Effect of Yoga on Anxiety Levels in Working Women

In this modern era stress has become an integral part of human life. Stress is considered to be any condition which results in perturbation of the body's homeostasis. Today, women are constantly under stress to balance between home and work place. Yoga aims at an integrated and harmonious development of all the potentialities of man. However, to put yoga on a firm scientific pedestal, we planned to undertake a study of effect of yoga on anxiety score before and after yoga training in apparently healthy working women. The study was carried out in 35 apparently healthy working women aged between 25-40 years who attended two months of yoga training. Spielberger's state and trait anxiety scale was used to evaluate anxiety levels before and after yoga training. Our study showed a statistically significant difference in total anxiety score before and after yoga training by applying paired ?t? test. We concluded that regular practice of yoga in day to day life reduces anxiety levels and improves subjective feeling of wellbeing. Our study thus helps to popularize yoga among working women.