(bell chimes)
Please come to a comfortable seat.
I believe in the intrinsic goodness in everyone,
even if an individual can't see them for themselves,
I do believe that if someone's committed
and if someone's willing to,
that they can actually turn their lives around.
If it feels comfortable to do so,
softly close your eyes.
My name is Shonda Williams and I'm a yoga teacher
with the Prison Yoga Project.
Thank you.
And begin by taking a full, deep breath in through the nose
and we can open the mouth and sigh the breath out.
(loud sigh)
What prompted me to teach in San Quentin really was
my understanding and my awareness of incarceration
in the United States
and just how much it had impacted my personal family
and then just understanding it from
a kind of community, national perspective.
I felt compelled and felt like if I had any sort of ability
to contribute or to alleviate suffering in any way
then it was incumbent on me to do that.
Gently bowing the head, chin to chest.
Namaste.
I grew up in Flint, Michigan.
The youngest of five.
You know I saw how the crack epidemic
really decimated my community
and as a child, being exposed to drive by shootings
and family members who were incarcerated,
people who virtually disappeared from my life.
It's really challenging to be a human,
it's really challenging if you had
a really rough upbringing,
if you experienced early childhood trauma,
that can really set someone up to end up incarcerated.
James, so good to see you!
You too.
If individuals who are on the outside
could just extend compassion
and to see the humanity in the individuals here.
Good to see you!
How you doing?
I think it would really kind of change the public discourse
and maybe even some of the public policy
around incarceration in this country.
Prison Yoga Project is a non-profit organization
that brings yoga and meditation into prisons
all over the country, all over the U.S.
and actually outside of the country as well.
My name is James Fox,
I'm the founder of the Prison Yoga Project.
Why bring yoga into prisons?
Well, behavioral rehabilitation begins with basically
increased self awareness that brings about change
and that's something that yoga, as what you would consider
a very old personal development practice, can do.
That's the experience of life,
that's the experience of the body.
Sometimes it's not perfect,
most times it's not perfect.
We're really taking yoga
and applying it as a therapeutic practice
for the issues that prisoners are dealing with
and you could start with the two most common issues
which are violence and addiction.
Flexing the foot and folding.
One more time.
Inhale.
What brought me into prison is first degree murder,
on a drive by shooting.
I shot somebody and I'm here serving that time for it.
In the past seven years,
yoga has changed me in the way I think
and the way I feel and how I can just be present
with what's going on in my body.
Sometimes when my emotions run high,
it's a reminder to go check in with my body.
Those are signals from me
that tells me that something is wrong
and if I could check in right then and there,
stop and breathe, pause for a minute,
those usually are the brief moment where I can reset myself
and that's a true blessing that they've given me
and I hope to continue what they give me moving forward,
whatever that looks like.
And inhale, sweep the left arm forward
and up to the sky for a twist.
It's very different than teaching in a yoga studio.
We kinda have a bare bones practice.
We have mats and we have blocks
and every class is going to be different,
just because of the nature of the environment,
it's kind of noisy, you may have noticed.
One more time, inhale deeply.
Exhale completely.
Just really allowing myself to go with the flow more
because I cannot control this environment at all.
Just really inviting the students
to also practice that as well,
just being really open and aware and accepting
of whatever arises in the moment.
As you exhale, fold forward.
Inhale lift up halfway,
exhale, bend both knees, plant both hands
and step back to plank
and lower all the way down onto your belly.
I think whenever a new student comes into the class,
there's this certain amount of hesitation.
So even though they might be happy to be here,
they feel perhaps a little self conscious
because yoga is pretty vulnerable.
You come in and your stretching
and moving your body in a new way.
I've watched people over time kind of come in with that
initial kind of hesitation, maybe a little anxiety
and actually feeling like "ah",
you can see the relief on someone's face
and you can see it in their bodies
in how they carry themselves.
Inhale.
Slowly re-bend the knee.
Bring that block underneath your right shoulder.
When I teach the classes,
I'm in the room without a guard
and feel completely safe.
When I'm here at San Quentin, I know that I'm supported
and I know that these guys have my back
and I know that nothing bad will happen.
And so when I'm here, I interact with them.
I think we have a great rapport,
I have trust with them.
I think they trust me because we're practicing yoga together
so it's a really great relationship.
We're gonna inhale up,
on a exhale flat back forward.
Arthur is now teaching segments of the class.
Just really seeing his confidence grow
and his capacity as well as his desire for more knowledge
and just how this has really benefited him.
And plank position.
I see that within so many of the students,
who start the program.
Exhale to chaturanga.
Coming from impoverished neighborhood,
dealing with the things that goes on in
those types of neighborhoods,
I've developed a real heightened sense of fight or flight.
That's what my body always did,
so what yoga helped me to do was dial that back.
See what situations was really dangerous
and the ones I was making up
and it allowed me to evaluate 'em
and you know see that most situations I get into
is not dire or is not life threatening.
We're gonna go into reverse warrior.
You're gonna set your left hand on your back leg
and take your right hand over your ear.
I don't think no one program is all that ends all.
Yoga it starts you there and it ends there
but it's a lot of work,
a lot of trauma that goes on that people need to deal with.
Yoga helps you to deal with it,
it helps you to see it.
Okay take your hands, place them on the floor,
step back to plank.
The demand is tremendous.
We can't meet the demand for programs.
It used to be that we had to go to prisons and jails
and convince them to have a yoga program.
That's not the case anymore.
We get contacted by prisons and jails,
asking could we help them set up a yoga program.
Inhale.
One of the reasons that the classes in prison
are so impactful is because the participants
in the program are so dedicated to their practice
and they don't have a lot of other choices, obviously
that we have in society.
On your next inhale, bend your knees.
Bring your feet onto the mat.
Good, lift your heart.
Soften shoulders, space between the chin and chest.
A little core work.
Boat pose.
After every class, regardless of how I felt before,
I always feel better.
It's a matter of just the magic that happens
when you're with a group of people
who are committed to their own personal development,
their own personal growth.
If we incarcerate people and we expect to release them
and return them to our societies and to our communities,
don't you want them to be successful?
Don't you want them to make positive contributions
in their communities, in our communities?
And come back really engaged and enlightened
and passionate about life and have turned their lives around
and have really rehabilitated themselves.
And bowing forward,
we honor this inner radiance within us all.
Namaste.
(group says namaste)
Thank you so very much gentlemen.
It's always a pleasure, thank you.