Abstract

SILVA, Catarina Pissarra  and  ROSADO, António Boleto. Yoga and Psychosocial effects: listen to the voices of Portuguese Experienced Yoga Teachers. CPD [online]. 2019, vol.19, n.1, pp.121-146.  Epub Aug 17, 2020. ISSN 1989-5879.

Most of the research on the effects of Yoga practice focuses on empirical studies in the medical field, with few studies focusing on the psychosocial effects of its practice, with emphasis on the relationship between the practice of Yoga and the constructs of positive psychology. This study intends to know the opinions of expert teachers of Yoga, Portuguese, with much experience of practice and Yoga teaching, about the psychosocial effects of Yoga practice. To know also if Yoga influenced their lives and to report testimonies that evidences their perception of the psychosocial effects of this practice.

A qualitative methodology was used, whit semi-structured interviews with ten teachers, Yoga experts, five females and five males, aged between 40 and 95 years, two over 90 years old, all with a lot of practical experience (M = 45.8 and SD = 16.47) and teaching (M = 34.2 and SD = 13.48) teaching in Portugal. The individual interviews are transcribed in full. The content of the data was analyzed with Atlasti7 program and a thematic analysis was carried out, with the division of contents into emerging themes and categories. The results indicate that all teachers participating in the study consider that the practice of Yoga has positive psychosocial effects, namely, in the improvement of physical and social well-being, spiritual well-being, optimism, satisfaction with life, happiness, resilience, mindfulness and nuclear self-evaluations.

Keywords : Well-being; optimism; life satisfaction; resilience; mindfulness.

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