Blind yoga helps stroke survivor cope with sudden vision loss

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

“I decided I wanted to know how the body works and how to manage my anxiety and the energies in the body,” she says.

While completing her yoga teacher training, she began volunteering as a fellow at Sight Scotland, where she would visit a blind woman and help her with her work.

Tamas, who is now a community outreach worker at the charity, says he was inspired to work with visually impaired people by a friend who was blind in his youth.

“He was very dependent on others and needed guidance everywhere, all the time,” Tamas says.

“Everyone was so nice to him, but I would always take him to the beach and we would do crazy things together.

“We would go to the movies and I would explain to him out loud what was happening on the screen.”

As Tamas reflected on how yoga helped her recover from her injuries, she realized she wanted to bring the practice to the blind community to promote mindfulness.

“If I had a backache, I’d go on YouTube and search ‘yoga for back pain’, then watch a video and copy what I saw, whereas my good friend wouldn’t have that option.

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