Abstract
This cross-sectional research aims to study the effect of yoga practice on the illness perception, and wellbeing of healthy adults during 4-10 weeks of lockdown due to COVID19 outbreak. A total of 668 adults (64.7% males, M = 28.12 years, SD = 9.09 years) participated in the online survey. The participants were grouped as; yoga practitioners, other spiritual practitioners, and non-practitioners based on their responses to daily practices that they follow. Yoga practitioners were further examined based on the duration of practice as; long-term, mid-term and beginners. Multivariate analysis indicates that yoga practitioners had significantly lower depression, anxiety, & stress (DASS), and higher general wellbeing (SWGB) as well as higher peace of mind (POMS) than the other two groups. The results further revealed that the yoga practitioners significantly differed in the perception of personal control, illness concern and emotional impact of COVID19. However, there was no significant difference found for the measure of resilience (BRS) in this study. Yoga practitioners also significantly differed in the cognitive reappraisal strategy for regulating their emotions than the other two groups. Interestingly, it was found that beginners -those who had started practicing yoga only during the lockdown period reported no significant difference for general wellbeing and peace of mind when compared to the mid- term practitioner. Evidence supports that yoga was found as an effective self- management strategy to cope with stress, anxiety and depression, and maintain wellbeing during COVID19 lockdown.
Highlights
A report by the World Economic Forum estimates that about 2.6 billion people around the world have been in some kind of lockdown that may lead to second form of stress-related disorder epidemic in the second half of 2020 [1]
The categorization of the yoga practitioners, and non-practitioners was based on the dichotomous question; ‘Do you practice yoga in your daily routine?” The non-yoga practitioner group was further classified based on multiple response question; ‘Any other form of spiritual practice do you follow?’ for example; online Satsang, watching spiritual programs, reading Holy Scriptures, selfless service or any other
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that most of the fit statistics for all the scales were in the acceptable range
Summary
A report by the World Economic Forum estimates that about 2.6 billion people around the world have been in some kind of lockdown that may lead to second form of stress-related disorder epidemic in the second half of 2020 [1]. Even though there are some studies supporting that yoga can be used as complementary and alternate therapy for mental health, there is need for empirical research studies to provide evidence for yoga as effective strategy for self-management of stress-related problems during COVID19. To the best of our knowledge the empirical investigation for the effects of yoga and other spiritual practices on illness perception and wellbeing related problems experienced by people during COVID19 has not been examined so far. Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana includes techniques such as; mantra chanting, Yoga, COVID 19 perception and wellbeing yoga nidra, and antar mouna that are said to help in developing an ability to internally witness the sensory inputs [23] This witnessing capacity is speculated to help one in the reappraisal of the problem in hand, control the fluctuations of the mind and reduce the unconscious negative mental perceptions. Apart from yoga, there are some other spiritual practices such as listening to satsang [24], swadhyaya (reading Holy Scriptures) [25] and rendering seva (selfless service to the community) that have been reported to help maintain wellbeing, reduce stress, anxiety and depression [26, 27]
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