Sony Kumari , Alex Hankey, H.R.Nagendra | Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy: Its power to improve cognitive skills and emotional competence IBR Journal homepage: www.ifrsa.org Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy: Its Power to Improve Cognitive Skills and Emotional Competence Sony Kumari PhD, Alex Hankey PhD and H.R.Nagendra PhD ABSTRACT “Cool, calm and collected” epitomizes executive attitudes desired under pressure: maintain balanced emotions and reasoning despite circumstances. Personality changes produced by SVYASA's Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy (IAYT), which trains heart and mind to function in harmony: Guna personality, Emotional Intelligence, anxiety, depression, and autonomic stability all improve. IAYT s Programs simultaneously improve emotional competence (heart) and cognitive skills (mind). Psycho-physiological changes result in improved robustness and stability under pressure. Executives taking the programs are better prepared for stress. Using them, business institutions can better prepare executives for any continuing or repeated global finance crisis. Key Words- Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy, Emotional Intelligence, Cognitive skills & Business Institution INTRODUCTION The world has recently passed through an economic downturn that almost rivaled the worst crises of the 20th century. The apparent turn around has only been bought at considerable public expense. The lack of prudence in attempting to outperform business rivals, in the competition to secure increased public investment, combined with what many perceive as a fundamental failure of integrity at boardroom levels in many leading financial institutions, has brought a degree of stress to developed and developing worlds alike, that must at all costs be avoided for the foreseeable future. Until the root causes of the problems are tackled, danger of recurrence is an ever present subliminal threat for all of us – in much the same way that the threat of nuclear war premained an overhanging cloud blackening the world outlook for most of the last part of the 20th century. Many perceive the root causes to lie in the IFRSA Business Review|Vol 3|issue 2|June 2013 boardrooms of large financial institutions, as much as in the supposed irresponsibility of those who receive easy money for property and other purchasing needs. For these reasons, programs which can improve the overall sensitivity of business personnel at all levels are the need of the hour. On one hand, there is a need to protect all of mankind from the threat of stress, whether subliminal and internal, or actual and external. On the other, there is an equal need to reduce the tendency of overriding ambition that may drive those in positions of leadership and authority to acts, which are later regretted, either for lack of foresight, or for overriding ambition. If a single program can achieve these dual needs, then the business community should be very much in favor of implementing it – as much to forestall future boardroom folly as to protect its most valued and difficult to replace employees from the “Stress of Life”. The Yoga programs we discuss below can fulfill these dual functions. We show how their physiological aspects remove stress, returning mental clarity, and endowing their graduates with an ability to create a positive, emotionally intelligent influence in their business environment. Their more intellectual aspects widen the vision of the student, setting the material world more in the context of man's wider reaches of soul and spirit. Armed with such broadened vision, the approach to life and living naturally becomes more sanguine – and prudent. YOGA PROGRAMS FOR BUSINESS A number of studies have evaluated physiological and psychological effects of SMET. Those studies show that the SMET program reduces stress levels. It is beneficial in bringing emotional stability throughout the personality to deal more effectively with critical circumstances in life. Current interest in emotional intelligence has raised questions of whether it is possible to improve the social 118 Sony Kumari , Alex Hankey, H.R.Nagendra | Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy: Its power to improve cognitive skills and emotional competence and emotional competence of adult workers. Research in training and development, sports psychology, and behavior change suggests that it is possible, but typical approaches used in corporate training programmes are usually flawed. Social and emotional learning is different from cognitive and technical learning, and requires a different approach to training and development. Cognitive learning involves fitting new data and insights into existing frameworks of association and understanding. This requires extending and enriching corresponding neural circuitry. Emotional learning, however, also requires that we engage the neural circuitry where our repertoire social and emotional behavior is stored. It is more challenging than simply adding new information to the old. Some of the most interesting developments in emotional intelligence involve the use of physiological and cardiac feedback to learn to control and manage emotions. Heart Math has developed techniques of considerable interest. In one study of 500 people; there was a striking difference in both personal and business data before and after the implementation of a one-day Inner Quality Management workshop. It will be useful to compare the Self-Management of Excessive Tension (SMET) programme followed in SVYASA, with institutional emotional training practice, and the Heart Math experiments, to see what further improvements are needed, for it to be an accepted method of imparting emotional intelligence. Four types of yoga practice, raja yoga, karma yoga, jnanayoga and bhaktiyoga, result in control of mind and body. Today's corporate world