On Sunday evening I attended a benefit Yoga Class/Kirtan to benefit Yoga Behind Bars (YBB). Have you heard of it? I'm not talking about your friendly neighborhood brewpub -- I'm talking the scary kind of bars behind which 2.2 million Americans live every day in prisons, jails, and youth detention centers. Living in these places traumatizes the individuals who are incarcerated there, over and over. What do we know about yoga? What do our teachers repeat at nearly every class? It's not about the poses -- it's about the mind. Yoga's entire intention is to calm the mind. The poses help us learn to focus, to breathe, to gain strength for sitting in meditation.
You know it's true. You may come into class feeling harried, hurried, and stressed. Your body hurts and your mind is going a million miles an hour mulling over frustrations, future plans, hurt feelings, and past mistakes. You just want a bit of a break and soon you are on your mat, focused, attentive, breathing deeply, moving slowly, finding a peaceful energetic with others in beautiful surroundings, soft music the background of your practice and a skilled teacher guiding and encouraging you along.
Can you imagine being locked in prison, with none of the everyday freedoms we take for granted, living always in an atmosphere of menace and danger, with no control over your destiny? Set your judgement aside for a moment about what landed folks in that situation and acknowledge that all of those people have the same need for calm and peace that we do. Is there a better antidote to the severe stresses of incarceration than the respite and tools Yoga can bring to a person 'on the inside'?
Yoga Behind Bars trains teachers to go inside prisons to hold classes and to teach others who live 'inside' to be teachers as well. Here are some facts posted on the YBB website: http://yogabehindbars.org
In addition to the physical benefits and improved overall well-being, yoga and meditation have been scientifically proven to:
- Drastically reduce rates of recidivism, people who practice yoga and meditation behind bars are less likely to return to prison once they have finished their sentence
- Only 8% of individuals who took 4 or more yoga classes returned to prison, compared with a national average of 60% recidivism.
- Reduce depression, anger, and anxiety, often a root cause of destructive behavior and drug use.
- Be an effective adjunctive therapy during treatment for drug addiction, which is a co-factor in many of our students’ incarceration
At the benefit, we were also told of the racial healing power of this program. Prisons are deeply segregated societies, but through YBB at one prison two men, one white and one black, are teaming to teach together and finding that this partnership is helping to break racial barriers in their prison community.
We think of prisons as places of punishment, but must remember that the compassionate goal is also for the incarcerated to change, to grow, to return to the outside with the desire to join our communities as active and productive citizens who can live and work alongside all of us. Finding the calm presence of a yoga practice can serve a person for a lifetime, no matter their circumstances.
Look over the website and see what YBB is doing for this unseen segment of our community. See if you can support this dedicated organization with your time or your contributions. We are all in this life together.
Namaste... donnajurene
Photo Source: Yoga Behind Bars
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