VT Inmates Heal Through Yoga

Google “benefits of yoga” on the internet, and dozens of studies pop up.  It helps people sleep better.  It is a natural de-stressor.  It calms the body and mind.  These affects hold true, no matter who you are, including a prison inmate.

“We live in a high stress environment and we’re always on the lookout for something,” says Jamie Bachman, an inmate at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility.  “Especially those couple hours a week you do yoga, you’re not in all that stressful environment.”

Bachman still has two years left to serve of her four-year sentence.  She says yoga has already begun to change her.

“I don’t get angry as fast anymore,” says Bachman.  “I just stop and I breathe and I say ‘is this worth it?”

To read more of this article by Meghan Carpenter for My Champlain Valley (Local 44) click here.