This is De Jur Jones (left in the photograph) in this short video of what a yogi looks like. De Jur is the co-founder of OM YOGA, with me, a newly formed yoga coalition to teach yoga to incarcerated people. In jail, when I get the women into resting poses like balasana (childs pose), I go around the room and sit on their hips, and massage their shoulders (even though we are theoretically not supposed to touch them). I talk to them about the power of yoga and suggest that as soon as they get out of prison, they buy a pair of hiking boots, a bike on Craigslist, and check out all the community yoga programs. Exercise gets you into yourself like nothing else, because it is a meditative, mind-clearing activity. While we practice, we talk about mind clearing. There is nothing to do in prison to clear the mind (skiing, surfing, biking, hiking) so its nonstop chaos. I love the way they all pay attention and how hard they try and how much fun they have. I begin every class by saying No talking. You would not be able to talk on the outside so we are not going to talk here, so you can go inside to that place that is still as pristine as the day you were born that has not been touched by tragedy, disappointment, mistakes, violence, or anything but the higher power giving love. You can laugh, cough, pee in your pants, toot, grunt, but you cant talk. Since De Jur and I started the no talking policy, we have gotten only women who are interested in making changes in their lives. This week we have a huge challenge. De Jur went to the jail on Saturday and found it completely empty. All the women had been moved and no one told us! We think we found them, so now we have to work the system. There are five women in particular who we need to find so they know that, in life, there are people who do not give up on you. xxx elephantjournal/2014/12/this-is-what-a-yogi-looks-like-a-yoga-body-image-coalition-project/
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 14:09:04 +0000
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