Effect of Yoga Break on Emotional Intelligence of Office Workers of Universities and Colleges

Abstract

Mental health problems impact working professionals regardless of whether they are employed in the commercial sector or the public sector. Emotional troubles might arise from a discrepancy between our expectations and reality. Factors such as office politics, excessive workload, personal health issues, superiors' attitudes, management policies, insecurity, discrimination, and relationship problems can significantly impact our emotional well-being and ultimately our psycho-somatic health. Someone who is emotionally stable and intelligent may effectively handle various emotional challenges, leading to improved health and productivity regardless of their status or position at workplace. The present study was carried up on 48 healthy male university and college employees aged between 24 to 34, working as junior assistants, assistants, and senior assistants, or comparable roles, with a minimum of 2 years of experience. Employed at a 9 am to 5.30 pm work schedule, Monday through Friday. An intervention using a 5-week “Yoga Break (Y-break)” protocol, established by MDNIY, New Delhi, consisting of asanas and pranayama for 5 minutes was being implemented at the workplace in the morning. Emotional intelligence before and after the session was assessed using IBM SPSS version 25. Since the data did not meet the assumption of normal distribution, the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test, a non-parametric alternative to the paired samples t-test, was employed for data analysis. The findings indicated a notable enhancement in the emotional intelligence score of the office workers after the intervention. W = 3.00; z = -5.569, p = .000, with a strong effect size (r = .803).