Yoga for the Professions

Being Neighbourly x Sean Robinson, certified Yoga instructor

Tree Pose - Great for Bankers

Author/ Being Neighbourly
19 March 2026

When was the last time you heard “banking” and “work-life balance” in the same sentence? Maybe never. Unless the sentence read “most bankers have little to no work life balance”. Banking is characterised by long hours, high stress and a work-hard play-hard mentality. Since a bankers default thinking mode is numbers, we thought it necessary to avoid prescribing anything quantifiable to get you out of your head and into your body. High pressure jobs have a way of infiltrating our personal lives. Maybe you are at dinner with friends or on vacation with your family but your mind is elsewhere. It’s at work.

How to do the pose

1. Stand tall

Stand tall on a solid surface ideally without shoes (socks are up to you). Spread the toes of one foot and lift the opposite leg.

2. Leg position

Where should you place the lifted leg? Good question. It doesn’t matter, so long as it is off the floor.

3. Where to look

To make things easier try looking at a spot, roughly eye level, that doesn’t move.

Tip: If you find yourself missing numbers, or feel awakened standing on one leg in public, try this instead. Divide the breath into 4 sections; inhale, hold at the top, exhale and hold at the bottom. Through the nose inhale 4 seconds, hold in 4 seconds, exhale 4 seconds and hold out 4 seconds. Over time, like a Russian doll, you can increase the size of the square and the duration of the breath. Notice which of the 4 sides is the most difficult for you. If it becomes uncomfortable to hold the breath in AND out eliminate one side and practice triangular breathing; inhale, hold, exhale, repeat OR inhale, exhale, hold, repeat.

Benefits

Notice how, as soon as you stand on just one leg, it becomes difficult, perhaps impossible, to worry about anything else. The mind and the body are focussed on the task at hand. If you think about anything else, past or future, you fall. You do not need to hold for a particular amount of time nor do a certain number of repetitions for it to be effective. All you have to do is stand on one leg…

Extra Information

With practice this will become easy. You have some options to intensify

Keep the head still but move the eyes up, down, side to side.
Keep the eyes still but move the head up, down, side to side.
Close an eye
Close an eye, keep the head still but move the eye up, down, side to side.
Close an eye, keep the eye still but move the head up, down, side to side.
Close both eyes (Good luck!).

About the Author

Sean is a self-proclaimed nerd – obsessed with words, anatomy and pedagogy (the art of teaching).

If you’ve been to his classes, or seen his Instagram, you also know he loves to draw. He uses his (child-like) drawings to facilitate his teachings in an attempt to better serve those who, like him, are visual learners.

Before Yoga his primary form of exercise and expression was BMX – a bike designed for performing tricks which is honestly was too small for a person over 6 feet tall.

In his past life he was a speech and language therapist which probably explains the fascination with communication.

Stay tuned for Sean Robinson’s upcoming Yoga for the Professions contributions.