Sivana Podcast: Eastern Spirituality, Yoga Philosophy, And Conscious Living

Sages of the past have compared the human experience to being a prisoner locked in a cell. Various types of yoga have been taught to help liberate one from this prison. How might these practices help in an actual, physical prison? Often violent stressful places, how would a practice that often encourages concepts like non-violence and compassion be received by inmates, some of which are serving life long sentences for violent crimes. Our guest, Mike Huggins, founder and Executive Director of the Transformation Yoga Project, knows first hand about how yoga can help those in prison. In 2009, he was incarcerated for a strict liability misdemeanor offense as CEO of a medical device company. He practiced yoga as a means of processing his experience and managing the stress of incarceration. When others expressed interest in what he was doing, he began to teach them what he knew. This idea continued to grow, even after Mike served his sentence and it eventually led to the Transformation Yoga Project. A project that