Sustainable Happiness Through Spirituality-Based Holistic Practices: An In-Depth Study from Central India

Sustainable happiness is the ultimate aspiration behind all the pursuits in life. With an increase in stress and mental health disorders, the happiness index is dropping significantly. Primary objective: This study investigated the role of spirituality based yogic practices in improving happiness and life satisfaction. Scope: The study aims to identify feasible holistic solutions for achieving sustainable happiness in today’s fast-paced world. Methods: The study involved 459 participants from central India participating in the study. The study population was divided into two spirituality based yogic practices namely, Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) (N=252) and other yogic practices (N=207). Both the groups underwent a set of self-reported questionnaires at baseline, after 3 months and 6 months of practice. The parameters assessed included, subjective happiness and life-satisfaction using Oxford Happiness Scale, Subjective Happiness scale and Satisfaction with Life scale. Results: The results demonstrated a significant benefit of the yogic interventions in improving individual perception on subjective happiness and life satisfaction. The SKY group demonstrated a significant improvement in all three assessment parameters across the time points while the yoga group demonstrated a slight improvement at the 3 months’ time point and showed gradual improvement after 6 months’ practice. Implications: The findings of this study offer a pathway toward an economical and feasible approach to improve mental wellbeing providing sustainable happiness and life satisfaction among individuals. Additionally, it can also help policy makers to adopt holistic practices to increase the happiness quotient of India.