New beginner’s booklet - Peace from within. Yoga and meditation education for people in prison.

Ki te wātea te hinengaro, me te kaha rere o te wairua,ka tāea ngā mea katoa.
When the mind is free, and the spirit is willing, anything is possible.

The Yoga Education in Prison’s Trust has developed a new content offering for Beginner’s, those new to yoga, or re-introducing themselves to the practice of yoga.

We know that yoga is important for people in prison as we receive such detailed reflections from the ākonga, students, such as the one below:

“Yoga has shown me a new way of being. Not only am I physically stronger - I am spiritually stronger. Yoga is more than a philosophy, or a fitness programme - it is a way of being in this world. The pain of prison no longer has to be avoided at all cost. It can now be used, through my yoga practice, as a mechanism for personal growth, as the pain of my incarceration has brought me to yoga.”

The beginner’s booklet takes the ākonga, student through the background of yoga, shares how to build a yoga practice, introduces the concept of sankalpa: setting intentions for the practice and then takes the ākonga through the yoga physical practices with photos of the postures as well as a step-by-step details on how to get in and out of them.

Thanks to funding from Ara Poutama, the Departments of Corrections we have a number of these printed booklets available for people in prison. If you are working in prisons, or on prison release programmes and you would like to review the booklet, please send us an email.

For those who complete the beginner’s booklet, they will be able to access our Correspondence Course, a more in-depth offering from the YEPT. At a minimum it can take 6 months to complete the Yoga Correspondence Course.

You can find more information on the Correspondence Course here.