Yoga and Psychological Well-being: An Empirical Analysis among Working Professionals

Abstract

The mental health toll of contemporary professional life, marked by extended screen time, compressed deadlines, and an erosion of boundaries between work and home, has drawn growing attention to accessible, self-directed wellness practices. Yoga is frequently promoted as one such practice, yet its constituent elements, postural work, breath control, meditative attention, lifestyle habits, and consistency of engagement, are seldom examined as separate predictors of well-being within a single study, particularly among salaried professionals in emerging-market settings. This paper reports an empirical assessment of six dimensions of yoga practice, namely asana (physical postures), pranayama (breath regulation), meditation and mindfulness, practice regularity, yogic lifestyle adoption, and perceived practice commitment, in relation to an overall psychological well-being score built from stress reduction, emotional well-being, work-life balance, and life satisfaction items. A structured questionnaire was administered to 200 working professionals drawn from six employment sectors, and the resulting data were examined through reliability analysis, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression. All ten constructs met acceptable reliability standards (Cronbach's alpha between 0.755 and 0.843). The regression model was statistically significant, F(6, 193) = 13.22, p < .001, accounting for 29.1 per cent of the variance in psychological well-being (R² = 0.291, Adjusted R² = 0.269). Meditation & Mindfulness Practice, Asana (Physical Postures) Practice, and Pranayama (Breathing Practice) emerged as statistically significant positive predictors, whereas Practice Regularity/Consistency, Yogic Lifestyle Adoption, and Perceived Practice Commitment did not reach significance once the other dimensions were held constant. Gender, age group, yoga experience, and practice frequency produced no statistically significant differences in well-being scores. The results point to meditative and breath-based components of practice as carrying particular weight in shaping psychological outcomes, with implications for how organisations and practitioners might structure yoga-based wellness initiatives.