YOGA FREEDOM IN PRISONS

'I spend every day in a 4' x 6' room. Before I started doing yoga, I felt trapped because I didn't have any room to move around. Now, doing yoga everyday, I've learned that I am free in my mind. Concentrating on the poses, my breath fills me up, and the moment becomes my reality. In the moment, in my mind, I am free. It's made a big difference for me learning yoga here in prison.'

This inmate comment is a good summary of the impact of Living Yoga on prison populations. For those who live behind bars, behind barbed wire, isolated most of the time from one another, from family and friends, and from the community as a whole, practicing yoga has become a welcome respite.

Living Yoga became a 501(c)(3) non profit in 2002 with a handful of volunteer teachers, working at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, a medium and minimal correctional institution for women. It has grown over the past six years to include fifty volunteer teachers who teach thirteen classes per week. In addition to Coffee Creek, yoga instruction in Oregon prisons now includes DePaul Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center for Adults, DePaul Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center for Teens, Oregon State Penitentiary, Girl Scouts Beyond Bars (for girls with moms in prison), and Healing Roots Center (for African American women).

The practice of yoga is entirely the responsibility of each person practicing. No one else is to blame for failing, or gets credit for succeeding, as moment to moment decisions are made about how to handle the stress of the postures themselves. Yoga is an agreement to participate in a little bit of stress, the postures, so that we can practice keeping our thoughts as pleasant as possible in the moment. Once it is discovered that we each are responsible for how we look at our own stress, progress can be made on handling all aspect of life more appropriately. This skill is particularly valuable amongst prisoners.

It is the hope of the Living Yoga volunteer teachers that students will become better able to contribute to the communities in which they live now and the community they will re enter. Recognizing that the ability to contribute to the lives around you means first valuing one's own life, Living Yoga teachers make every effort to enhance the self awareness, self esteem and life affirming decision making skills for the students in their programs.

This is an excellent example of bringing spiritual solutions to community problems. It deserves our recognition and support. You can participate in this valuable community resource.

Living Yoga is hosting its annual gala dinner and auction, Friday, October
24th at the Melody Ballroom. The public is welcome. Please visit
www.living-yoga.org for details, or call 503 546 1269.

By Michael Sears

THE LATEST YOGA IN GAOL NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA