Yoga for the Blind Helps Stroke Survivors Coping with Sudden Vision Loss

The group’s instructor, Tamas Dani-Nagy, says he started practicing yoga seven years ago after suffering serious injuries to his neck, shoulders and spine.

“I decided I wanted to know how the body works and how to manage my anxiety and energy around the body,” he says.

While completing his yoga instructor training, he began volunteering with Sight Scotland as a friend, where he visited a blind woman and helped her with her errands.

Tamas, who now does community work for a charity, says he was inspired to work with visually impaired people by a blind friend he had as a teenager.

“He was very dependent on others and always needed guidance,” says Tamas.

“Everyone was very gentle with him, but I always took him to the beach and we did crazy things together.

“We went to the cinema, and I described to him out loud what was happening on the screen.”

Reflecting on how yoga helped him heal from trauma, Tamas realized he wanted to bring the practice to the blind community to promote mindfulness.

“If I had back pain, I would go on YouTube and search for “yoga for back pain”, then watch the video and copy what I see, whereas my very good friend would not have the opportunity .

“That’s when I decided that this knowledge should be available to everyone, not just sighted people.”