Prison Mindfulness: "One Inmate, One Workbook at a Time.”

A Woman in a Tennessee Prison Reflects on Healing Conflict through Buddhist Practice

Holding onto anger and resentment limits the ability to connect and help others.

“I hope that through meditation and mindfulness I am removing the thorn of anger from my heart,” wrote one woman incarcerated in Tennessee after completing the Navigating Conflict workbook. “The more I learn to let go, the more calm and peaceful I am.”

Navigating Conflict by Vita Pires, Ph.D., is a prison mindfulness workbook designed for prisoners. It integrates early Buddhist teachings (suttas) into real-world struggles, offering a path to de-escalate external conflict and transform the internal habits that keep suffering alive. PMI has distributed this workbook to women's prisons across the U.S.

This participant, reflecting on a long struggle with anger and resentment stemming from childhood abuse, shared that she now sees how holding onto those emotions has been limiting her ability to connect and help others. “If I let go of anger and resentment, I am also more effective at helping others,” she wrote. “Being calm and mindful will help in all areas of my life.”

In one of her more vulnerable admissions, she described a moment when she reacted with unchecked rage:

“I was screaming at someone who had stolen from me. I was so angry that I just let it rip without thinking at all. No mindfulness whatsoever.”

But now, she says, she is learning to recognize “an unpleasant feeling tone” as a cue to pause, breathe, and choose a wiser path.

The workbook helped her explore her habitual responses to disrespect, her clinging to opinions and the assumption that others’ actions are personal attacks. Over time, her perspective shifted:

“When I step back and know that just like me, they only want happiness and avoid pain, it helps me to avoid conflict… I no longer feel I have to push my rightness on anyone else.”

She described learning to pause before reacting, particularly when triggered:

“Yesterday I could have gotten in an argument, but I just calmly said, ‘That’s not true,’ and took a deep breath. That helped me let go of the need to be right and left space for both of us to have our own experiences.”

One of her deepest insights came through understanding karma not as punishment or fate but as a process of intentional action:

“Karma as action helps me know that I have choices and can make different choices for better outcomes in the future.”

Reflecting on the metta practice (loving-kindness), she shared, “I smile more. I soften when I do metta, and I am more useful to others in more difficult situations.”

At the end of her workbook, she left a note of appreciation:

“Thank you so much for this workbook. I learned so much more than I thought I might, having taken similar courses here in the prison—but those courses were not based on Buddhist wisdom and practices. Your work does make a difference—one inmate, one workbook at a time.”

“Being calm and mindful will help in all areas of my life.”