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Physical Activity Research and Community Implementation Laboratory

The Physical Activity Research and Community Implementation Laboratory, or the PARCI Lab, merges psychology, yoga, and scientific methodologies to enhance well-being through the Flourishing Index, engaging diverse communities with participatory approaches.

Students lie or sit on their yoga mats in a studio while their professor speaks.

In the PARCI Lab, we use scientific methods from behavioral psychology and dissemination & implementation as well as the art, practice, philosophy and science of yoga to help people live the good life, or to flourish. We measure the Flourishing Index (a holistic measure of happiness, life satisfaction, mental and physical health) and capture people’s lived experiences through qualitative methodologies. The communities we serve are vast – from cancer survivors to academics ourselves—and we always use a participatory approach to answer questions that are both empirically and practically meaningful.

Principal Investigator

  • Bio Item
    Samantha Harden, PhD, 500 RYT , bio

    Associate Professor: Yoga as an affordable, accessible public health practice; dissemination and implementation science; group dynamics for long-term health behaviors