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It has now been proved, after nine years of experience, that the pawanmuktasana practices allow physically and mentally handicapped people to begin discovering their physical bodies and to acquire knowledge about their physical existence. They become aware of legs and arms and head. We have seen that when a person is mentally or physically handicapped, there are many more pranic blockages in the system. That is where the techniques of shakti bandha have proved to be extremely useful, because they help to unblock the system and redistribute the energies.
Teaching these people was for me a tangible experience of what we have learned through yoga about the relation between body, prana and mind. A mentally retarded person has severe physical problems, and a physically handicapped person has also a lot of mental tensions, mental weaknesses, and a lack of awareness. It was all there in front of me during the classes, and I could see how each practice, each technique that was gradually introduced, was working
The second area of work has been in the breathing process. I have noticed that almost every person who is mentally retarded or physically handicapped breathes only through the mouth, so that the nostrils are completely disconnected from the breathing process. I have learned, and we have experienced through yoga, that this breathing through the nose is directly linked to stimulation of the brain, while breathing through the mouth means that this brain connection is almost nil.
So the technique of jala neti was taught in order to clear mucus from the sinus passages. Then I taught them how to breathe through the nose and at the end of the three month course, the eighteen persons who were there could practise nadi shodhan. They could sit for five minutes, keeping one nostril closed and breathing through the other nostril and then change nostrils. Of course, I had to put a lot of effort into this. I had to play a lot. I had to joke a lot. I had to invent songs and games to be able to reach this stage.
When I began to teach the technique of neti, the staff of the social center were shocked, and they almost did not allow me to go ahead. Luckily, one of the boys started crying and said, "I want to do it." He got into a temper. So, to keep him quiet, one of the attendants said, "Okay, okay, you can do it." So then everybody had to do it. Afterwards we asked one of the
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