“I was originally drawn to yoga because I had had back pain while sat behind my desk as a US tax accountant,” says yoga trainer Todd Crews of why he first took up the practice. Having tried Pilates first, he found he preferred the free-flowing movements and mind-opening properties of yoga, and that it soon helped him become a completely different, improved person. Offering classes at several hotels and businesses throughout the Island, he credits yoga for his heightened agility and fluidity, and stresses that when one develops the ability to balance body, mind and spirit, one can remain calm no matter what type of stressful situation may be occurring. “Stability and balance are also enhanced immensely as well,” he said.

“By focusing on the breath and the body you can immediately shift your mind away from worries,” explains Robin Holder, when describing yoga’s mental benefits. “It can address psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety, and reduce the effects of traumatic experiences.” A trainer at various locations across the island, Mr Holder considers yoga to be his “personal religion” after it helped him overcome a pair of traumatic experiences, including the death of his father in 2015 and another life-changing occurance in 2016. He describes being a yoga instructor as the most direct path to realizing his potential as a human being, and credits it with giving him the opportunity to reinvent his life and build a new identity. “I don’t know how I could have coped dealing with these life-changing events were it not for yoga,” he said.

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She agreed to meet at Devil’s Isle. I was unsure of who I was looking for, but a brief conversation on the phone a few days earlier gave me an idea of Shanell Vaughn’s energy. I imagined an aura over the head of the martial artist, yoga specialist, business owner and social entrepreneur behind “Peace Within” — a programme that brings yoga to Bermuda’s prisoners.

She was sitting up against the restaurant’s white drapery, an apt backdrop of serenity. There was no circle of light, but her movements came with that surety and humility that I expected when she got up to say hello, ordered her Classic Harvest Bowl, sipped her water, and talked to a total stranger about her life’s work. Her answers came with a confidence only 15 years of self-reflection could give.

Shanell’s business, Shambhala (a Tibetan word meaning “a place of peace where enlightened beings dwell”), started in 2014 as a holistic healing practice. Destroyed by the fire at 79 Front Street in 2016, it temporarily lives at The Healing Centre on Euclid Avenue, until she can find somewhere to revive it.

In the meantime, Shanell launched a project, working with the seemingly forgotten part of the Bermuda community. “The Peace Within Prison Yoga Programme [started in January 2018] came from a desire to make the yoga that I teach accessible to more people.” With calm excitement, she explained, “One day, I saw a video of yoga classes being held in a penitentiary in Washington State. The idea immediately grabbed me and I wanted to do that in Bermuda. I wanted to reach people who may not, for various reasons, ever step foot in a yoga studio”. So far, that reach has made it to the Prison Farm (men) and the St. George’s Co-Educational Facility (women).

“What is yoga?” A question that all yogis are asked and answer different. Specifically, what was yoga to her that it should live in these places that hardly mattered to anyone? “Yoga is a practice in the art of peace.” She began to explain. “I found in my personal life when I was going through a difficult transition many years ago that yoga had this subtle way of dissolving the walls that I had created around my heart, and introducing me to an inner peace that I hadn’t experienced before. Yoga is a way to calm and purify the mind so that we can bring balance to each level of our existence –– body, mind and spirit. It is the science of self-realisation, meaning that when the mirror of our minds is clear and quiet, it reflects the true peace and joy that is innate in each one of us. In this way, offering yoga to inmates aids in their rehabilitation process by helping them to find a space and peace within themselves to manage their situation, to learn to use breath control to master their minds and overcome negative reactions, and ultimately their improved mental and physical health serves the well-being of the whole community when these individuals are released.”

Many people commonly think of yoga as just a workout, but Shanell has made her offering different. “Yoga is a systematic practice that gives us the skills to go beyond our base emotions rooted in the ego: fear, anger, greed etc., so that we can access our higher emotions rooted in love. We practice on our mats to be with whatever arises physically or mentally, and to be gentle with ourselves.” For the 5 to 10 prisoners –– men and women –– who participate in each Peace Within class, this sounds like freedom behind bars.

“Yoga in popular Western culture leans towards certain demographics just because of the way it is marketed, but this is changing slowly as men and women of all ages and backgrounds become more aware that yoga is for them too. It is for everyone because freedom is for everyone –– freedom from limiting beliefs, freedom from stress, and the freedom to feel comfortable in your own body.”

