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Changemakers Forum:
Entry:Living Yoga
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Who doesn’t seek tranquillity and relaxation in our increasingly hectic world" The stress of daily life, information overload, sensory over-stimulation, of a world that is spinning faster and getting smaller, but not necessarily better – it can all be too much. Yoga offers a time-out, a return to one’s own self, a path into the inner world.
The very name of this discipline describes its goal. The word yoga derives from the Sanskrit yui, meaning “yoke” or union. Yoga teaches two forms of union. This first is self-discovery, or union with the self. The second is union with the universal energy that surrounds us all, the absolute consciousness known as Brahman. This second goal is founded in the recognition that every conscious being springs from the same originating energy.
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mike93
alaska drug rehab
I visited your site. It is really interesting and i got lot of useful information."Yoga is said to be the oneness of breath, mind, and senses, and the abandonment of all states of existence." Meditation which is part of yoga is helpful for development of a favourable mindset.
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oliviaharis
massachusetts drug rehab
Hello Leslie,
I'm very interested in learning more about what you are doing. Can you share a few stories about the impact that Yoga is having on these individuals? How many people do you think you've hosted in your yoga sessions? What is generally the class attendence? Can you give more description about how you plan to grow this idea? Its a great one and it would be great to see it implemented in other places! I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Dana Frasz
Changemakers
Hi Dana-- thanks for your interest. Sorry to be so long in responding. I had a nice break at the beginning of the month and have finally completed all my tax letters!
The anectdotal stories we have heard from folks attending our classes include: a letter from a teenage boy at a residential drug and alcohol treatment center telling us that yoga helps him sleep and gives him a new way to think yoga helps them sleep; a story from an inmate who appreciates the compassion and accpetance the volunteers bring to their teaching and looks at the volunteers as role models of what it means to live a good life.
We teach approximately 8,000 student-hours per year. We teach 13 classes a week. Some of the community outreach classes only have 3 students, while classes at the Drug and Alcohol treatment centers and the prisons have 15-20 students attending every class.
We are growing because more and more community based organizations are asking for yoga as an adjunct to the rehabilitative services they provide and we have tremendous interest from people who want to be volunteers. We start a new volunteer training tomorrow night and 40 people have signed up. We are regularly contacted by people in other communities that are interested in teaching in prisons in their communities. We have hosted several of these individuals at our trainings and freely share all the information and experience we have to help them get started. A successful program depends on the presence of a yoga community near the prison or institution and yoga practioners willing to share their practice.
Hope this answers your questions.
Blessings, Leslie
Both you, Leslie, and Sarahjoy are to be commended for reminding us that a purpose of imprisonment even more essential than warehousing inmates is their rehabilitation. Unfortunately, rehabilitation is also the dimension of imprisonment which we quickly dismiss and consequently underfund.
I know little about the psychology of aberrant behavior, but I'm inclined to think that teaching inmates yoga and meditative techniques would be a much more powerful deterrent to recidivism than many other alternatives which we employ. Each of us is beset with multiple stresses and pressures, and this is even more the case for those who are imprisoned. As yoga classes and workshops help so many individuals in mainstream society, we have ample reason to believe that they will have a similar effect on those who are incarcerated.
Steve Byars
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California
Hi Steve-- thanks for your comments. I belive that the most successful rehabilitative strategy is to help people change the way they think. Yoga and meditation help people develop awareness and the knowledge to understand the difference between acting and reacting. If the individuals don't change the way they think and then re-enter the same community with little opportunity, not job and the stigma of inmate or addict, it's no wonder they end-up back in prison or on the street.
Another thing that has surprised me about our local women's prison is the 85% of the inmates have severe addiction or abuse problems on incarceration. There is a LOT of anecdotal information about the power of yoga in recovery. Unfortunately, not a lot of mainstream publications. Probably too many factors and difficulty regulating dosing (intensity, duration, frequency).
Hi Leslie:
We always hear of all the health and mental benefits of yoga but it is a sport much like golf or tennis in that it is sequestered among the more privileged. I really like that it is being used on this group to bring the mental clarity and discipline that yoga offers. Could you provide any anecdotes on the impact that it has made on individuals? Data collection may be a ways away but anecdotes will show us in what ways the program has been effective. Thank you so much!
Tyler Ahn
Changemakers
Hi,
i am new member to this site
Hi Tyler Ahn :
i read your comment it is very interesting and nice,Thanks...
sports are important it make to refresh our body and yoga make refresh to our mind...
it give good breath,meditation mekes tension free and mind relax . .....
Ramya
oregon drug rehab
Hi Tyler-- thanks for your questions. See my response to Dana Franz above. I also have a couple videos I can send to you where the students are telling their own stories of impact. One of the things I did not know when I started doing this work is that most of the inmates in the women's prison live together in a large room with bunk beds. Imagine what it would be like to live for years in an environment where you could never be alone for a moment and were required to manage the stress of close quarters, etc. Yoga is one tool that can help the women turn within and find calm and quiet. These skills are so relevant for making different choices once they have served their sentence and return to our community.