Part I: Educate-Motivate-Inspire
Working in the Prison can be mentally and physically exhausting. Seeing the same Inmates getting in trouble, purposefully harming themselves for attention can be discouraging.
Most of my days were spent in the segregation unit (SMU). During one of my med passes I see and inmate in his cell doing Yoga! I handed him his blood pressure medication and state “hey I’m taking a yoga class right now for school” He was very interested and stated he was trying to get back in shape, work on his anger and try to lower his blood pressure.
Every day during my med pass I’d stop and inform him of my research I had done for my class. Talking about how yoga can decrease the chances of getting cancer, it can help with PTSD and even certain psychological disorders. Every day I noticed more Inmates were doing yoga and more and more getting involved in our discussion. It was such a good feeling to get these men to talk about something positive. Inmates often struggle with many of their own demons. Mental health disorders and addiction are often the root cause. It was a drastic change from hearing men talk about girls, drugs and crime. It eventually ended up being almost the entire wing of men doing yoga. It was amazing to see older men, younger men, addicts, murderers, all find something positive from yoga.
Fast forward a year and this inmate is now teaching a yoga class for inmates in the prison! He does classes in general population and the psych unit. He worked very hard on his skills in yoga and with that he learned more about himself. He still had much to work on, his anger was also so quick to surface. Prison has a way of crushing your spirit, I saw him cycle from positive to negative for years. I really think yoga helped him gain the skills and strength to pull himself out of the negativity and anger.
What I learned from this:
- Those days working the med pass really made me into the nurse I am today. Always take the opportunity to educate and to relate with your patients. Most of the Inmates have little to no positive influence in their lives. It was amazing to see the positivity spread.