Back in the Ring

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A Project empowering people struggling with drug addictions to get their life back through the practice of yoga and voluntary work.

Historie

It features fifteen people who are struggling with heroin addiction trying transform their lives, building a community and working together as they journey to India to build shelters for the homeless and inquiry deeper into the meaning of yoga. After India they will return to their native place and re-integrate back into society with a willingness to take a constructive part of it rather than standing on the outside.

This project attempts to highlight the many challenges drug addicts are faced with when they want to come back an ordinary life. The main characters of the film are people who have struggled with drug addiction for several years and are keen to clean up their act and live a sober life. Many of them have tried numerous times before, but failed due to various factors. Our main characters will share their genuine experiences of living the life of an addict and attempt to articulate the missing factors that could turn the negative trend of relapse.

Our primary aim is to provide opportunities for our participants to feel appreciated and challenged. For the first two months, the participants are committing to a rigorous Ashtanga Yoga practice where they meet five times a week and practice together for a few hours a day. A daily meal is served and basic introduction to Yoga Philosophy is also given. Our purpose is to build a community where our characters learn to do things together and work as a team. Every weekend we will travel to different places in Norway and go on hikes, climb mountains, work on farms, sleep out in the open, in tents and cabins and sail, swim and dive in the ocean.

At present we are already six weeks into the project and for the last fifty days more than twenty people suffering from drug addiction have been coming to do regular yoga classes at our studio www.puroyoga.no in Oslo. We have now selected twelve of the most dedicated students, who can all work well in a group, to travel with us to India. Here they will continue to deepen their yoga practice for 3-4 hours a day, but in addition to this, they will also work 6 hours a day in building some shelters for the homeless and help out with different challenges in order to help poor children, the outcasts and the underprivileged.

While in India, the participants will live in the yoga- school of Vijaya Kumar www.yogagurukula.in, which is located ten minutes away from Kundapur, in Karnataka State. Vijaya Kumar is an advisor to Field Services and Inter cultural learning (FSL) www.fsl-india.org, one of India’s most prominent NGO´s. They specialize in education for the poor in India and to provide opportunities for social development.

The main task of the Norwegian characters is to collaborate with Vijaya Kumar and help him in his many activities in providing better livelihoods for the outcasts and underprivileged children living on the fringes of society. The area around Kundapur is one of the poorest in southern India and the need for help is urgent.

After the homecoming to Norway we will travel to Romsdalen, one of the most spectacular places in Norway and stay for ten days. Here the participants will reflect upon predictions and possibilities for the future and challenges they are bound to meet on the way back to a normal life. After this, the daily yoga practice will continue at Puro Yoga for a month and we will then follow the main characters endeavours in re-integrating back into society. Here our primary focus and investigation is to examine the results and particular effects of the last four months dedicated yoga practice, journey to India and different work responsibilities the participants have gone through.