The 45-odd children of Hidden Sprouts Special School for the Mentally Challenged had an amused look on their faces as they lined up on a mat on their school premises on Wednesday.
It was not one of their routine training classes. For the next one hour, their instructor guided them to a concept that was totally new for them — yoga.
The mind-body coordination was not an easy task for the students. With the help of the school staff, it took them a few minutes to follow their instructor and get a near-perfect posture of the ‘surya namaskar’.
Integrating the concept of yoga to improve rehabilitation of mentally-challenged students, Art of Living (AOL) is organising a three-day ‘Yoga Shivir’ at schools of differently-abled children.
To begin with, the workshop is being held in two city schools — Omkar & Lions School for the Deaf and Hidden Sprouts School for the Mentally Challenged.
“This is the first such initiative of the AOL. Yoga sadhana is important for freeing the mind of various psychogenic diseases and mental illness. It is also said to improve rehabilitation of mentally challenged persons. The children can be treated to a great extent with the help of yogic techniques,” said Shubha Bharadwaj, AOL teacher of the ‘Happiness Programme’.
Certain yogic techniques, for instance, asanas like ‘kapalbhati’, is considered to be very useful for the development of the differently-abled, and have no side effects. They have a lasting effect and are seen as useful tranquillisers to calm the mind.
“For the differently-abled children, yoga and meditation is like a medicine,” Bharadwaj added.
From July onwards, the AOL will be conducting weekly yoga classes for the children of Omkar & Lions School. The ‘Yoga Shivir’ was organised as part of the International Yoga Day celebrations.
The AOL will be organising a ‘yogathon’ at Port Outdoor Stadium on June 21 to commemorate the day. The programme will be held from 5.30 a.m. to 8 a.m.
