Self Confidence Before and After the Practice of Yoga: A Study
Abstract:
Self-confidence is a psychological phenomenon, which indicates faith in abilities and judgments and facili tates taking risks and pursuing goals in life. It can contribute to the well-being of people. The study reported in this article was carried out among a randomly selected sample of 100 people practicing yoga in various yoga centres of Kerala State in India using a questionnaire containing the measure of self-confidence in life, and the characteristics of the respondents, namely, sex, age, marital status, and the level of health problems faced (if any) during the past six months. The data were analysed as scores, proportion of respondents re porting and through statistical test. The results have shown improvement in self-confidence after the practice of yoga, when compared to before practicing yoga. When compared to those who reported moderate level of health problems, self-confidence after yoga practice is more for those who had no health problems during the past six months. It is necessary to undertake studies on the benefits of yoga among a large sample of practi tioners by institutions including yoga training centres and share the results widely to motivate more people to practice yoga. This is especially important for a country like India, where the adoption of yoga is still limited at present, and some of the people are discontinuing yoga after some period of practice.
