Regular Ashtanga yoga practitioners define yoga as a practice for health and wellbeing, a method for personal inquiry and growth, a way of living, and a spiritual quest. Yoga philosophy is seen as ancient teachings that provide a foundation for practice and life. Yoga practice is a formal daily ritual that is adaptable and permeates daily existence. Three common threads emerged: yoga as an embodied integrated practice, an embodied path for self-knowledge, and a path for spiritual development. These findings challenge the prevailing image of yoga as mainly a physical and stress-reduction activity.
Regular Ashtanga Yoga practitioners (137 participants) conceptualize five dimensions of wellbeing—physical, emotional, psychological, social, spiritual—in ways that partly align with existing models and partly extend them. Word count and reflexive thematic analysis yielded four themes per dimension. A higher-level analysis identified shared meanings grouped into five topics: freedom from and managing suffering, a positive and integrated sense of self, equanimity and steadiness, the self in relation to others and the world, and meta-awareness. Each dimension was portrayed as multileveled, with three levels of human functioning: foundational (coping and recovery), optimal (personal development and growth), and contemplative/transcendental (transpersonal). The authors propose a preliminary model informed by this empirical work and previous theory, suggesting that the continuousness of themes across dimensions reinforces the importance of embodiment and transcendence in wellbeing frameworks.