Beyond Physical Exercise: Exploring Group Differences in Self-Compassion, Emotional Awareness, Emotion Regulation, and Well-Being Through Yoga Practice.

Abstract

Yoga emphasizes emotional and physical awareness by fostering mindfulness of emotions, thoughts, and bodily sensations. Yoga teacher training often includes psychological and philosophical components that promote self-compassion, emotional awareness, and resilience. These teachings encourage acceptance and reduce self-criticism, enhancing emotion regulation and psychological well-being. Based on this framework, we hypothesized that yoga instructors and practitioners would demonstrate higher levels of self-compassion, emotional awareness, emotion regulation, and well-being compared to nonpractitioners. Furthermore, we expected that instructors would score higher than practitioners because of their deeper engagement with yoga philosophy and training. The study included 359 female participants: 80 yoga instructors, 96 yoga practitioners, and 183 nonpractitioners. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, a motivation scale, the Self-Compassion Scale, the Emotional Self-Awareness Scale, the Emotion Regulation Skills Scale, and the Psychological Well-Being Scale. As hypothesized, one-way ANOVA results revealed that yoga instructors scored significantly higher than both yoga practitioners and nonpractitioners on all psychological variables. However, contrary to expectations, no significant differences emerged between yoga practitioners and nonpractitioners. To explore this discrepancy, we examined the motivations for practicing yoga using the Mann-Whitney U test. Results indicated that yoga instructors were more likely to be driven by intrinsic factors such as self-improvement and increasing awareness, whereas practitioners tended to be influenced by extrinsic factors like social recommendations and physical appearance goals. Findings suggest that the depth of training and intrinsic motivation may play a critical role in the psychological benefits derived from yoga.