The first world survey of yoga and meditation

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World Yoga Survey
coming soon - the first world survey of yoga and meditation


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Welcome to the yoga survey website.

To read an article about the results of the Yoga in Australia survey, click here (PDF 5 pages). To download the full 280 page report, you'll need to login here.

Following the success of the Yoga in Australia survey in 2006, researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne and University of Queensland, Australia, are now collaborating with universities in India, the UK and USA to conduct the first world survey of yoga and meditation.

You are invited to be part of this history-making event. Partnerships are currently being established with many yoga related organisations with a view to officially launch the world yoga survey in 2008, however, please register your email address now so we can tell you when the survey goes live.

Academic and professional collaboration, sponsorship and support is invited. Please contact us now if you would like to be involved in the design, methodology and reporting of the survey data in your country or field of expertise. Yoga and meditation teachers, and teacher associations are especially needed to register their interest and to encourage their students and members to participate. Use this handy tell a friend form to send e-card invitations to your friends, students, clients or members.

To be kept informed, click here.

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Results of the Yoga in Australia survey are now available!

Please click here to register or update your account details and login. Once you are logged in, you will be able to download the full 280 page report.


Why do a survey about yoga and meditation?
Professor Marc Cohen, head of Complementary Medicine at RMIT University, says "While there is considerable research into the health benefits of yoga, little is known about the actual practice of yoga, whether as a spiritual path, a lifestyle, a form of exercise or as a therapy for a range of medical conditions including heart disease, asthma, depression, diabetes, and arthritis. The results of this survey will be of special interest to anyone practising yoga, as well as yoga teachers, therapists and the wider health community."

Why do a web-based survey?
"The rate of household internet connections is growing rapidly and in most OECD countries, at least 1 in 2 households has access to the internet", says Stephen Penman, RMIT researcher and yoga teacher. "Using the latest web-based survey technology will allow us to reach hundreds of thousands of yoga enthusiasts around the world on a scale which would otherwise be impossible. At this time, we especially need yoga teachers to register their interest so that we can contact them by email in the future at which time they will be able to tell their students about the survey. You can help us spread the word by using this handy tell a friend form."


Yoga as a spiritual path
Yoga has its modern roots in the ancient Indian scriptures known as the Vedas, dating back about 5000 years. Prior to that, yoga was an oral tradition pre-dating our current knowledge, its origins unknown. In the traditional terminology it is the joining of Jivatma, the individual self or consciousness, with Paramatma, the universal consciousness, through a system of development that addresses the physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual layers of the personality.

By virtue of its holistic philosophy, yoga offers many health enhancing techniques which have often been singled out and practised in isolation from the "whole-istic" spiritual path of yoga. In the west, yoga asanas or postures are commonly used as a physical activity while specific yoga techniques are sometimes used for their health benefits as a therapy. Very often it is for these reasons that people first come to experience yoga. However, some people progress to a deeper understanding and practice of yoga as a path to self-realisation, bringing freedom from repetitive thoughts and behaviours and a lasting sense of inner peace and happiness, despite the stresses of modern life.

Yoga as a physical activity
In Australia, more people participate in yoga than play Australian Rules football. Based on participation rates published in 2006 by the Australian Sports Commission[1], we know that 487,000 people had participated in yoga at least once in the previous 12 months compared to 445,000 for Aussie Rules (see table). From the same data we also know that about 91% of those yoga participants were women.

Participation in Exercise, Recreation and Sport in Australia 2006.
Australian Sports Commission [1]
Sport / physical activity % of the population

More people participate in yoga than play Aussie Rules!
Walking 36.2%
Aerobics 19.1%
Swimming 13.6%
Cycling 10.1%
Running 7.4%
Tennis 6.8%
Golf 6.8%
Bushwalking 4.7%
Soccer 4.2%
Netball 3.6%
Basketball 3.3%
Cricket 3.2%
Weight training 3.1%
Yoga 2.9%
Aussie Rules 2.7%

In the USA, American Sports Data reported in 2003[2] that participation in "kindler, gentler forms of exercise like yoga and pilates had displaced traditional exercise forms". Yoga and pilates were found to be experiencing enormous growth and attracting younger, first-time exercise converts (see table below), however we don't know to what extent this trend is being mirrored in other countries or why people start or stop practising yoga or meditation.

Sports Trends. American Sports Data 2003. [2]

Pilates is the top growth
exercise activity in the US
The greatest growth activities in exercise in the US were pilates, cross trainers, exercise bikes and yoga.
Pilates increased 92% over the 2001 level, with 90% of those women. About 67% were first-year converts to exercise.
Yoga or tai chi increased by 95% over the period 1998 to 2002, yoga with 4.4% of the population, 83% of them female.
The average age of yoga participants declined from 41.5 years in 1998 to 37.1 in 2002. Similarly, the average age of pilates participants declined from 43.6 to 35.1 in just 2 years.

Yoga as a therapy
We are also observing that yoga as a therapy, whether in its own right or as part of an integrated approach to medicine, enjoys a high level of acceptance amongst the medical profession. A 2004 study of Australian general practitioner's (GPs) attitudes to complementary therapies[3] found that most GPs considered yoga and meditation to be highly effective and safe therapies, achieving levels of acceptance amongst GPs similar to acupuncture and massage, with 10% of doctors practising yoga themselves. Similar attitudes amongst health care professionals have been recorded in other countries.

However, despite strong support for yoga therapy in a range of medical conditions, it appears there is scope for further integration of yoga and meditation into traditional "western" healthcare system. For example, the now famous Dean Ornish Lifestyle Heart Trial[4] found that intensive lifestyle change based around the principles of yoga lifestye could reverse heart disease, but the extent to which this has been taken up by the yoga and medical professions around the world is unclear.

Yoga-related injuries
In Australia in 2004, Medibank Private (the Australian national health insurer) issued its annual Sports Injuries Report[5] which put yoga under the spotlight, reporting that "more than one quarter of all participants surveyed have been injured while practising yoga". This headline grabbed media attention around the country, suggesting that yoga was a relatively dangerous pastime. On further investigation it was discovered that the Medibank report was based on a national telephone survey in which just 18 participants answered the yoga question demonstrating an urgent need for reliable figures in this area. Medibank Private since removed the section on yoga injuries from the report. More (Australian Yoga Life article)

Summary
The world yoga survey will establish the extent and type of yoga and meditation practice in many countries, in particular, India, the UK and USA, and the spiritual, lifestyle, medical conditions, health or exercise reasons for which it is practised along with the outcomes of that practice and the extent and nature of yoga-related injuries.

References
1. Australian Sports Commission, Participation in Exercise, Recreation and Sport (ERASS) in Australia. http://www.ausport.gov.au/scorsresearch/research.asp.
2. American Sports Data, Inc. Superstudy by Sports Participation. http://www.americansportsdata.com/pr_04-15-03.asp.
3. Cohen M at al. The integration of complementary therapies in australian general practice: results of a national survey. Accepted for publication. J Alt Comp Med.
4. Ornish D, et al. Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial. Lancet 1990; 336(8708):129-33.
5. Medibank Private. Sports Injuries Report 2004. http://www.medibank.com.au/healthandwellbeing/sports_injuries_report.asp.

 

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