This cross-sectional research aims to study the effect of yoga practice on the illness perception, and wellbeing of healthy adults during 4–10 weeks of lockdown due to COVID19 outbreak. A total of 668 adults (64.7% males, M = 28.12 years, SD = 9.09 years) participated in the online survey. The participants were grouped as; yoga practitioners, other spiritual practitioners, and non-practitioners based on their responses to daily practices that they follow. Yoga practitioners were further examined based on the duration of practice as; long-term, mid-term and beginners. Multivariate analysis indicates that yoga practitioners had significantly lower depression, anxiety, & stress (DASS), and higher general wellbeing (SWGB) as well as higher peace of mind (POMS) than the other two groups. The results further revealed that the yoga practitioners significantly differed in the perception of personal control, illness concern and emotional impact of COVID19. However, there was no significant difference found for the measure of resilience (BRS) in this study. Yoga practitioners also significantly differed in the cognitive reappraisal strategy for regulating their emotions than the other two groups. Interestingly, it was found that beginners -those who had started practicing yoga only during the lockdown period reported no significant difference for general wellbeing and peace of mind when compared to the mid- term practitioner. Evidence supports that yoga was found as an effective self- management strategy to cope with stress, anxiety and depression, and maintain wellbeing during COVID19 lockdown.

Background: Several studies have demonstrated that brief interactions with natural environments can improve cognitive functioning. However, the neurocognitive processes that are affected by natural surroundings are not yet fully understood. It is argued that the “elements” in natural environment evoke “effortless” involuntary attention and may affect the neural mechanisms underlying inhibition control central to directed attention. Methods: The present study used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the effects of nature experience on neurocognitive processes involved in directed attention. During EEG recordings, participants ( n = 53) were presented nature audio/video as stimuli to evoke nature experience, and flanker task was administered both before and after nature experience. An open eye rest condition was included randomly in either before or after nature experience cognitive task as a control condition. Results: The event-related potential analysis demonstrated a significant improvement in the response time after the nature experience. The analysis also demonstrated a significant difference for the inhibitory control process in fronto-parietal N2 ( P < .01) and P3 ( P < .05) for incongruent trials subsequent to nature experience. The spectral analysis also found an increase in alpha in all five brain regions (all Ps < .01) and fronto-central theta power ( P < .01). Conclusion: The findings suggest that improved inhibitory control processes could be one of the aspects of enhanced directed attention after nature experience. Increased alpha along with theta indicates a relaxed yet alert state of mind after nature experience.

The spread of COVID-19 has resulted in reports of increase in stress, anxiety, and depression across society, especially in people who have tested positive for COVID-19, which affects their mental health and well-being. This article reports a quasi-randomized controlled study conducted in the COVID wards of a hospital to examine the efficacy of add-on yoga intervention in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression in COVID-affected patients under quarantine. The peripheral capillary oxygen saturation level and heart rate of the COVID-19-affected patients were also measured. A total of 62 COVID-19-positive patients participated in the study. The participants were randomized into a control group (n = 31), which received conventional medical treatment alone, and a yoga intervention group (n = 31), which received 50 minutes of yoga intervention along with the conventional medical treatment. Standardized Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder–7 Item, Patient Health Questionnaire–9, and Perceived Stress Scale were administered at the beginning and end of the quarantine period. A significant decrease in stress, anxiety, and depression was observed in the patients who undertook the add-on yoga intervention. There was also a significant decrease in anxiety in the control group, but the intervention group had a larger decrease compared to the control group. Further significant improvements in oxygen saturation and heart rate levels were observed in the group of patients who were practicing yoga, but no significant improvement was observed in the control group. Findings of this study suggest that yoga intervention can be an effective add-on practice in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression levels of COVID-19 patients.

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The economical and technological evolution has brought the situation where our attention is being targeted. Lots of creative professionals have been employed by commercial agencies to grab attention such as in a marketing space. On the other hand, there is a societal need to use the attentional resources for development of human values towards harmonious coexistence. Designers therefore have this twin responsibility to use creative processes to design such that it grabs attention towards one or the other direction. Today brain research is advancing at a rapid pace and it has a potential to provide insights into the value based decision processes within users as well as within designers. This paper reports neurophysiological study on value based decision in children during a game play. A visual story based interactive game was designed to elicit value-based decisions from children. Eighteen children (age group of 5 to 9 years) participated in the pilot study. The neurophysiological data was derived using an electroencephalography (EEG) device during the story-interaction. This paper reports findings on how the proposed design in this study can be implemented for eliciting specific values, and therefore be applicable in acting as a value-based education system for younger populations.

Background and aim: - Due to the spread of COVID-19 there have been reports of increase in stress, anxiety, and depression across the society, especially so in the affected people, impacting the mental health and well-being. This paper reports a quasi-randomized control study conducted in covid wards of a hospital, to examine the efficacy of add-on yoga intervention in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression in the covid affected patients under quarantine. The oxygen saturation level (SPO2) and heart rate (HR) of the covid affected patients were also measured along with the stress.Experimental procedure: - A total of sixty-two COVID-19 positive patients participated in the study. The participants were randomized into the control group (n=31) which received conventional medical treatment alone and the yoga intervention group (n=31) which additionally received 50 minutes of yoga intervention along with conventional medical treatment. Standardized scales of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-14), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) were administered at the beginning as well as at the end of the quarantine period.Results: - A significant decrease in stress, anxiety and depression were observed in the patients who undertook the add-on yoga intervention. Also, improvement in SPO2 and HR levels were observed in the group of patients who were practicing yoga.Conclusion- Findings of this study suggest that add-on Yoga intervention can be an effective add-on practice in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression level of COVID-19 patients.

Aim of the present paper was to develop a test on Swadhyaya (Self-study) defined in Indian philosophical and religious scriptures. The study was conducted in two phases; 150 participants (M =133 and F= 17) with age range=17-54 yrs. (M = 21.43 yrs., & SD= 6.79) in the pilot study and 491 participants (Male= 310 & Female =181) with 18 – 70 years age range (M=32.16 yrs. & SD= 10.92) in the main study.  Three factors solution was finalized through exploratory factor analysis; Study of Scriptures, Self-introspection and Self-discipline with 55.74 % of total variance. Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences and Flourishing Scale (SPANE & FS,Diener et. al., 2010) and Sukha- Dukha scale (Singh, Raina and Sahni, 2016) were used to establish concurrent validity. The scale was found psychometrically robust with high internal consistency (α=0.79) and acceptable concurrent validity as significant positive correlations of Swadhyaya and its factors with Sukha, SPANE-P and FS were obtained.