Yoga For The Hearing Impaired?
The ancient practice of yoga is highly beneficial for people all over the world, regardless of their age, gender, nationality and levels of fitness. However, many hearing impaired people stay away from this practice, as they usually find it very difficult to follow a yoga guru's instructions in a normal class. Because of their hearing disability, several people believe that they may end up sustaining injuries if they perform a pose incorrectly. Fortunately, there are a few yoga instructors who are capable of training students that cannot hear.
A company in the US specializes in the art of "deaf yoga", as they run special classes mainly for those who are hearing impaired. At the same time, this company has also produced a DVD on deaf yoga for beginners. The medium of instruction during the classes is sign language. Deaf people can also choose to learn yoga through the DVD, which not only has sign language, but also subtitles.
One of the biggest challenges faced by people, who cannot hear is, knowing when to release a pose. This becomes more evident when they are practicing the Savasana (The Relaxation Pose) or are meditating. Several students open their eyes every few seconds, just to see if the teacher is giving any instructions. This problem has been resolved by the yoga instructors, as they dim the lights when the students need to practice a pose and turn the lights back on, to let the students know that they need to end their meditation or come out of the pose.
Since there are no signs for words like yoga, consciousness, meditation or enlightenment, not all people who know sign language are capable of teaching yoga to the hearing impaired. Therefore, people are strongly advised to join classes that specialize in yoga for the deaf, in case they are interested in learning the practice.
Submitted by A V on July 3, 2013 at 12:03
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