I'm going to ask you to join me in a little yoga exercise

mostly because I really need it right now.

(Laughter)

But I figure maybe some of you need it too.

It's really quick, I promise.

I'm not going to make you do anything crazy.

So, if you're in a chair or standing, just really feel your feet on the floor.

Ah, love it!

(Laughter)

Sit a little taller

and just notice the chair, or the floor, the back of the chair,

and take a deep breath in

(Inhaling)

and a deep slow breath out

(Exhaling)

Thank you.

Thank you for going there with me, especially since you don't know me.

(Laughter)

And I don't know you.

But I do actually know you.

I might not know what your days are like here in prison,

or the stress you carry,

or how your family feels about you not being home.

But I know you because you're human.

You may wonder why the heck I'm talking this way.

Well, I'm a yoga teacher, in case you didn't know yet,

and this sense of connection, of being in this together,

is at the heart of my practice.

So even if I don't know the specifics and circumstances of your life,

I do know you,

and I imagine you are experiencing stress every single day.

Through the years of working with yoga behind bars and my personal practice,

I know without a doubt

that yoga delivers peace, centredness, and a sense of well being.

I believe that yoga can reduce stress and cultivate compassion,

and be the key to healing and successful rehabilitation.

Imagine a teenager who goes to prison.

Well, there he takes yoga classes and finishes his G.E.D.

and once out, he enrolls in community college,

has a 3.7 G.P.A. and is president of the Math Club.

This is one of our former students,

and I want everybody who is behind bars today,

to be a success story like him.

This is why I am dedicated and part of the national movement

to bring yoga to more prisons.

Another student of mine, let's call her Susan,

came to class and her mind was going a million miles an hour,

and she was tense.

She wouldn't stop talking either.

(Laughter)

Yeah. Just after few minutes, something shifted.

A smile appeared upon Susan's face, and her body started to relax.

Every time I go to prison,

I get to witness these small or not so small transformations,

and I want more of them to happen in more prisons every day.

How many of you have at least heard of yoga?

Right on. Yeah!

24.4 million people practice yoga in the US today, but what is it?

Yoga teaches breathing techniques, physical poses, and meditation

to bring about union, to bring all parts of yourself into one place.

It asks us to realize something all spiritual traditions agree upon:

we are inextricably connected like a billion cells of a single body.

Once you realize that, not just up here but really in your heart,

it changes your outlook on life in a big way.

But there's more than just a soft stuff.

Yoga actually changes your brain.

Scientists have found that brain rewires itself

through a process called neuroplasticity,

and what this means

is that we can all shift our behaviors and perceptions.

So, you could see yoga as a way to hack your brain

and upgrade it to a less stressed-out, more compassionate version.

It's cheap too, actually.

(Laughter)

Yeah. Yoga is scientifically proven to reduce depression and anger.

Anybody in this room is ever angry?

OK, thank you. Yeah, yeah.

I'm a yoga teacher, and I still get pissed off all the time, so -

(Laughter) (Cheers)

But, yoga really helps me

to set it down just a little bit quicker,

to just let it go.

Yoga is also a really effective additional therapy

during treatment for addiction,

and we know that the majority of people coming out of prison

have a history of substance use.

So, why not offer yoga as a support for recovery?

I think there's about 150 of us in this room as I counted really quickly.

If you represented the entire US prison population,

about 60 of you would be back in prison within three years of release.

Yoga can drastically improve those statistics,

and I want more people to be part of that better statistic.

Any of you ever have trouble sleeping?

All TEDx presenters raise your hands.

(Laughter)

Thank you. Yeah.

Think about why you're unable to sleep.

Was it ever because of stress, anxiety, worry?

I'm really proud that every student I've talked to reports

that they sleep better because of their yoga practice.

Now, here's a challenge for you.

Consider your vision of what the prison is for.

Is it purposed to be a chamber of punishment,

where people only focus on surviving?

Or is it purposed to be place of training and learning,

where people can focus on thriving?

Yoga's been used for thousands of years to create healthier, happier people

no matter where you live or your circumstances.

So, together we can transform prisons into places

where people get tools to cope with the stress and anxiety on the inside

and build a bridge towards the better future on the outside.

This is why I want to teach these powerful mind-body tools behind bars,

because with them, we can break this cycle of suffering.

Without them, the cycle will continue.

I'll leave you with the word that we use at the end of every yoga class,

which also illustrates this fundamental truth

I really believe in: that we are all one.

Rosa Vissers: Namaste. (Audience) Namaste.

(Applause)