Mike Huggins - "Maintaining the Spark of Yoga Service"

·1 hr 25 min·5 clips

Incarcerated yoga teachers sit with dying cancer patients, transforming themselves through deep, meaningful service.

This episode features host J. Brown speaking with Mike Huggins, a longtime figure in yoga service work and founder of the Transformation Yoga Project. They discuss the evolution of bringing yoga into specialized settings like prisons and recovery centers. Brown and Huggins have connected periodically since 2017, tracking changes in the nonprofit yoga sector. Huggins explains he has shifted from running a larger organization to a volunteer-based model, now focusing on training incarcerated individuals to become yoga instructors themselves. He cites a recent graduation of 19 people from a maximum-security prison program. He also joined the board of Defy Ventures, an organization teaching entrepreneurial and life skills in prisons, where he contributes trauma-informed yoga content. Huggins observes that successful yoga service organizations now operate at either a large scale, like the Prison Yoga Project, or a very small, localized one. He notes yoga in recovery centers has moved from an "alternative therapy" to a mainstream, insurance-reimbursable treatment. Funding remains challenging due to government budget uncertainties, but diversified income streams help organizations survive. A surprising insight is that prison administrators have reported the yoga program slightly softened the overall intensity of the prison environment. Huggins emphasizes the importance of peer-to-peer teaching inside prisons, despite navigating complex power dynamics among incarcerated individuals. He avoids the title "teacher," preferring "instructor" to minimize hierarchical connotations and empower students to make their own choices on the mat. Huggins states the yoga service audience is often less interested in yoga's lineage and more in practical tools for living with ease. He reveals that effective practice in these settings is highly adaptable, ranging from vigorous asana to days focused solely on breathwork, based on participant needs. The tone is conversational and reflective, with both hosts drawing on years of shared history in the field. The style is educational, grounded in Huggins's direct experience and observations of industry trends. This episode would appeal to yoga teachers interested in service work, nonprofit organizers, and anyone curious about the practical realities of yoga in prisons and recovery. Listeners seeking a purely philosophical discussion on yoga's ancient roots might find it less relevant.

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