Iyengar, one of the most famous yoga teachers, said: “The sun shines everywhere, not just here or just there. Yoga is the same – it is for everyone.” When he said «for everyone», he also meant those who do not hear or see well, who are weak in spirit or unhealthy. For everyone means for everyone.
But, unfortunately, not all of us have access to yoga. People with hearing impairments have difficulty in regular classrooms and are not always able to find a sign language teacher. According to the American public organization DeafYoga, there are 28 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States and only a few special classes.
In Russia, the number of people with various hearing impairments reaches 10%, and until recently there were no yoga classes for the deaf at all. Fortunately, this disparity is gradually disappearing. In the West, since 2007, the public charitable organization Deaf Yoga has been successfully operating, which not only teaches hearing-impaired people yoga according to special adapted programs, but also trains certified teachers using this method. Now a deaf yoga instructor is another modern profession.
In addition, today methods are being successfully developed taking into account the special needs of people with hearing impairment: completeness of vision, orienting sounds, use of sign language. In the center closely monitor the process of classes, analyzing and correcting the practice for the class, making it as comfortable and understandable as possible.
- yoga in bed
Yoga affects a person, regardless of his limitations and abilities, at all levels: physiological, energetic and mental. “Practice helps to wake up, to hear your body, to feel its position in space. It makes it possible to become more conscious and positive, to hear and know your “I”, – comments Anastasia Neschastnova, yoga teacher for the hearing impaired. However, people with normal hearing can come to her classes if they want to practice in silence, focusing not on auditory, but on visual perception. Age and training do not matter.