Study: Yoga and mindfulness may help elementary school students manage stress, anxiety

Yoga/mindfulness activities may facilitate stress management among elementary school students and may be added as a complement to social and emotional learning activities, according to a Tulane University study.

Published April 10 in Psychology Research and Behavior Management Journal, the school-based study “Effect of mindfulness and yoga on quality of life for elementary school students and teachers” suggested that “yoga/mindfulness interventions may improve symptoms of anxiety among students”.

The intervention was associated with a significant improvement in emotional and psychosocial quality of life in the intervention group when compared to the control group, the study concluded.

Welcoming the results of the study, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged all the elementary schools of Louisiana to introduce yoga in their curriculums so that the students could explore various benefits yoga offered.

Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, noted.

Rajan Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.

According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image.  Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.

Objective of the Tulane study included: To assess the impact of a yoga curriculum in an elementary school on student quality of life… benefits of introducing yoga and mindfulness into the classroom. Study group included 20 third-grade students of a public school in New Orleans who screened positive for symptoms of anxiety and participated in yoga/mindfulness activities for eight weeks. Researchers included Alessandra Bazzano, Christopher Anderson, Chelsea Hylton and Jeanette Gustat; reports suggest.

Tulane University in New Orleans (Louisiana), whose history goes back to 1834, claims to be “one of the most well-respected research universities in the country”. Douglas J. Hertz and Michael A. Fitts are Board Chair and President respectively.