Yoga
for autism – Sharing an experience.
Yoga is all about making us turn inwards, understand
ourselves better, discover ourselves, accept ourselves as we are and lead our
life in a joyful manner.
As we do asanas, we observe the different changes
happening at the body level. This helps us understand our body better.
As we do mindful breathing (initial chant, your
feeling) the mind doesn’t go somewhere. we are present at the moment and are
more aware. We are also observing the thoughts that come and go. This helps us
understand our thought patterns and discover our inner world.
Both these together give us a healthy body and a
healthy mind.
Let us examine the general manner in which we
respond to the situations that life throws upon us.
1) We all face different life situations
every moment. Few of them are hard for us to digest, few are n such a way that
we feel happy, few make us sad. We also face extreme situations like a break in
relationship, loss of our beloved ones etc. How are we handling these
situations? how are we responding to these?
Most of the times, we sail through such situations
as we have family support or job or something else as a fall back or diversion
option. Have we ever stopped and reflected to see the impact such situations
make on us? NO. We just go on with life, taking in one after the other
continuously that at one point we breakdown either mentally (depression,
anxiety) or physically (some digestive ailment, bone related disorder, joint
pain etc).
2) Autopilot mode – Whenever we interact
with people, how many times have we thought at the hindsight that I shouldn’t
have reacted in that manner?
At all times when we are in the
interaction with the outside world, our body and breath also react to it. Are
we mindful of that? Do we give ourselves the time to pause, detach from the
situation and observe the bodily changes (heat in the body, shivering, head or
chest tightens), the breath changes (faster breathing, faster heart beat)?
All these are easily in connection,
when we practice yoga regularly, because, this observation is what we do during
the practice.
This factor is something that help
our children(autistic) in dealing with their emotions in a long way.
Now lets us take the difference Yoga has made in
autistic children at the following levels.
First and foremost, it gives them the
right posture.
As all the practices involve both the
hemispheres of the brain, it brings in a balance in the left and right brain
coordination. This improves their spatial intelligence.
With all balancing asanas, their sense
of physical balance has improved.
Few of the hyper children, have seen to
have slowed down after doing the simple slow breathing practices.
2) Mental:
The lessening of thoughts and
decluttering of the mind happen to children also, just like how we experience
when we practice asana, breathing practice and chanting. They just do not
express it.
All of them are seen much calmer after
the yoga session.
Observing changes in the body and breath can be used
as a tool to make children understand and express their feelings. This has to
be taken up as individual goal and worked through from their young age, so that
as they reach young adulthood, they are in a position to understand and express
themselves as needed. Yoga combined with communication training, would give
them a sense of self and make them feel worthy. This is essential for every
individual to be a happy human being.