Seeing Within

Dawn Blezard

5.0 (1)
Alternative Health
Semiweekly

Seeing Within is a calm, audio-first podcast by Dawn Blezard, created primarily for people who are blind or visually impaired, and shared with her wider yoga community. Rooted in personal experience and yoga philosophy, the podcast explores living with sight loss, attention, stillness, and learning to orient from within. pathwayyoga.substack.com

2d ago

Kijuan Amey: Don’t Focus on Why Me

Dawn’s guest this month is Kijuan Amey, known as Kiwi: author, professional resilience speaker and retired US Air Force veteran. He spent over ten years as an in-flight refuelling specialist and instructor, before a motorcycle accident in North Carolina on 5 May 2017 left him blind, with two broken legs and a broken back. He woke up a month later. Kijuan talks about: * What in-flight refuelling involves, and why it takes nerves of steel * The accident, the eight hours his family spent not knowing where he was, and the hospital room that was standing room only * What happened once he got home: visitors drifting away, being ghosted by his girlfriend, and dreams so vivid he woke believing he could see again * The depression and suicidal thoughts that followed, and the evening his uncle took him for a drive and simply talked to him * How his other senses changed, from recognising a cousin’s car by its engine to knowing a friend’s hairstyle from a hug * Why he started writing Don’t Focus on Why Me in October 2020, and finishing it in June 2021 for his best friend since kindergarten, who died before he could read it * His speaking work, including a recent talk for United Auto Workers veterans in Detroit on the “will to overcome” (Winning In Life’s Lessons) Content note: this episode includes an honest discussion of depression and suicidal thoughts. If it raises anything for you, Samaritans are available free, 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK). Find Kijuan * Website: ameymotivation.com * Podcast: No Sight, No Excuses, on all major platforms * Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn: Kijuan Amey Please subscribe to Seeing Within and share it with someone who might need to hear it. Sponsored by Sarah Place Accountancy, Bury St Edmunds. Produced by Anne Gould. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com/subscribe
Oct 1

Walking Tall with Wayne Pugh

Wayne Pugh lost his sight overnight - literally, between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day - as a result of diabetic retinopathy, detached retinas and glaucoma. What followed was a hospital-and-hardship story most people would find hard to imagine: around 130 operations, a kidney transplant, a pancreas transplant, and a point where he came close to ending his life. In this conversation, Wayne talks about: * The moment he lost his sight, and the years of near-total isolation that followed * Getting his first guide dog, Vince, and the incident that pushed him to start filming his walks for his own safety * How “Walking Tall with Wayne Pugh” grew from posting in a Facebook group to a page with over 14,000 followers - and what he won’t compromise on when it comes to showing the hard days as well as the good ones * The daily practice that got him through the worst of it (it starts with a smile) * His new role as an assistive technology coordinator, teaching other people the tech that’s helped him * The tech he actually uses day to day, including his glasses of choice and why * What he’d tell his New Year’s Day self, sixteen years on Subscribe to Seeing Within, and if this one landed, leave a review — it's what helps the next person find it. This podcast is sponsored by Sarah Place Accountancy in Bury St Edmunds and produced by Anne Gould. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com/subscribe
Sep 1

