Yoga and health promotion, practitioners' perspectives at a Brazilian university: A pilot study Pamela Siegel a , * , Andrea Vasconcelos Gonçalves a , Luis G. da Silva a , Livia Bartolomei a , Michelle J. Barreto a , Maria Renata Furlanetti a , Celso Stephan b , Nelson Filice de Barros a a Faculty of Medical Sciences, Department of Collective Health, State University of Campinas Unicamp., Rua Tessalia Vieira de Camargo, 126., 13.083-887, Campinas, S~ ao Paulo, Brazil b Faculty of Medical Sciences, State University of Campinas Unicamp., Rua Tessalia Vieira de Camargo, 126., 13.083-887, Campinas, S~ ao Paulo, Brazil ar ticle info Article history: Received 21 March 2015 Accepted 6 May 2015 Keywords: Yoga Health promotion CAM Narratives Mymop Triangulation abstr act The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the Program Yoga and Health Promotion offered to 18 participants, lecturers, workers and students of the State University of Campinas, Brazil. The program aimed at favoring well-being in relation to their physical, emotional and mental condition. Practitioners completed the Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile to identify the symptoms and the perception of self-reported well-being, and the Ttest was applied to the results of the participants' profiles before and after the program. Narratives were used based on trigger phrases. Seven categories (self-control; self- perception; well-being; body awareness; balance; mind-body; re flexivity), were identified through thematic analysis. The results were discussed according to the triangulation of methods. Results: 14 participants scored better profiles, with a p-value <0.05. As regards the narratives, there were no negative perceptions about the yoga practice. In conclusion: yoga was a positive intervention for the group of participants. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Yoga is a Hindu tradition which can be traced back roughly to the first millennium bce. Eliade [1] affirms that, etymologically, yoga stems from the root yuj, meaning to bring together, unite, maintain united. He continues saying that the word can signify techniques of asceticism and the whole method of meditation. According to him, there are several forms and yoga traditions, including Classic Yoga, to which Patanjali refers in his work Yoga Sutras (a compilation on the philosophy and yoga techniques), one of the most accepted and known in the West. In these aphorisms Patanjali de fines yoga as the silencing of the changeable mental states [2]. Although Singleton [3] (2008) argues that Classic Yoga never constituted a yoga lineage in itself, and Liberman [4] (2008, p.106) affirms that. Classic yoga formulated by the Bramins of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is what the Europeans, who studied yoga, learned. Their interest was mostly philosophical and they met with Hindus who were intellectualized Bramins. In this study, we consider Patanjali as the authority-source of the so-called Classic period. Yoga, according to Hermogenes [5], is the unification of oneself. It allows the human being to transcend the present state he/she lives in, which is a fragmented state of being. Gomes's study [6] indicates that the human being is fragmented, out of balance and sick, and yoga could be used as a tool for reintegration, rebalancing and cure of oneself. The higher goals of yoga are to transform the individual into a harmonious whole, allowing for the transcen- dence of pain and suffering. According to Yasudian and Haich [7] the essence and ultimate goal of yoga are always the same: the perfect knowledge of oneself. In order to reach this goal there are several paths, different modalities or yoga systems, among which is Hatha Yoga, which proposes using the control of the body and body work, together with the search for transcendence, and unity and * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: gfusp@mpc.com.br (P. Siegel), andrea.goncalves69@gmail.com (A.V. Gonçalves), luisgs11@gmail.com (L.G. da Silva), liviabartolomei@gmail.com (L. Bartolomei), mjbarreto@hotmail.com (M.J. Barreto), mfurlanetti@gmail.com (M.R. Furlanetti), celso.stephan@gmail.com (C. Stephan), nelfel@uol.com.br (N.F. de Barros). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ctcp http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2015.05.005 1744-3881/ © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 23 (2016) 94 e 101