Freeing the Human Spirit
What We Do
IN MEDITATION, BEING ONE WITH OUR BREATHING IN SILENCE, SITTING IN A SPECIFIC POSTURE,
WITH NO THINKING, NO REMEMBERING, NO IMAGINING AND NO EMOTING, THE PRACTICE OF MEDITATION BEGINS.
IN MEDITATION, BEING ONE WITH OUR BREATHING IN SILENCE, SITTING IN A SPECIFIC POSTURE,
WITH NO THINKING, NO REMEMBERING, NO IMAGINING AND NO EMOTING, THE PRACTICE OF MEDITATION BEGINS.
PRISON STAFF ARE ALSO UNDER STRESS AND CAN BENEFIT FROM THESE DISCIPLINES.
Staff and volunteers from Freeing the Human Spirit are available to give meditation and yoga workshops to prison staff at
correctional facilities. Call our office to discuss your needs. We would be pleased to create a workshop for your facility.
WORKSHOPS INCLUDE SHARING OF EXPERIENCES AMONGST OUR TEACHERS, YOGA AND MEDITATION INTENSIVES, AND GUEST SPEAKERS FROM THE CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM AND AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS
To provide training for our meditation and yoga teachers,
Freeing the Human Spirit conducts annual workshops for all its teachers. To date, we have conducted 7 workshops in Toronto for over 250 volunteers.
We run regular orientation seminars for new volunteers & teachers. We also conduct more specialized local workshops
to prepare teachers to begin the program in new
correctional facilities.
STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS FROM FREEING THE HUMAN SPIRIT ARE AVAILABLE TO SPEAK ABOUT MEDITATION, YOGA, AND OUR WORK IN PRISONS
We can also run meditation and yoga workshops for your group.
Please call our office to discuss your needs.
WE ENCOURAGE PRISONERS TO WRITE TO US TO LET US KNOW HOW THEIR PRACTICE IS GOING. WHETHER IT IS A PARTICULARLY BLEAK TIME, IF THERE IS CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION OR IF THEY ARE EXPERIENCING BEREAVEMENT OR LOSS, WE CAN HELP
At our September 2006 FTHS teachers workshop, we launched our letter writing program to support inmates in their meditation and yoga practice. A Letter Writers Manual is available to volunteers who would like to write to inmates on behalf of Freeing the Human Spirit.
In our newsletter, we encourage inmates to write to us. In our role as companion and guide, we write back offering techniques we know intimately, and experience in our own daily practice. Quiet body, quiet mind. That is our gift. The simpler we express it in our letters the better. We encourage the inmate to practice every day; we can only really help those who are open to the possibility of a spiritual discipline and want to try to practice it.
Letters, artwork, and poems from inmates are all appreciated and may be published in our newsletter as a positive way for them to help others in doing their inner work.
Prisoners who write to us usually wish to learn more about the spiritual practice they have begun. We ask that our volunteer letter writers have a regular discipline of meditation. Without this, you cannot guide or support a inmate in his own practice.
IN EACH OF OUR CLASSES, WE SEE EVIDENCE THAT PRISONERS CAN CHANGE, DISCOVER THEIR OWN INNER SELF,
BECOME MORE RELAXED, DISCOVER WAYS TO OVERCOME THEIR ANGER AND FRUSTRATION, STRENGTHEN THEIR
SELF-DISCIPLINE, AND BECOME AWARE OF A DEEPENING PERSONAL SPIRITUALITY. THIS IN OUR VIEW IS THE VERY
ESSENCE OF REHABILITATION.
Since our beginnings in 2004, Freeing the Human Spirit has succeeded in establishing its meditation and yoga classes in
15 prisons in Ontario, and we are working hard to expand our classes to as many facilities as possible. We also are working at
establishing a program in Edmonton, Alberta, which we hope will be up and running soon.
Classes are usually about one hour in length and consist of a 5 to 10 minutes of introduction, 30 minutes of gentle hatha yoga and
20 minutes of simple breath meditation. The sitter uses no specific object of meditation; instead, he or she uses the power developed through simple breath awareness. We use this simple method because our experience has taught us that it is safe, therapeutic, and experiential, which is most important when teaching in prisons.
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