Netherlands
I have been working in the area of yoga and mental health for 13+ years, wherein I have been exploring the inter-connections between the Eastern science of yoga and the Western science of Psychology. I am currently a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Psychology, Health & Technology, Universiteit Twente, Netherlands, where I lead the ENGAGE-M-BREATHER project, which strives to bring innovative modalities in digital mental self-care by developing a more engaging yoga-breath digital mental health intervention for adult cancer survivors. I am also an Associate Professor of Yoga Psychology at Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute, India. I have convened 3 international conferences, 2 international symposia, organised 8 workshops, contributed to oral/poster presentations and panel discussions in international conferences, conducted many public outreach activities, authored high-quality peer-reviewed publications, and am the promotor of 4 PhD students in India. I am very passionate about unearthing the scientific treasure available in different traditional knowledge systems through collaborative research and education. I strongly believe that the inner and the outer sciences need to meet each other for the world to truly prosper, and I explore this through my interdisciplinary work.
My postdoc project is called ENGAGE-M-BREATHER! It is a uniquely positioned, ambitious project, which aims to develop and test novel engagement modalities for self-management of mental health and flourishing in adult cancer survivors (ACS) through a digital mental health intervention (DMHI) based on yoga-breathing. The major accomplishments expected in this project are 1) co-creation of a yoga-breath DMHI, 2) evaluation of this DMHI for mental health and flourishing outcomes, and co-creation of related data visualisation, and 3) exploration of biofeedback-coupling with the DMHI as a novel engagement modality. Additionally, this project expects to produce direct and immediate societal and technological outcomes by offering ACS the co-created DMHI to self-manage their cancer-related fatigue through an existing mHealth app, Untire. This market translation is also likely to build more engagement in ACS. Thus, ENGAGE-M-BREATHER strives to bring innovative modalities in digital mental self-care by developing a more engaging yoga-breath DMHI for ACS.