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Movement is a powerful metaphor for life.
From waking up in the morning and going to the office and individuals wishing to reconstruct their lives, movement is a much wider concept. Today movement therapy is ushering into corporate health and wellness programs. It is helping employees understand and recoursing their life by improving physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
In this podcast, Myah Payel Mitra talks about Movement therapy, considering it as a solution to the 21st-century workplace challenges. She further discusses about the challenges HRs face in respect to corporate setting thereby giving the following stats as per a latest report,
- 15%* of employees in Banglore resigned as they were asked to report back to office during the time of Covid-19.
- 40% of people globally want to resign post-increment.
- 86% of Indians will resign in the next 6 months.
- 48% of employees have reported extreme burnout.
Also, she mentions the impact on employee's overall wellness due to the Great resignation.
Key Takeaways
- Movement is medicine, not metaphor. Myah frames movement as one of the four pillars of holistic health alongside nutrition, connection, and rest — and notes that a baby's first test of life is whether it moves. Stillness at a desk all day violates a biological baseline.
- EAP hotlines have a usage problem. Many organizations rely on anonymous helplines, but Myah points out that someone in acute distress is the least likely person to pick up the phone. Preventive, embedded wellness outperforms reactive triage.
- The Great Resignation is a Great Re-engagement opportunity. She cites 15% of Bangalore employees resigning over return-to-office mandates, 86% of Indians planning to resign within six months, and 40% globally wanting to leave post-increment — signals that a half-day retreat and a Zumba session no longer cut it.
- The one-size-fits-all wellness program is dead. "Each individual is as unique as your unique fingerprint." Forward-thinking employers are moving from annual wellness days to weekly touchpoints with movement therapists, mindfulness coaches, and mental health professionals.
- Future-of-work skills can't be automated. Empathy, resilience, and creativity are what bots can't replicate — and movement therapy is one of the practical ways organizations build them.
- Psychological safety is the new wellness KPI. Myah sees organizations finally treating "space to breathe" as a cultural deliverable, not a perk — a shift she describes as the needle moving in corporate wellbeing.
- Invest in wellness, not illness. Her prescription: stop waiting for burnout or a suicidal crisis before spending on mental health. Weave preventive practices into the weekly rhythm of work.
In Myah's Words
On how she found movement therapy
For the first three decades of my life, I lived what I call the scripted life — engineering, B-school, the largest tech company in the world, then Big Four consulting. In 2014 I hit rock bottom. I was paralyzed on bed for two months. That was when I realized I had forgotten to take care of my physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Movement is medicine. Movement is life. If you look at the four pillars of holistic health — nutrition, movement, connection, and rest — movement is something we cannot do without.
On what corporate wellness keeps getting wrong
Employees are looking for a greater sense of purpose and belonging. It cannot be that a half-hour Zumba session or a yoga session actually makes the cut. Are we really looking at our emotional hygiene? Our mental hygiene?
Many organizations have an EAP — an anonymous number you can call. But when somebody is actually going through immense stress and anxiety, they are not going to pick up the phone. We need preventive well-being, not reactive. Invest in wellness rather than spending money in illness.
On the one-size-fits-all trap
Each individual is as unique as your unique fingerprint. You cannot — cannot, cannot — have a one-size-fits-all wellness solution. The future-of-work skills are empathy, resilience, creativity. These can't be replicated by bots. How are organizations helping their workforce build those?
On the Great Resignation as opportunity
Around 15% of employees in Bangalore resigned because they were asked to go back to work. 86% of Indians will resign in the next six months. 40% of people globally want to resign even after they've gotten an increment. The Great Resignation is also a great opportunity for the Great Re-engagement.
The forward-thinking organizations are weaving well-being into the daily lives of employees — weekly workshops with well-being coaches, mindfulness coaches, movement therapists. Psychological safety in today's world is a big thing, and that's where I see the needle moving.
About the Speaker
Myah is an award-winning Employee Engagement and Career Transition Coach, with 15+ years of work experience. She was named by Encubay in 2021 as one of the pioneering leaders working with movement therapy and recognized by SheThePeople.TV in 2018 as one of the Top 5 Women Entrepreneurs working on mental health. Myah is an expert on somatic leadership & well-being and has empowered 4500+ lives across India, U.S and Europe region. She enables teams & organizations to build a highly motivated & engaged workforce.
Myah is India's first and only certified dance movement therapy practitioner (CDMTP) with an engineering & management background and Big 4 experience. She brings in her rich & diverse corporate experience of having worked for some of the largest IT & Big 4 consulting firms including TCS, KPMG & HCL. In her corporate stint, Myah has successfully led enterprise-wide transformational projects and managed cross-functional teams.
Myah is a Guinness Book World Record participant and winner of 'Outlook India Responsible Tourism Award 2020'. She loves traveling & has solo backpacked to 30+ countries and lived in 10+ cities already. As a fitness enthusiast, she loves running & CrossFit.
Her motto is living life by design and NOT by default.
To know more about Myah, connect with her on LinkedIn.
Show notes
(01.50) Tell us about your journey of becoming a dance movement therapy practitioner.
(05.57) What is Movement Therapy? Can you give us a brief on Movement therapy.
(08.28) How can movement therapy help in a corporate setting?
(11.16) Given the current context of the Great Resignation and the future of work, how does movement therapy fit into the scheme of things?
(13.40) In a diverse workplace considering the mental and physical health of employees can leaders have a one-size-fits-all approach to wellness?
(15.13) Do you see any shift in the way organizations today are approaching employee engagement & well-being?
(25.24) Can we include movement therapy in our corporate wellness programs?
(26.48) If organizations/teams/individuals want to work with you, how do they find you?
- Not 50% as mentioned in the podcast
