More and more CEOs are doing it. In the break-room, on their lunch hours, before important meetings. You may have heard them whispering about it behind office doors - executives, managers, and staff all doing it together. It's time to let this secret out.

I'm talking about corporate yoga, a surprising way to affect company morale, health, and achievement levels. With everyone working longer hours, the demands of industry and the speed of technology quickening the pace of working life, yoga, with its calming and energizing impact, is benefiting savvy corporations everywhere in more ways than one.

Everyone knows the power of staying fit. But no one can work a 10-hour day and then go outside to exercise. The solution was to go inside and bring the yogi to the workplace. Many yoga teachers will now hold yoga classes right at your company, one day per week or more, during lunch hours. All you need is a conference room and a commitment for yoga to ease your company into a healthier future.

Hatha yoga is not a religion; it is a science that combines stretching, deep breathing, and quiet concentration. Although there are ancient Mayan cave-drawings showing people in yoga poses, the earliest writings on yoga are estimated to date back to 5000 B.C. in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In the Sutras, the physical hatha yoga, was a relatively small aspect of the entire yogic system; selfless service, practices of giving and kindness and "do no harm" were much more vital to the yogic way of life, according to Patanjali. But it is the hatha yoga system for toning the muscles, building circulation and strengthening the body, originally conceived as a way to prepare for long hours of meditation, that has captured the attention of the western working world. First brought here from India in the late 1880s, yoga has blossomed in our modern culture due in part to the amazing health benefits borne out by numerous scientific studies. A steady yoga practice has been linked to everything from better heart-health to lowered cholesterol, support for cancer survivors, a stronger immune system, anti-aging and much more. In 1989, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported on a large medical study that followed over 13,000 men and women ages twenty to sixty over a period of 8 years. It had reached an amazing discovery: slow, steady consistent movements such as those done in practices like walking, yoga and QiGong deliver superior long-term health benefits and longevity over high-impact aerobics, jogging, pumping iron and other cardio-vascular exercises. Why? In conventional fitness methods, you mobilize increased levels of resources, then quickly expend them as fuel for muscles. Milder practices like yoga also mobilize great internal resources and instead of feeding hungry muscles, these resources flood the body to nourish and heal organs and glands including the blood, the nervous system, the immune and lymphatic systems and metabolism. Yoga particularly encourages flexibility, homeostasis and increased energy with a direct strengthening effect on the spine.