is afflicted with worry, anxiety and stress, affecting quality of work and productivity. Generally we experience too much stress, strain, and tension in day-to-day life. Business life involves cut-throat competition and concomitant stress, resulting in strain in family and social relationships. Within ourselves, we may find disintegration. Such stress and strain is experienced as anxiety, worry, fear or frustration. How do we overcome such stresses? Some people resort to smoking or drinking. Others seek change, vacations. They adopt various temporary escapes from tension. On the other hand, if we gain a new vision, we become more dynamic and fearless, ready to face all challenges. Praxis of Indian thought throughout the centuries has pioneered practical techniques of Self-Management that increase productivity, reduce stress, and develop essential qualities of leadership. The story of Emperor Askokā exemplifies this. Self-Management in the spiritual sense used in the Bhagavad Gita, is the key to gaining that elusive combination – efficiency at work and mental equanimity within. SMET may be an ideal way to introduce EI training into the corporate world: not running away from the world, nor an emotion. IFRSA Business Review|Vol 3|issue 2|June 2013 SMET training aims to accomplish this in a series of easily learned steps. RESEARCH Yoga-based training develops intellectual strength and clarity, enabling a person to handle challenges and function with both efficiency and equanimity in life. Human beings broadly lack this essential skill, resulting in an alarming rise in stress and deteriorating productivity levels. Yoga is a method of developing self-awareness, raising us from the animal level to a higher level, and helping us understand the spiritual dimension of life. With regard to education and training in emotional intelligence, yoga theory and practice provide methodologies that are more holistic and longer lasting in their effects. Many physiological and psychological research studies have been performed on SMET and its component Cyclic Meditation. Telles, Reddy & Nagendra (2000) observed significant decrease in oxygen consumption and breathe rat, and an increase in breath volume. They compared the effects of cyclic meditation and supine rest in the Yoga sleep posture (çaväsana) in 40 male volunteers aged between 20 and 47 (27.0 ± 5.7) years. Subjects were tested before and after cyclic meditation and çaväsana sessions, and significant changes in all three measures were observed for both practices. However, the magnitude of change on all three was greater after cyclic meditation. Vempati and Telles (1999) compared oxygen consumption, breath rate and volume and autonomic measures in IRT (one component of CM) and SR in 40 male subjects aged from 16 to 46 years. Autonomic parameters were measured for 15 subjects before and after both practices, and oxygen consumption, breath rate and volume for 25 subjects. Significant decreases in breath rate and in finger plethysmogram, a physiological indicator of anxiety, were found after IRT but not SR. The differences between the findings of this study and the previous one were no doubt due to the difference between IRT and a full CM practice. A second study by Vempati & Telles (2000) measured psycho-physiological changes induced by SMET: occupational stress index (OSI) and autonomic parameters in 26 asymptomatic, male, middle-managers aged 34 to 54 (43.0 ± 5.5) years, with particular reference to changes in levels of occupational stress at baseline. Data of subjects with OSI greater or less than the median were analyzed separately. The group as a whole showed a significant decrease in breath rate (p< .005) after the two-day program with no other changes. Subjects with OSI above the median showed: 1. A more significant decrease in breath rate (p<. 01), and decreases in: 2. Power of the low frequency component of the heart rate variability (HRV) spectrum (p<. 05), 119 Sony Kumari , Alex Hankey, H.R.Nagendra | Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy: Its power to improve cognitive skills and emotional competence 3. HRV low frequency: high frequency ratio (LF/HF) (p<. 05), and 4. An increase in HRV high frequency component (p<. 05) after the program, No significant changes were found in subjects with OSI below median. This study result found significant improvements in subjects with OSI above the median after two days SMET program, indicating that stress level has reduced in its level by reducing the breath volume and rate as well as oxygen consumption. And if the level of stress is normal, surely person will be emotionally stable. Patil and Telles conducted five studies comparing CM and SH. Their first study (2006) measured O2 consumption and breath rate and volume in 50 male volunteers (27 ± 6.3 years) before, during and after sessions of CM and çaväsana, SH. Subjects were divided into two equal subgroups, Sessions were held one day apart and the order of CM and SH was alternated for the two subgroups. All measures increased during the stimulating practices of CM, decreasing again during the calming practices. While breath rate and volume returned to baseline, O2 consumption decreased 19.3% below baseline values after CM. During SH, all measures reduced; however O2 consumption decreased only 4.8% below baseline following SH. These results suggest that the combination of yoga postures with supine rest given in CM can reduce O2 consumption more than SR alone. The second study compared the effects of CM and SR on energy expenditure (EE), respiratory change (RER) and heart rate (HR) in the same group. As previously, measurements were made before, during, and after sessions of CM and SH (held 1 day apart with the two groups' order alternated). All 3 measures increased during CM, returning to baseline during the calming practices. Energy expenditure decreased by 19.9% below