Modern life serves a lot of amenities, comfort, and access to information, but what comes along is rising ambitions, deadlines, demands, frustration, constant rush, lack of time, and many duties and responsibilities. These all factors disrupt the balance, lead to the accumulation of stress, and therefore contribute to anxiety, insomnia, depression, and psychosomatic disorders, which strongly correlate with deterioration of health and decrease of quality of life (QoL) [1], [2]. Additionally, despite comfort and access to many amenities, there is often experienced lack of sense of life, intrusive thoughts and an inability to experience joy in life. The question is, why some people, regardless of stressful situations, and severe hardships, stay healthy, and why others do not. Antonovsky formulated the concepts of sense of coherence (SOC) and general resistance resources (GRRs), claiming that peoples’ life orientation will have an impact on broadly understood health [3], [4]. It is a valid, reliable, and cross-culturally applicable instrument for measuring health5. Good health, self-realization, self-esteem, personal effectiveness, and quality of life are related to sense of coherence (SOC), which is a central pillar of Antonovsky’s salutogenic model of health [5]. It is focused on the relationship between health, stress, and coping. In salutogenic theory, health is considered as dynamic process/state/phenomenon/ on a “health ease/dis-ease continuum” [3]. Health psychology adapted from the psychosomatic medicine the thesis of psychosomatic unity of human and therefore holistic approach to human health. According to the "holistic" model of the physician's approach to the patient, physical, psychological, and social aspects should be taken into account during diagnosis and treatment.

Sense of coherence is defined as “a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that 1) the stimuli deriving from one`s internal and external environments in the course of living are structured, predictable and explicable (sense of comprehensibility, SC); 2) the resources are available to one to meet the demands posed by these stimuli (sense of manageability, SM) and 3) these demands are challenges worthy of investment and engagement (sense of meaningfulness, SMF)” [3], [4]. These elements are well known as comprehensibility, manageability, meaningfulness respectively, and are associated with both physical and psychological health. This is due to the fact that a strong SOC should lead a person to engage in behaviors which promote health, and which also affect the endocrine and immunological systems, therefore mobilizing appropriate bodily resources [6]. Great number of studies have focused on relationship between sense of coherence, health status, quality of life and relation between them [5], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13].

Mind-Body Medicine/Mind-Body interventions are recognized as a valuable adjunct to medical treatment, they are widely used and studied, in order to increase self-consciousness and reduce chronic stress. Originating from ancient Buddhist and yoga traditions, mindfulness-based interventions have become increasingly popular in the Western world. Mindfulness is described as a “way of being” and defined as the capacity for awareness in each moment, by “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” [14]. Mindfulness-based interventions decrease stress, anxiety, and depression and improve mindfulness, mood, self-efficacy, and empathy in health profession students. Due to the range of presentation options, mindfulness training can be relatively easily adapted and integrated into health professional training programs [15]. Yoga as a mind-body medicine has been profoundly used to treat many medical conditions including stress and lifestyle-related disorders, chronic inflammatory disorders and metabolic syndromes, and asthma [16], [17], [18]. Recently yoga also has seen practice with therapeutic potential, not only with respect to the physical body but also psychological well-being [17]. The National Institutes of Health in the US and National Health Service in UK described yoga as a safe and effective intervention to increase motor characteristics and treatment for many diseases such as heart disease, aches, and pains, depression, or distress general. They also recommended this practice for elder people to improve balance and coordination [19]. Yoga is a part of long- lasting, practiced for millennia possibly the oldest mind-body intervention. Breathing techniques are regularly recommended for relaxation, stress management, control of psychophysiological states, and improving organ function. They have been shown to positively affect immune function, autonomic nervous system imbalances, and psychological or stress-related disorders. One of very interesting and promising breathing technique is Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY). It is a simple, easy-to-learn, effortless technique to experience deep relaxation and meditation states. It is a type of rhythmic breathing activity, trivially a form of Pranayama that stimulates physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being. SKY technique is procedure consisting of breathing exercises as follow [21], [22], [23]:

Ujjayi Breaths, also known as Victorious Breath or Ocean Breath, is a slow and deep breathing technique. The sound is produced by a slight contraction of the muscles of the larynx and partial closure of the glottis. This creates resistance in the airway and allows the airflow rate to be controlled so that the breathing cycle can be extended. It is a technique of slow, deep breathing with a frequency of 4 to 6 breaths per minute.

Three-step pranayama - breathing in a certain ratio of inhalations, holding the breath and exhaling. For each cycle, the position of the arms and the number of breaths are determined. Duration about 10 minutes.

Bhastrika or "Bellows Breath" - very energetic, fast, intense breaths, 15 to 20 cycles. The breaths are combined with a quick movement of the arms up and down. The movement of the arms are used to increase the force and depth of exhalation and exhalation. Duration is about 5 minutes.

Immediately before the Sudarshan Kriya (SK), the “Om” is chanted three times with prolonged breath.

Rhythmic breathing technique (Sudarshan Kriya): during this technique there are no pauses between exhalation and inhalation, breaths are rhythmic and repeated in three different rhythms: slow 8-20 breath cycles per minute, medium 40-50 breath cycles and rapid 60-80 breath per one cycle.

There is mounting evidence to suggest that SKY can be a beneficial, low-risk, low-cost adjunct to the treatment of stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, stress-related medical illnesses, substance abuse, and rehabilitation of criminal offenders [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28].

In this study, we have evaluated the influence of the breathing-based meditation technique (Sudarshan Kriya Yoga), as a core method of YES!+ (youth empowerment seminar) on the sense of coherence of practitioners, by using the SOC-29 questionnaire.