Efficacy of cyclic meditation as yoga based mindfulness intervention for psychological wellbeing in working professionals

Abstract

BACKGROUND newlinePsychological distress is highly prevalent among working professionals. Workplace newlineyoga interventions to enhance psychological wellbeing and further follow-up studies newlineare limited. Physical manifestations of stress include musculoskeletal pain, headaches, newlineconstant fatigue, sleep disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular illnesses, newlineand substance use, while its psychological manifestations include lack of newlineconcentration, negative affect, low self-esteem, aggression among others. Stress is newlineexperienced in response to a range of physical, occupational and emotional stimuli. newlineWithin manageable parameters one s sense of well-being is maintained, but if these newlinestimuli go beyond normal limits they become stressors. Exploring new pathways, newlinesuch as mindfulness, can lead to the development of novel tools for enhancing newlineemployee wellbeing at work (Schultz et al., 2015). newlineMindfulness based intervention studies have shown exponential growth over the past newlinethree decades. Potential benefits of mindfulness interventions range from mental and newlinephysical health outcomes to cognitive, affective and interpersonal outcomes. newlineDescriptions of mindfulness and methods of cultivating it originate in eastern spiritual newlinetraditions. First generation mindfulness intervention studies focused mainly on newlinetreating adult patients in clinic settings. Over the last ten years, there has been a shift newlinein moving mindfulness intervention studies out of the clinic into institutional settings. newlineMindfulness interventions are multidimensional in nature and involve multiple active newlinecomponents. Mindful yoga component is shown to produce a significant differential newlineeffect on the outcomes. As a means of providing a unified body-mind experience, Yoga has few equals (Salmon et al., 2009). newlineThe current study examined the efficacy of cyclic meditation, as a unique yoga based newlinemindfulness intervention for workplace wellbeing. Two studies were conducted newlineacross two distinct employee cross-sections of a large Indian multinational corporate. newlineFir