baseline values after CM. During SH, energy expenditure decreased, remaining 5.1% below baseline afterwards. These results lend further support to the first study's conclusion: CM's combination of yoga postures with SR reduces energy expenditure more than SR alone. In study 3, Patil and Telles assessed changes in p300 for auditory, evoked event-related potentials in 42 volunteers (27.1 ± 6.6 years). Peak latency and amplitude at fz, cz, and pz electrodes referenced to linked ear lobes were measured before and after CM practice and an equal duration of SR. As before, sessions were held one day apart with subgroup order reversed. Reductions in peak latencies were observed following CM at all 3 electrodes. Similar reductions at all sites were also observed after SR, though in all cases the magnitude was less than after CM. Peak amplitudes at all 3 sites were higher after CM than before CM, but, in contrast, no significant changes were found after SR. IFRSA Business Review|Vol 3|issue 2|June 2013 This result suggests that CM enhances cognitive processes underlying p300 generation. In a 4th study, Patil and Telles studied performance on the Six Letter Cancellation Task by 69 male volunteers aged 18 to 48 years, immediately before and after CM and SR. After both practices, Net Scores were significantly higher, though the magnitude was more after CM than SR (24.9%/13.6%). Wrong cancellation scores decreased after CM, but not after SR. Controls showed no change. The result suggests that CM improves some of the skills (selective attention, concentration, visual scanning abilities, & repetitive motor response) required to perform this task. In their 5th and final study, Patil and Telles measured heart rate variability (HRV) in a group of 42 males aged 27.1 ± 6.6 years before and after CM and SR sessions of 35 minutes, preceded and followed by 5 minutes SR. During CM yoga postures, and after CM, LF power and LF/HF ratio decreased, whereas HF power increased. Heart rate increased during yoga postures, but decreased during relaxation phases and after CM. No changes occurred during SR. These observations led to the conclusion that during yoga postures, sympathetic activation predominates, while after CM, the parasympathetic nervous system becomes dominant. These studies suggest that SMET program has a positive impact in reducing the level of stress by controlling all the physiological and psychological changes, which is certainly helpful in bringing emotional stability throughout one’s personality to deal with critical circumstances in life. EFFECT ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE Emotional intelligence enables a person to handle stressful situations. An emotionally intelligent individual can tackle such situations without harm to their personality. A randomised controlled study investigated the effect of the SMET integrated yoga module on emotional well being among managers in a large Indian company. Three different psychological tests, measuring Emotional Intelligence (EI), Emotional Competence (EC) and Guna Personality, were administered before, and the first two after, 30 sessions of SMET intervention, at the rate of five sessions per working week, on weekdays, not at weekends. Results show enhancements in the level of both EI and EC after the intervention in the Yoga group compared to controls. Results were unequivocal, as definite as any on a single psychological test of this kind. There was an increase in the mean value of EI after the Yoga intervention and a decrease in the control (p<.001). There was also an increase in the mean value of E.C. in the Yoga group, also(p<.001) compared to the control group. In this field, Indian research has made three streams of contributions: 120 Sony Kumari , Alex Hankey, H.R.Nagendra | Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy: Its power to improve cognitive skills and emotional competence 1) Critiques of aspects of EI that might limit its applicability to the western world. 2) Insights resulting from cross-cultural experience; 3) Applying wisdom from ancient traditions, at the basis of Indian thought, which raise issues central to the purpose of life, and are not merely techniques to cope with problems. Indian research provides ethnically sensitive approaches to emotional intelligence, suggesting it is a universal construct, requiring culturally specific measuring instruments. A large part of intelligence research involves creation and cross validation of such instruments, using known quantitative methodologies. Indian research on emotional intelligence has produced a qualitative study of the concept - qualitative measures have the potential to provide insights into complex psychological concepts. In education and training, yoga offers holistic methodologies, which produce longer lasting effects than western counterparts. Indian wisdom suggests that behavior is related to a person's vision of life. Both the Gitā and Patānjali's Yoga Sutrās concern the purpose and goal of life, pointing to peace of mind and qualities following from living life better. IMPROVING EI AND EC Can emotional intelligence and competence can be improved in adults. Some research results suggests they can be, but corporate training programmes usually use a flawed approach, because social and emotional learning being different from cognitive and technical learning, requires a different approach. Some feel that EC develops early in life and is fixed; others hold the EI of whole groups to be malleable. However, emotional learning requires more than cognitive learning. It requires engaging neural circuits involved in emotional storage. This is more challenging than simply acquiring new information. It usually requires long practice. Twenty-two guidelines for growing EI in organizations have been given (Cherniss and Goleman, 1998). These promote social and emotional learning. US industry was said