Yoga and meditation was supposed to encourage people to be selfless and more concerned about others, but a new study has suggested that both practices could actually magnify an individual's ego.
A psychological study published online by the University of Southampton has found that contemporary meditation and yoga practices can inflate a person's ego, contradicting the popular assumption that they are about becoming more aware of others.
A team of researchers from University Mannheim in Germany analyzed 93 yoga students over a period of 15 weeks to find out how the practice affects their sense of self-enhancement.
Study participants were asked to rank how they relate to statements such as 'I will be well-known for the good deeds I will have done.'
The researchers measured the participants' level of self-esteem by asking how much statements like 'At the moment, I have high self-esteem' applied to them.
Additionally, the research team asked the participants to compare themselves to the average yoga student in their class to assess their level of self-enhancement.
The findings, which will also be published in the journal Psychological Science, revealed that the students had a high sense of self-enhancement when they were assessed an hour after yoga class, but lower when they had not practiced yoga in the previous 24 hours.
For the study on meditation, the research team recruited 162 people from Facebook sites to determine if the activity had the same impact on practitioners as yoga.
Participants in the second study were asked to rank themselves based on statements like 'In comparison to the average participant of this study, I am free from bias.'
The researchers found that the participants had a high sense of self-enhancement after an hour of meditation, but lower when they had not performed the activity in 24 hours.
The study authors concluded that yoga and meditation may not always have the intended effect of calming the practitioner's ego.
'Ego-quieting is a central element of yoga philosophy and Buddhism alike. That element, and its presumed implications, require serious rethinking,' the authors wrote, as reported by Quartz.
'Moreover, ego-quieting is often called upon to explain mind-body practices' well-being benefits. In contrast, we observed that mind-body practices boost self-enhancement and this boost—in turn—elevates well-being,' they added.
Other studies on yoga have indicated that the practice can enhance the central nervous system and boost the immune system.
Previous research found that it can improve a person's resilience to stress by increasing their protein and hormone levels. Additionally, the exercise can also reduce anxiety and depression while also boosting mindfulness, the Daily Mail reported.
