Elements of Yogic Practice: Perceptions of Health Professions Students

Yoga in its full and ancient definition – integrating ethics, daily discipline, posture practices, breathing, concentration, meditation, and absorption – can be a vital tool for health professionals to help patients and prevent burnout.  Yoga practiced in this way follows the eight limbs of yoga as defined in the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali and was emphasized when yoga migrated to the west at the turn of the 20^th century.  Over 100 years later, yoga practice in the west has increasingly evolved into a physical practice of postures to promote flexibility, strength, and conditioning.  When understood narrowly as a physical fitness practice, healthful benefits of yoga may be lost, possibly promoting body-consciousness instead. To understand whether health professional students view yoga from a physical fitness or holistic perspective, this study explored perceptions of what constitute yoga essential practices. We assessed their endorsement of the eight limbs of yoga via the Acceptability of Yoga Survey. The sample (n=498) was recruited from 10 health professions programs at a Northwestern university. Findings revealed a narrow definition of yoga.  Students focused on practices most commonly mentioned in popular media and gym-based yoga classes.  Breathing and posture practices emerged as the most commonly endorsed practices, even among the seasoned yoga practitioners in the sample.  Ethical practices and daily commitments of introspection, disciplined practice, or living with purity were least commonly associated with yoga despite their foundational nature in yoga philosophy.  Concentration and meditation practices were only moderately endorsed as being essential yoga practices. Implications are discussed.