Role of Yoga and Meditation on Symptoms of Stress during COVID- 19 Pandemic

Abstract

Lack of information about heath conditions, lack of control over disease and uncertainty about the future trend of any disease are the essential sources for stress. During the period of corona virus pandemic everyone, irrespective of age, socio- economic status and gender faces a state of uncertainty, over load of information, panic and often find the situation out of control. The experience of stress depends on a person’s coping abilities and life style practices. Yoga and meditation may be important tools in this current pandemic scenario, helping to manage stress and promote self- regulation. The Objective is to explore the difference in positive and negative symptoms of stress among people practicing yoga and meditation in different degree during COVID-19 pandemic. Incidental sampling technique was used to collect data. The survey was conducted on 102 participants. Only 95 participants fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The questions to be asked for survey were prepared with the help of experts from Psychology, Medicine and yoga experts. Survey design was used. For analyzing the data descriptive statistics, frequency table and bar graph were used. The participants were divided into four groups practicing Yoga/Meditation always (Group I, n= 22), often (Group II, n=18), sometime (Group III, n=32) and never (Group IV, n=23). Result reveals that respondent of group I, group II and group III who always, often or sometimes practiced yoga/ meditation had better quality of life, sufficient sleep, control of anger, and experience of happiness, peace of mind and concentration of mind as compared to group IV who never practiced yoga/meditation.