Yoga in the Management of Anxiety among Students

Anxiety is a feeling of uneasiness characterized by irritability, palpitation, dry mouth, tension and a feeling of impending doom. A large population of number of people suffering from high anxiety is school students. Yoga helps students directly to hold his / her physical fitness, forces in balance and indirectly to develop his / her mental powers. The aim of the present study was to find out the effectiveness of Yogic Exercise Therapy (Yoga) in the management of anxiety among students. Three hundred healthy and well motivated school students, 150 Boys and 150 Girls, studying Higher Secondary Course (+2), age ranging from 15 to 18 years, constituted as a sample for the present study. School students were administered with State Trait Anxiety Index (STAI) to find out the level of anxiety. Out of 300, 40 school students, suffering from anxiety, willing to participate in the study, were divided into two groups such as Control and Experimental groups (Yoga). Out of 40, 20 students: 10 Boys and 10 Girls each were allotted to Control and Experimental groups. Experimental group was exposed to certain selected yogic exercises, twice a day, morning and evening, for duration of thirty minutes, for one month whereas Control group was not exposed to any therapeutic intervention. Students were practicing Yoga in their respective school premises. Yoga Classes were organised separately for the boys and girls. Comparison of Mean Pre and Post test State and Trait Anxiety Percentile Rank (PR) between Control and Yoga Groups showed that there is an extremely significant difference (P < 0.0001) existing in the performance. Yoga group was better (P < 0.0001) than the Control group in the management of anxiety. Girls were better (P < 0.0001) than the Boys in overcoming the ill-effects of anxiety through Yogic Exercise Therapy. It was evident from the Follow up that students, who were practicing yoga regularly, could sustain the psychological wellbeing even after three months of therapeutic intervention. Regular practice of yoga helped to overcome anxiety and enhanced attention and concentration in their studies. Of all the techniques, Yoga is one of the most economical, less time consuming and the most effective method of management of anxiety among school students.