I Can't See My Sister's Face Anymore

This week I’m joined by Millie - ranked 17 as one of the UK’s blind influencers, and someone whose honesty about sight loss stopped me in my tracks more than once during this conversation. Millie was born visually impaired due to septo-optic dysplasia, a rare brain condition that wasn’t diagnosed until her mid-teens. For years her vision loss was put down to cerebral palsy instead. She lost the rest of her sight suddenly, in her second year of university, waking up one day with only light perception left. We talk about what it actually took to stay in education with almost no support in place, how she found her people through TikTok, the sport she now can’t imagine life without, and what it’s really like to plan a wedding when you won’t be able to see your own dress in the mirror. We also talk about the part of sight loss nobody prepares you for - the grief that doesn’t end, the fading of faces you used to know, and why it’s okay to still feel that even on your happiest days. This one is raw. Millie doesn’t perform positivity for the camera, and neither do I. What we cover * Growing up visually impaired vs. losing sight suddenly — and why those are very different experiences * Being told her university had “never had a blind student before,” and finding one grade-1 braille book and a tutor willing to learn it alongside her * Starting TikTok as a private way to process, and finding her best friend through it * Blind sport: showdown, indoor rock climbing, blind archery, and skydiving for charity * Passive echolocation training — learning to sense a tree by sound alone * Planning an accessible wedding: a blind bridesmaid, a venue with a quiet room for guide dogs, and choosing a dress by touch * The specific grief of losing visual memory — remembering a voice but not a face * Comparing yourself to other people in the same community, and why that comparison doesn’t go away Links Follow Millie: [Instagram / TikTok / Facebook: @millie.is.blind Credits Produced by Anne Gould. Music via Epidemic Sound. With thanks to Sarah Place Accountants, Bury St Edmunds, for supporting the production. To hear more, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com. --- This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com/subscribe
Aug 21

They've Discharged Me - There's Nothing More They Can Do for my Vision

If you saw the video I posted before my hospital appointment, this is what happened. My vision has actually stabilised since the last check-up. But there’s nothing more they can do — no more yearly monitoring, no trials, nothing left to track. I’ve been discharged. It sounds like it should be good news. Instead it felt like the end of something: the end of any chance this doesn’t just keep going one way. I talk about what I can actually see now — a dead line across my vision, colour still there but fading like a photo left out in the sun, more cracks and black patches where the sight has gone. And about a friend’s line that’s stuck with me since: don’t ask why me, ask why not me. This wasn’t the news I was expecting, but I’m sitting with it rather than pretending I’m fine. Thank you for being with me for both sides of this one. If this is your first time here, I’m a yoga teacher living with Stargardt’s disease. You can find more of my story — and the podcast, Seeing Within — through the links below. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com/subscribe
Aug 19

Losing My Sight to Stargardt's Disease

Six weeks ago I sat in a hospital and got told my sight had deteriorated significantly. Today I went back for the follow-up, and I already knew it wasn’t going to be good news. This is what I recorded that morning, before I left the house. I talk about the strange grief of losing your sight slowly rather than all at once — how you don’t just grieve it once, you grieve it over and over, every time there’s another appointment, another bit gone. I talk about the affirmations and yoga philosophy I’ve been leaning on all week to get through today. And I talk about why it’s okay to not feel strong, even when people keep telling you that you are. I’ll follow up once I know what today’s appointment actually meant. If this is your first time here, I’m a yoga teacher living with Stargardt’s disease. You can find more of my story — and the podcast, Seeing Within — through the links below. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com/subscribe
Jul 31

Finding My Voice When I Couldn't See My Way

This month I’m joined by the wonderful Anne Mok, who shares her journey from years of being told she was clumsy, shy, or just not very academic, to finally being diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy, a rare inherited retinal condition, in adulthood. Anne talks honestly about the years of not being believed, the moment a specialist finally said “I believe you,” and how giving up driving, then learning to use a white cane, changed everything. We talk about the fear of being seen with a cane, finding community on Instagram during the pandemic, and how that led to an unexpected new career in voice acting. Anne also shares the story behind her new book, Resilience and Purpose: Discovering Strength and Connection in Life’s Cracks, and why finishing it felt like a hug from her mum. This is a conversation about grief, acceptance, and the things nobody tells you when your vision starts to change. Find Anne:Instagram: @PurposeInViewWebsite: PurposeInView.comBook: Resilience and Purpose: Discovering Strength and Connection in Life’s Cracks — available now, audiobook coming this autumn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com/subscribe
Jul 1

