Methods: This study was carried out among 90 yoga practitioners of Patanjali Yoga Research Centre (PYRC), Kozhikode, Kerala State, India using a questionnaire, which contained the measure of Psychological Distress during the past 30 days and the characteristics of the respondents, namely Age, Sex, Marital status, Level of health problems faced during the past 30 days, and whether did yoga before joining the present yoga class at PYRC. The data was analyzed as proportion, score and through statistical tests.

Results: The practice of yoga has helped the respondents to better tolerate all the distressed feelings considered in the study. Comparatively less proportion of yoga practitioners reporting the experience of distressed feelings after yoga practice than before starting yoga practice and the statistical significance of the difference in the mean total distress score before and after yoga practice establish this fact. The statistical significance of the difference in the mean distress score of various distress items before and after yoga practice also helps to substantiate this. Less health problems faced during the past 30 days, comparatively younger yoga practitioners, men, married yoga practitioners, and people who have done yoga before joining the present yoga class are found to tolerate distressed feelings better than people who faced more health problems, comparatively elder people, women, unmarried persons, and those who have not practiced yoga before joining this class.

Conclusion: Undertaking studies on yoga by institutions including yoga centres will be useful for generating scientifically backed results, which may be more acceptable for people to become motivated to learn yoga, as well as to continue its practice. This is especially relevant in a country like India, where the number of people practicing yoga is not much and many people, who have learned yoga are discontinuing it after some time