Shanell’s contribution touches a level of community that almost no one is willing to serve. These men and women have been imprisoned for one reason or another, serving anywhere from a few months to years, and life sentences, but she describes a common thread running through all of them –– openness. “They are all open to new experiences, open to change and open to introspection”.

She says that this has been one of the most rewarding things she has done as a yoga teacher, and she continues to plan for the long-term with the Department of Corrections hoping to take the programme to Westgate Correctional Facility. “It takes courage, vision and faith to step out of the ‘comfort zone’ of a studio and do something a little different for the benefit of the greater community, but more yoga teachers are doing just that. I am always thinking of more ways to extend myself and teach a more diverse demographic.”

Before paying the bill for one of the most insightful conversations of my summer, at this point, it seemed appropriate to bring up the topic of the universal application of yoga to our lives. What about those who are prisoners in their mindsand are looking for alternative healing in these times that we’re living in? To that, she says, “This ancient practice is so needed in the world right now because there is a lot of despair and negativity, and we need to see positive models of our humanity reflected through people who embody a more holistic, harmonious and conscious life.”

“Yoga can be a guiding map for those who want to know what steps they can take for real personal transformation: to be more peaceful, more joyful and more heart-centred in day-to-day life. Yoga means “union” also, so in my classes I try to foster a sense of community and acceptance, seeing grace and beauty in all forms, regardless of shape, size, age, religion, nationality, race, sexuality, etc., The intention is that when yogis are off their mat and in the world, they radiate a presence that is peaceful, that seeks to unite and uplift, not divide or oppress. A true yogi is the living embodiment of these values.”

Before we said goodbye, she slid a small white card, across the table. I squinted when I read in big bold green letters, “Namaste –– I see and honour the purity, goodness and light within myself, that I may see and honour the same within you,” a card that she presents to every participant of the Peace Within Programme. I walked away with a thought that will always stay close to me and a statement that should be applied to everything we do in this exciting time of forward social movement on the Island.

Shanell gives credit to the Department of Corrections, specifically Dawnita Grant, Vocational Officer, and the Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation, specifically Tiffany Paynter of the St. George’s Community Centre for their administrative support of the Peace Within Prison Yoga Programme.

This article was originally published in the Fall 2018 edition of RG Magazine.

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Iyengar Yoga was developed by BKS Iyengar, who TIME Magazine nominated one of the “100 most influential people in the world”, considered to be the Michelangelo of modern yoga. Before his death in August 2014, Iyengar devoted 76 years of his life to not only the rigorous daily practice of yoga, but also to codifying his method of yoga into one of the most systematic methods of yoga that exists today. Iyengar Yoga concerns itself with the classical purpose of yoga – union of the small self with the larger Universal Consciousness – but it does this through a unique emphasis on consciously and intelligently living through the vehicle of the human body.

For the Iyengar Yoga practitioner, the body is a vast landscape of experiences, feedback, and information. In order for us to experience the deeper layers of ourselves, we must first penetrate every corner of the human body-mind complex and shed the light of intelligence there so that we can truly experience enlightenment from the inside-out. The experience of Iyengar Yoga is an experience of inner self-searching, of unifying the body and the mind so that who we think ourselves to be and who we actually are in reality become harmonious expressions of the same truth.

Mychal first found Iyengar Yoga at the age of 12 in the Downtown Nassau Public Library. “I found one of the original hardback versions of Light on Yoga, BKS Iyengar’s first book on yoga and considered to be the Bible of Modern Yoga in the world today,” Mychal said. “I began to practice yoga from that book. It was my first touchstone of yoga and perhaps also my first exposure to a broadened sense of spirituality”.

Yoga stuck with him through his university life and his life as a dancer with dance companies in both Jamaica and Cuba. “Dance brought me back to yoga. And yoga brought me back to Iyengar Yoga”.

Serendipity would lead Mychal to finding his yoga teacher and mentor, Lois Steinberg PhD, who he travels around the world with almost monthly in order to continue to learn from her. “I have always had a passion for learning from the best,” he said. “When I danced in Jamaica, it was with who I felt was the best artistic director at that time.

