Impact of yoga on emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence and psychological well-being in male and female yoga practitioners.

Abstract

Yoga is a 5,000 year old practice that began in ancient India as a part of devotion to God. Yoga literally means "union" and refers to the union of mind and body. It is a holistic practice which emphasizes mind-body connectedness and involves postures, breathing, and meditation. Essentially, yoga is a preventative and cost-effective approach to overall well-being. Till date number of researches has been done to show the effect of yoga which promotes physical and mental health. Since most diseases are psychosomatic, the psycho-somatospiritual approach of yoga has been found effective in managing stress-related problems like asthma, diabetes and hypertension (Shankardevananda, 1984 a, b), coronary heart disease (Ornish, 1990; Pulen etah, 2009), diabetes (Divekar, 1982) and gastritis (Karmananda, 1986). A study was conducted by Ohio state university (2010), states that Regular practice of yoga lowers cytokine levels known to promote inflammation and has been implicated in heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, arthritis and other age-related debilitating diseases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved). (chapter)