Hot Vinyasa Yoga, Savoring, and Psychological Well-Being (2024)

Undergraduate: Lillian Reid

Faculty Advisor: Patrick Harrison
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Savoring reinforces positive affect. Both savoring and some forms of yoga are effective positive psychology interventions and are linked by their shared results of an improved well-being. We investigated the relationship between vinyasa yoga, savoring/mindfulness, and attention to proprioception in a yoga intervention. Our participants were hot vinyasa yoga practitioners (N = 22, 86.4% female, 95.5% white, M(age) = 38.3 years). We had a quasi-experimental intervention (pre-test/post-test survey design), which included verbal yoga cues targeted at proprioception to promote physical savoring/mindfulness. Participants completed measures of PANAS, PSS, FFMQ, SWL, GHQ, QEWB, Flourishing Scale, and SBI to determine psychological well-being. Perceived instructor knowledge significantly correlated most consistently with all of the measures of well-being, with the exceptions of PANAS (positive subscale) and GHQ. We found a positive effect in the differences between pre- and post-test for GHQ but a negative effect in the differences between pre- and post-test for QEWB, suggesting that these may be that spurious findings. Correlations were stronger at post-test. The research suggests that participants may not have been consciously aware of the proprioceptive cues themselves and instead heightened their perception of instructor knowledge, attributing the differences in speech to the instructors themselves, rather than isolating them to their speech patterns. It is important to remember the limitations this study had, such as its quasi-experimental design, individual variability, instructional variability, small sample size, and selection and/or non-response biases.

Link to Abstract