HOW DOES YOGA AFFECT HEALTH? YOGA TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES

Abstract

The health benefits of yoga for the physical, emotional and spiritual development of an individual have been shown in a great number of international research. Practicing yoga significantly improves the mood, reduces anger, depression and fatigue, increases resilience, and reduces problematic physiological and cognitive patterns of responding to stress, such as rumination, intrusive thoughts, and emotional arousal. Research about yoga is rare in our countries, so we wanted to examine the yoga teachers’ opinions on yoga, yoga’s health benefits as well as their motives for practicing and teaching yoga. In order to understand their experiences better, we have applied a qualitative methodology. According to the results, yoga teachers chose to practice yoga for different reasons. The most common motives were the need to balance physical and mental functioning, the need for “depth” and meaning in daily life, personal dissatisfaction, pain, and the need to do something useful for themselves. From their answers, it was evident that the role of a yoga teacher brings many benefits such as continuous learning, growth and development, sharing experiences with students, and a better understanding of themselves, others and life. When it comes to the health benefits of yoga, the participants provided similar answers: improved spine and bone health, good circulation, desired weight loss, pressure regulation, vitality, strength, endurance, re-learning proper breathing, etc. According to the findings, we can conclude that the health benefits of practicing yoga are enormous and bring great benefits to both the yoga teachers and their students. © 2019, Drustvo Pedagoga Tjelesne i Zdravstvene Kulture. All rights reserved.