Hundreds of San Quentin prisoners have learned new ways of controlling their mind and body, thanks to Yoga class taught for the past 11 years by James Fox.
They benefited from the Yoga practice, said Fox. Yoga is the “union of the mental emotional and physical aspects of yourself,” explained Fox, a certified instructor with 25 years Yoga experience.
He recently began a yoga class for veterans in the ARC Module on Thursday mornings. He has also facilitated VOEG classes and anger management classes.
Fox said that Yoga adds a dimension to those groups. “Psychological and emotional work is a lifelong process that helps you heal the past so you can live in the present. But healing also needs to be integrated in the body.”
He refers to studies on post traumatic stress examining how returning veterans and others people deal with trauma in their lives. “The body keeps score. If we experience trauma and do not discharge the trauma, it has a way of settling into a hidden place in our hearts and bodies. The trauma creates disharmony in our mind/heart/body systems. These systems cannot be separated,” he explains. Through Yoga, our bodies can release trauma, said Fox.
Fox and Jacques Verduin, director of the Insight Out Project, plus Kathy Harris, facilitator of The Work, led an All-Day Yoga and Meditation retreat in the San Quentin Gym on Dec. 8.
Fox pointed out that the benefits of Yoga included calmness in our minds, flexibility in our bodies and developing a capacity to “interrupt reactive behaviors. Yoga helps time slow down and teaches self-awareness of what happens in each moment so you have a choice,” said Fox.
Stephen Yair Liebb, a participant in the Yoga/Meditation Retreat and a student in Fox’s weekly yoga class, stated, “Yoga is hope. Yoga enables me to see beyond limitations to what is possible in myself and in others. Movements that once seemed impossible are achievable after patient practice. I can face the impossible calmly, breath by breath through Yoga.”
A member of the Thursday morning Yoga Class, Arnulfo T. Garcia said, “When I first started yoga, I thought it was fake, until I was going through the process. I realized eight months later the benefits it brought to my health and focus.”
Fox is the author of “Yoga: A Path for Healing and Recovery,” published by the Prison Yoga Project. He is instrumental in bringing Yoga programs to prisons in the United States and other countries.
—Stephen Yair Liebb contributed to this article.
