What makes yoga effective? Differential effects of ethical education, physical yoga, and mantra meditation on well-being and stress
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger Carl Bringmann preprint
Adding ethical education or physical yoga to meditation practice enhances well-being and stress reduction more than meditation alone. In an 8-week program with 42 healthy adults, nearly all participants who combined meditation with ethical education, physical yoga, or both reported increased well-being, while those practicing only meditation did not. The largest well-being gains occurred in groups receiving ethical education. Stress decreased across all conditions, but the most marked reduction appeared in the yoga-plus-meditation group. The findings suggest that the components of traditional yoga—postures, ethics, and meditation—have incremental and differential effects.