a brief qualitative survey on the utilization of yoga research resources by yoga teachers

Introduction: Yoga has become popular worldwide with increasing research done on its therapeutic potential. However, it remains to be determined whether such findings actually percolate down into teaching and practice of Yoga teachers/therapists. Materials and Methods: The aim of this survey was to document awareness of Yoga research findings in the Yoga community and find out how these were utilized. It was undertaken with a select group of 34 international Yoga teachers and therapists utilizing email and social media between August and December 2015. Majority of responders had well-established reputation in Yoga and were from diverse lineages with 30 of them having more than 5 years of experience in the field. A set of eight questions were sent to them related to essentiality of Yoga research, how they updated themselves on research findings and whether such studies influenced their teaching and practice. Responses were compiled and appropriate statistics determined for quantitative aspects while feedback, comments and suggestions were noted in detail. Results and Discussion: About 89% agreed that it was essential to be up-to-date on Yoga research but only 70% updated themselves regularly with average papers read fully per year being [J Complement Med Res 2016; 5(2.000): 168-173]