Sense, England’s national charity that supports people who are deaf and blind, has launched free accessible yoga sessions for people with sight and hearing impairments in Peterborough, a cathedral city in eastern England.
These gentle and friendly sessions have been made possible following a grant of £424,958 from Sport England, which helps communities create a sporting habit. Family, friends, carers and assistance dogs are also welcome to attend these sessions.
According to Callan Barber, Regional Sports Coordinator at Sense, “Yoga is an accessible and safe form of exercise for people of all ages. It’s an effective way to build strength, flexibility and balance and it’s also great for relaxation and stress management.”
Meanwhile, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, called this availability of free yoga sessions in Peterborough “a step in the positive direction”. Zed urged various other charities in United Kingdom to offer free yoga classes to communities across the country so that they could avail the various benefits yoga offered.
Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, noted.
Rajan Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it inYoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.
According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.