the back, neck and shoulders.

The Evolution Asia Yoga Conference runs from June 13 to 16 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Prices: asiayogaconference.com/pricing.php

For more details on the Corporate Wellness Track: asiayogaconference.com/programme_track.php#CorporateWellnessTrack