Our company gets together with all our general managers once a year to discuss operational and marketing issues, have fun and bond. This year we held our corporate retreat at the Salamander Resort in beautiful Middleburg Virginia. Even though just an hour away from Washington DC it felt like being worlds away in the beautiful Virginia horse and wine country.
While I was planning the three day retreat I wanted to incorporate some sort of exercise into our program in addition to the business meetings and merriment that was already scheduled. After speaking to the fitness coordinator at the Salamander resort I came to the conclusion that a stress burner yoga class was perfect for this group.
Having a diverse group consisting of varying ages, fitness levels and health issues made the stress burner yoga taught by Unyong Kim the perfect exercise antidote. Ms. Kim started by calming all those that do not regularly exercise by explaining the philosophy of stress burner yoga in which she teaches corporate groups to bring back some sort of balance into their lives. She went on to explain the importance of reducing stress and learning to deal with stress that is part of the corporate existence.
We started off by breathing with Ms. Kim; she explained the importance of breathing to bring down the heart rate and to assist in releasing stress in order to be more efficient. Then we stretched and relaxed our muscles while breathing. We ended by participating in group trust activities and learning how to shut off the parts of our mind that tend to keep going after we have finished our work.
Unyong Kim with her fantastic teaching style was able to place a group of skeptic executives at ease and teach them how to use breathing and stretching techniques to calm their mind and soul.