“Yoga saved my life,” said Pragya Ghildial, who was left paralyzed below the waist after an accident when she was just 22.
Ten years later, she is India’s first female yoga instructor on wheelchair. She went back to work at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre as peer counsellor and yoga therapist within three months of the accident. “I have been doing yoga for two decades now. It is a way of life for me now.”
“Patients relate to me better because I have been in a similar position. Spinal cord injuries leaves an impact on the strongest of people and crush not just their physical self, but also their body image and confidence. A person is mobile only on a wheelchair, with no sensation below the waist, and mostly depends on others for even the most basic of daily needs,” she explained.
Hospital authorities said she is an important role model in counselling females and motivating them.
