I am Tiziana Siviero, I am 52 years old and I have been practicing yoga since I was 8 years old.

I am a lucky woman: I teach yoga to the blind and visually impaired.
I am a lucky woman because in this life I received a beautiful gift: being born healthy and sighted to a visually impaired mother. No, this is not a provocation, nor is it an exercise in petty gratitude.
I don’t think I would have gone so far as to study and create my own method of teaching yoga to the visually impaired from another life experience.

My adventure as yoga teacher for blind

My world and my venture, Yogabar ( www.yoga-bar.it) brings to the world of yoga, loud and clear, the sense of inclusion, starting with including the visually impaired.
My mother, who saw the world primarily through smell, touch and hearing taught me the pleasure of knowing through the senses. Growing up with her got me accustomed to describing, closing my eyes, and hearing: thus the Yoga classes were born, inclusive and accessible.

Accompany yoga with the right music

Yoga classes to be practiced while listening, inclusive to disability visual. Yoga classes with a precise narrative. The sound carpet that accompanies these classes is important. It must help, not hinder. It must be present as a sensory stimulus, but not be preponderant.
For a long time I have searched for the right “music” without finding it.
I searched a lot, but no music was really good. Whatever music I chose interfered, took up space.

How to use Music of the Plants for a yoga class

Then I discovered the Music of Plants and everything took shape in a more harmonious way.
I have been using it for a few years now for practice with the blind and thus discovered the perfect sound carpet for my classes.
Using music of the plants in practice with the blind has been a beautiful discovery. An experiment daily.
The plants I use for yoga and meditation communicate in a surprising way: they follow the rhythm of the practice and match to the mood of the group.

The same thing is not replicated in the same way with the people they see and this is something that acquiring is important.
I have an impression, which gradually becomes a certainty: the plants and the world of the blind have much to say to each other.
When I teach a group that includes people who are blind and visually impaired, I perceive the music of plants as a outstretched hand, a help that from the plant world comes to us, a group that does not see but hears in a different way and I would like to say, more intense.

Advantages to use Music of the Plants during yoga practice

There is silence when needed, liveliness when needed. Plants adapt and create. As a professionist, I couldn’t find music that suits the practice better: I don’t need to worry about rhythm or connect to technology. The music goes by itself and is always right. Simply the sound follows the flow of our group energy. I find that extraordinary.

We come to the instrument I use, Bamboo M: fantastic for me, not suitable for the blind because it is not accessible, because it has no sound signals or raised buttons. When I bought it years ago and had blind people try it, we said it was a shame.
So over the years, I brought this message and our experience to the folks at Music of the Plants, asking for a more accessible device that we could use with our eyes closed.
I thought the wish was left there…but NO.

Ginkgo: a gift at the summer solstice

This summer I organized an inclusive retreat for my students for the Summer Solstice in Damanhur in which a workshop dedicated to communication with the plant world was planned. The gentle and interesting workshop, curated by Terrier Kauri and Zigola Pioppo, had at its center a wonderful surprise: the totally unexpected and exciting presentation of a device accessible. Ginkgo had arrived, it was there for us to try for a preview!
We tested its accessibility “live” and it was an instant hit: beautiful! Ginkgo is accessible with eyes closed, easy to use: in short , perfect for us. We purchased it immediately on presale!
Receiving the gift of this accessible device during the seminar was a beautiful moment (I was moved!) and I believe it is the beginning of a new adventure.

Communication with the plant world for blind people

Horizons opening up for the exploration of  communication with the plant world with eyes closed.

I feel that the plant world sings more powerfully to the world of the blind: as if the ” plant deity” in its wisdom, feels and adapts to a sensory perception different from what we sighted people consider “normal.”
I hope and believe it can be the beginning of a journey of discovery: For as of today the Music of Plants, resonates not only in my studio to go to other homes scattered throughout Italy, but also “live” in the rooms of people who have purchased Ginkgo and who will connect to my classes, in a concert that unites us even more.

With Ginkgo, Music of the Plants also enters the homes of those who cannot see, and I believe the results will be surprising.
I am curious about the road we will travel, and happy about the journey.

Tiziana Siviero, yoga teacher. www.yoga-bar.it