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The practice of yoga tends to bring your awareness squarely to yourself—how you can steady your breath, quiet your thoughts, find your version of a pose, enhance your strength and confidence, or ease your aches. At Yoga Journal, our articles often tout the benefits of yoga as they pertain to you.
And these are beautiful and valid aspects of your practice. However, it can be incredibly easy to overemphasize the “self” aspect of yoga. The true practice of yoga is intended to create awareness not only of how the practice benefits us, but also how we can better understand what it is to be human, find compassion for ourselves, and extend that grace to others.
This can take shape in any of many, many ways. At year’s end, it might be an urge to make a charitable contribution to an organization that works toward more inclusivity, sustainability, and beauty on the planet.
What you can do to help
Earlier this year, Yoga Journal‘s parent company, Outside, Inc., launched Find Your Good, an initiative intended to support underrepresented populations. Our company has partnered with 14 nonprofit organizations that share the ideals of this mission in various ways. Yoga Journal has chosen to work with Prison Yoga Project in support of its dedication to sharing yoga with people who would otherwise not have access to its profound benefits.
You can learn more about Prison Yoga Project and donate to it by reading below. And you can find out more about our companywide initiative, including a full list of partners, at Find Your Good.
Prison Yoga Project
Since 2002, the Prison Yoga Project has provided trauma-informed yoga to incarcerated people to facilitate rehabilitation. The organization’s current mission statement explains: “Prison Yoga Project seeks a cultural shift toward a healing-centered approach to addressing crime, addiction, and mental illness through yoga and embodied mindfulness.”
Our goal this week: $2,500 in donations would provide full scholarships for six incarcerated individuals to participate in Prison Yoga’s 32-hour Foundational Training course. The training provides an opportunity to study, in-depth, the complexities of trauma and how to navigate it in thought and action.
DONATE TO PRISON YOGA PROJECT NOW
Jones Valley Teaching Farm
In support of environmental stewardship, Jones Valley Teaching Farm provides tools that enable children to experience the benefits and wonder of gardening and make a hands-on connection to their food.
Our goal this week: $2,500 would allow JVTF to provide 100 children with Growing Kits that include a potting container, soil, watering can, hand trowel, gloves, seedlings, and seeds).