Seeing Within: Fashion Has No Limits

SHOW NOTES Seeing Within is hosted by Dawn Blezard, a Jivamukti-trained yoga teacher living with Stargardt’s disease - a progressive condition that is gradually taking her sight. Each episode, Dawn talks with guests who are navigating life, identity, and the world at the edges of what they can see. In this episode, Dawn meets Bérénice Magistretti - writer, visually impaired activist, and co-founder of Visible Voices, a platform shifting the narrative on disability through the lens of fashion, beauty, art and design. Bérénice was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at 19. Over the past twenty years, her sight has gradually diminished - first in low light, then with increasing blind spots throughout the day. Three years ago, she began using a white cane. Unable to find one that reflected who she was, she designed her own - working with artisans in Tuscany to create a cane that is now touring international museums and forming the basis of an upcoming collection. Her work has been featured in British Vogue, Vogue Italia, and AD Italia. She has given a TEDx Talk and has appeared on France Inter. Her co-founder, Ruben, is autistic and narcoleptic — and together they are building Visible Voices into a global platform that tells different stories about disability, through a different lens. In this conversation, Bérénice and Dawn explore: * The emotional transition of making an invisible disability visible * Why the world of fashion has been slow to include disabled people — and why that is beginning to change * The work of Hair and Care, a London nonprofit helping low-vision and blind women to feel and look beautiful * How Making Fashion Accessible is opening up London Fashion Week to the blind and low-vision community — with live audio description, tactile sample books, and direct access to designers * The anxiety, grief, and identity questions that come with progressive sight loss * Why sharing is not the same as complaining You look with your two eyes, but you see with your third eye. Find Bérénice on Instagram: @berenice.magistretti Visible Voices: @visible_voices_ TEDx Talk: youtu.be/7jB6rdUfWIE This is not a podcast to rush through. There is no right way to listen. Produced by Anne Gould. Music via Epidemic Sound. With thanks to Sarah Place Accountants, Bury St Edmunds, for supporting the production. To hear more, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com/subscribe
Jun 6

Living your blessed blind life — with Chris, The Blind Man with the Backpack

This week I'm joined by my dear friend Chris, who many of you will know as The Blind Man with the Backpack. Chris was diagnosed with cone dystrophy in 2018, and within a couple of years had gone from driving and living what he calls a "normal-ish life" to being severely sight impaired. We talk about the constant adaptation that comes with degenerative sight loss — the moving goalposts, the readjustment family members can find so hard to understand, and the grief of what we could do last month but can't do this month. Chris also opens up about the last six weeks since his beloved guide dog Chester retired from work, and what it's been like returning to the white cane after the partnership of a dog. His description of the difference — a bumper car versus a Formula One car — has stayed with me ever since. We share what keeps us going. For Chris, it's his local woods and an outdoor pool in Reading where the staff have made every adjustment so he can swim. For me, it's yoga, breath work, and being outdoors. And because I'm walking part of the Jurassic Coast in July for RNIB, I asked Chris for his tips. He walked the Pembrokeshire coast with a guide, and what he says about rhythm and trust between walker and guide is something I'll be carrying with me on the cliff paths. His advice to his younger self is one I'll be coming back to: live your blessed blind life. Don't fight it. Just go with it. You can find Chris on Instagram as @theblindmanwithabackpack and on his blog of the same name. Produced by Anne Gould. Music via Epidemic Sound. With thanks to Sarah Place Accountants, Bury St Edmunds, for supporting the production. To hear more, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit pathwayyoga.substack.com/subscribe

Seeing Within is a calm, audio-first podcast by Dawn Blezard, created primarily for people who are blind or visually impaired, and shared with her wider yoga community. Rooted in personal experience and yoga philosophy, the podcast explores living with sight loss, attention, stillness, and learning to orient from within. pathwayyoga.substack.com

Creator

Dawn Blezard
Years Active

2026
Episodes

16
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Dawn Blezard
Show Website

Seeing Within