JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — JACKSONVILLE, Fla.- A Florida nonprofit helping people who feel they may have been left behind by society is working to expand even more.
Yoga 4 Change teaches what they call "trauma-informed yoga" to people who are incarcerated, veterans, at-risk youth, and those with mental health conditions.
First Coast News spoke with Megan Rideout who was introduced to Yoga 4 Change when she was incarcerated. After that she kept relapsing with her substance use and finally decided give the trauma yoga a try. Now she teaches it.
"The mindfulness that stems from my yoga practice, it's fully fundamentally changed me," said Rideout, a trauma-informed yoga instructor with Yoga 4 Change.
You may be wondering what a trauma-informed yoga teacher is. It's the first question First Coast News asked.
"It's basically trying to teach a yoga class to people that might be triggered by trying to focus on their bodies or focus on themselves," Rideout explained.
It's a unique concept Yoga 4 Change has taken into 30 facilities in Jacksonville and across the state.
"I basically made a lot of bad choices that ended up with me being incarcerated," Rideout said. "All of my bad choices turned out to stem from my substance use disorder. I was exposed to Yoga 4 Change there. At the time, it was just an excuse to get out of my dorm."
What she found was a path away from her substance use disorder.
"I realized I could use my yoga to live those principles on my mat before I tried to practice them out in the real world," Rideout said. "Before I tried to practice them when I was being triggered because life shows up and life can be difficult. I think it's really important to know that there is hope and that there are programs that are looking out specifically for those populations."
Director of Programs Shiva Thompson says veterans are usually the hardest people to get to try it, but once they do it benefits them greatly.
"There have been so many times where we've had veterans get into that kind of sleep state," said Thompson. "Where they may fall asleep or just calm their minds enough to feel finally relaxed, whereas normally they may have a lot of trouble with that and suffer from insomnia."
Yoga 4 Change focuses on teaching yoga in specific facilities, but they are working to get more community classes going again so anyone can join.