to lose many billion dollars per year from not using them, and many organizations have benefitted from them. HeartMath has developed techniques of interest, by using feedback to tech control of emotions. One study of a one-day workshop on Inner Quality Management found heart rate variability (HRV) improved 195%. See www.heartmath.org. Comparing SVYASA's yoga interventions with EI training practice and HeartMath approaches would indicate optimal new approaches to EI development. In the west, meditation was long ago shown to “train awareness, producing definite changes in perception, attention and cognition” (Brown, 1977). Indian research also finds decreases in O2 consumption following IFRSA Business Review|Vol 3|issue 2|June 2013 meditation using an appropriate syllable, suggesting increases in sympathetic tone, and that meditation produces "alertful rest" (Telles, Nagarathna & Nagendra, 1995). Cyclic Meditation (CM), a part of SMET, is based on the above idea as indicated by traditional texts. Guna- Guna as a measure or instrument to assess the personality of an individual. It has three dimension like-Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Based on the dominance of specific Guna individual personality can be assessed. There is a chance of growth in the personality from tamas to Sattva. INTEGRATED APPROACH OF YOGA THERAPY The Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy (IAYT) centers its approach to treatment on the well-known five 'Koshas', from grosser to subtler levels of an individual. It deals with both heart and mind, improving them by bringing stability to life. In the tradition of Yoga: Annamaya Kosa, the physical body is nourished by food that we eat. This is the sole kosha that modern science has investigated. Pranamaya -A uniform harmonious flow of Pana to each and every cell of the annamaya kosa keeps it alive and healthy. Prana has the capacity to move into different areas of the body (annamaya kosa) depending on demand. Manomaya- Manas (mind) is the source of everything". Manomaya kosa is the aspect of personality where mind carries on its functions like Perception (Manah), memory (Citta) and ego (Ahankara). Vijnamaya - this component of mind dustunguishes humans from animals. Anandamaya- is the subtlest aspect of relative existence devoid of any emotions; a state of stillness, harmony, and blissful health . Traditional Yoga practices affect these in subtle ways. Regulating breathing and mental activity slowly eliminate effects of past stress, and bring them to awareness. In a similar way that learning cognitive skills like reading and writing is accomplished by attention, memory, symbolic thinking, and self-regulation, so also do these subtle skills develop. When we learn to read and write as children, such skills improve, and we learn to use them purposefully. Mental or cognitive skills may seem mysterious because they can not be seen or recognized by themselves. Without such cognitive skills, however, we could not process any information we receive through the five senses --sound, touch, sight, taste, and smell. In the same way that cognitive skills are essential tools for learning, emotional skills can similarly develop by bringing them to awareness. Instead of happening at the level of manomayokosha, howeve, they happen at the level of vigyana mayokosha. It is because Yoga can also encompass this higher level, that it is able to develop the 121 Sony Kumari , Alex Hankey, H.R.Nagendra | Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy: Its power to improve cognitive skills and emotional competence emotional skills useful when we are subject to extreme forms of stress. In global recession- IAYT is a technique, which is ideal [2] for training people to deal with all kinds of stressful situation, in the workplace and in life in general, from individuals and in groups, and whole organizations. CONCLUSION [3] The global recession has reduced the magnitude of economic production at all levels. Even IT employees have lost jobs, and have had to face all kinds of [4] psychological problems. The need is now. The programs described above for tackling stress are medically well tested; their evidence base is established. They are now available for the business community to [5] improve the level of health of their employees, and thus their quality of life and ability to stay at work instead of falling sick. Whether or not the downturn sustains or repeats, those trained with these higher skills will have [6] excellent advantages, and will be able to outcompete their competitors, at both individual and corporate levels. REFERENCES [7] [1] Patil, S.P and Telles, S. (2006). Oxygen consumption and respiration during and after two yoga relaxation techniques. Applied Psychophysiology and 31(2):143-53. Patil, S.P and Telles, S. (2006). Changes in heart rate variability during and after two yoga based relaxation techniques. International Journal of Stress Management (In Press). Patil, S.P and Telles, S. (2006). Cyclic meditation – a moving meditation –reduces energy expenditure more than supine rest. Journal of Indian Psychology, 24(2): 44-51. Patil, S.P and Telles, S. (2006). Immediate effect of two yoga-based relaxation techniques on performance in a letter cancellation task. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 105(2): 379-385. Patil, S.P and Telles, S. (2006). Changes in P300 following two yoga relaxation techniques. International Journal of Neuroscience 16(12): 1419-30. Vempati R.P. & Telles, Shirley (2000). Baseline occupational stress levels and physiological responses to a two day stress management program. Journal of Indian Psychology, 18, no 1& 2. Telles, Shirley, Redddy, S.K. & Nagendra, H.R. (2000). Oxygen consumption and respiration following two days yoga relaxation techniques. Applied Psychology and Biofeedback, 25, No24. IFRSA Business Review|Vol 3|issue 2|June 2013 122