Serving Neurodivergent Youth with Kundalini Yoga

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Being Able to Be in The World – a Program for Neurodivergent Youth

“What being” and “what world” are the two reference categories in the Kundalini Yoga project for neuro-divergences, in particular high-functioning autism in adolescents and pre-adolescents (from 12 year-olds onwards).

According to literature, the age group identified is the moment in which one leaves the family unit, protected, and enters the peer group, where one confronts one another, one goes into crisis. If it was not identified in early childhood, as often happens for high-functioning forms of autism, this is the moment when neurodiversity is evident in relation to communicative, cognitive, affective, behavioral and perceptive aspects. If the particular needs of the subject are not recognised, listened to and compensated for, the frequent result of conflict and suffering is socio-relational, scholastic, emotional failure, up to the appearance of depressive symptoms, adaptation disorders, and exposure to abuse.

Evocative Principle: my experience as a practitioner and teacher is the great benefit that KY practice offers in daily, concrete, real life, with social relationships, school commitments, comparison with the group. This is the area of ​​life that exponentially needs intervention for a neuro-divergent because it is the most critical. It is not the introspective investigation that is of interest here, but what support Kundalini Yoga can offer for an existence of fullness, satisfaction and joy.

Purpose of the Project: we are all willing, in principle, to recognize the uniqueness of the individual, a special being, and to suspend judgment regarding everyday experiences and facts. This is very simple when you stay in a neuro-typical area. When you enter the world of divergence of thought and behavior, to the extreme of mental illness, all logic breaks down, whether you are a “spectator” or an “actor”. I accompany the students in a process of identifying some critical areas (anger, concentration difficulties, relationship difficulties, verbal communication inability,…) and help them learn to listen and not identify with these critical areas. We find their individual talents but not identify with them, and elaborate their own virtuous strategy of presence in everyday life.

Tools: they are the traditional Kriyas of Kundalini Yoga, identified from time to time based on the emerging needs of the work, which will necessarily be group work. Particular attention to physical classes, including bhangra dance, singing, mantra recitation, and celestial communications.

Haridass Kaur is from Rome, Italy. She has been teaching Yoga for 15 years and swimming for over 30 years. She has experience with children, adolescents, adults in general and pregnant women. Her work with neurodiversity began with swimming, as she observed increasing atypical behaviors, with an increase in precociousness in the last 10 years. It’s important to note that these behaviors were often minimally considered by the family. As the mother of three sons (14-12-7 years old), she is in constant and continuous contact with the world of adolescence and childhood.

Contact Haridass Kaur at ierardi.i@gmail.com.