Holistic Health, Yoga and Social Change Among Young Women in the Arabian Gulf Post-COVID-19

Abstract

The environment guides human imagination and steers life processes. In times of adversity, like during the COVID-19 pandemic, the imagination of both sexes was stimulated and formed new experiences in the mind that reshaped the way of social interaction and order between all members of society. In the pursuit of survival and staying well, many young adults in the Arab Gulf region, mostly female, explored holistic health to prevent infection with inspired creativity.  As women face more challenges in life than men and have different future needs, COVID-19 appears to have stimulated the social acceptance of gender empowerment. In large part this was due to a combination of two elements - national female empowerment projects; provided by increased market opportunities and certain freedoms, like driving an automobile and the freedom to live alone; and interest in Holistic Health preventions, imagined as an efficient way not only for preventing infection and family chronic diseases in old age but also increasing intergenerational social harmony. Outdoors Yoga was such an intervention independently sought by YAW.  Based on personal conversations (N=800, ages between 21 yrs. and 31 yrs.) in three Arab Gulf countries between 2022 and 2023, this paper reviews the effect of the imagination on gender behavioral choices for staying alive and well in the new environment of uncertainty. It found that Covid-19 unequivocally strengthened the female element's role in society's affairs.