Effectiveness of Yogic Techniques in the Management of Stress Among Adolescents

Abstract

Yoga is a movement based on form of relaxation and meditation that combines physical postures, exercises and breathing to promote physical mental and spiritual well-being. In yoga, breath work is known as PRANAYAMA. Pranayama comprises ‘Poorak’, ‘Kumbhak’, & ‘Rachek’ which means inhalation & exhalation with the arrest of breathing process internal & external. By regular practice of Pranayama, pran shakti is being distributed through the body and invigorates all the seven charkas, purifies the mind and streamlines all the systems of the body thereby increasing the longevity. An attempt has been made to study the effect of Yoga: Pranayama on Stress. A purposive sample of 60 adolescents was selected and a pre and post control group design was used. Bissht Battery Stress Scale (BBSS) constructed and standardized by Dr. Abha Rani Bisht. The test was developed for the measurement of 13 types of stress. Out of 13 scales, four scales, i.e., scale of academic stress, scale of family stress, scale of emotional stress and scale of physical stress were selected. Analysis of results shows that the yoga pranayama had positive effect in the management of Stress   as well as in creating positive image about oneself in the experimental group while control group didn’t show any significant difference.