“When I moved to Cuba, I attended the best dance school there. When I found my way back to Iyengar Yoga, it was after Guruji [an honorific title for BKS Iyengar] had died. I knew had to align myself with a teacher who I felt represented fully the constantly evolving heart of this practice. Lois took me under her wing and guided me through the process of becoming a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. She is utterly magical. Her breadth of knowledge of Iyengar Yoga reflects her 40 years of devotion to this system studying directly with BKS Iyengar himself, and even now she is still learning new things. Even now she returns to India annually to be a student at the Ramamani Iyengar Yoga Institute. She is the embodiment of a true teacher for me. And there is no one else who I would devote the time or energy into studying with as I have done with her.”

In his own teaching practice, Mychal teaches primarily out of his Bahamas-based studio, COSMOSIS. He teaches both general classes and specific classes for common ailments. “One of the defining markers of a skilful Iyengar Yoga teacher is when that teacher can adapt classes that not only permit every student in the class to practice yoga, but also when that teacher can create classes that specifically help and heal the ailments, pains, and body complaints that their students may have,” Mychal said..

After 76 years of practice and working with thousands of students worldwide, BKS Iyengar became the most skilful teacher at adapting the physical postural practice of yoga [asana] to fit the physical and psychological needs of his students. This was a quality that his direct students maintain to this day. From cancer to depression, from knee pain to constipation, one is bound to find an adaptation being made in an Iyengar Yoga class for whatever issues a person may have. Skilful Iyengar Yoga teachers can be found conducting multiple classes at the same time, giving everyone what they specifically need, while challenging everyone to go to their limit and dare to move beyond that in a safe way that emphasizes intelligent movement through the body and active participation of the mind.

“My teacher is one of two Western teachers in the world whose name is synonymous with Iyengar Yoga therapy. I study the therapeutic application of yoga extensively under her mentorship,” Mychal said. “The body breaks. This is a fact. If I didn’t try to learn, understand, and apply what to do for the body when it is broken, I would consider it a disservice to my students, to my teacher, and to BKS Iyengar himself”. In his common ailments classes, he works with knee, hip, lower back, menstruation, neck and shoulder pain, as well as other minor organic issues.

When he isn’t in The Bahamas or following his teacher, he is building his own teaching presence around the world. “I’ve taught in several of the Caribbean countries – Cuba, Aruba, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Bermuda is next.” he said. “I’ve also taught around the United States and Canada and next year I’ll expand my teaching roster to South America and Europe.

“My goal is to share Iyengar Yoga in a dynamic, engaging, and light-hearted way that is rooted in the ever-changing heart of this practice. I build bridges and try to create conversations between Iyengar Yoga and other yoga schools. I try to teach and share in non-Iyengar Yoga spaces. Iyengar Yoga people are already convinced about Iyengar Yoga. Most Iyengar Yoga folk in the United States are in their 40’s and older. They don’t need convincing. It’s the younger generation. It isn’t that millennials aren’t practicing yoga, it’s that they aren’t practicing Iyengar Yoga. I want to be a part of the revival of youth, of diversity, and of people of color represented and feeling they have a place within the fabric of Iyengar Yoga.”

“Iyengar Yoga is about systematically taking the mind from its lofty abode somewhere in the head, and spreading it to every corner and curve of the body. In that spreading of our consciousness within ourselves we come to know ourselves, and through that deepened self-knowledge, we learn more about our place and influence on the world around us. People think Iyengar Yoga is about alignment. And it’s not. Physical alignment of the body is only a gateway to a much deeper sense of spiritual embodiment. The true alignment is aligning ourselves with an unbroken commitment to all that is good, to all that represents Love, so that we can be more harmonious members of society. The more people become a part of that movement, the more we begin to change the world into a new vision of what the world can be. For me, that’s what Iyengar Yoga does in the long run, even if I sometimes catch myself just contemplating the placement of my big toe. Our accumulated efforts all add to something truly extraordinary”.

Catch Mychal at Lucky Elephant Yoga (Hamilton, Bermuda) this November 3-5, 2017. Visit www.luckyelephantyoga.com for more information about his upcoming workshops!

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