Watch our main characters as they start their initial yoga practice in Oslo, explore the Norwegian county side and venture into the practices of Karma Yoga. Their journey to India, to explore the many facets of yoga a little further, and how they manage to build two houses for the poor people in Shastana Village (Karnataka).
After a month, they return back to Norway and set out to climb the highest mountain in Scandinavia together. Then slowly start the reintegration process back into society. The future is a mystery and full of surprises. However, our main characters are focused on doing some good work for others. Let´s see in a few months what will be the fruit of that. Our Journey continues....
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Back in the Ring
Back in the Ring – Strength, clarity and transformation through helping others
Feature length documentary and project empowering people struggling with drug addictions to get their life back through the practice of yoga. 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 people struggling with drug addictions face when they want to come back to a drug-free 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.
For further details regarding our proposed plan of action topics included in the film, please see the sections below:
Continues here http://backinthering.com/about/
Back in the Ring
https://www.facebook.com/BackintheRing
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R. Alexander Medin.
He has taught yoga all over the world, helped to set up successful yoga centers in Europe and Asia and published numerous articles on yoga in leading yoga magazines.
Since 2009 he’s a resident of his native Norway and is co-founder of Puro Yoga in Oslo. In Norway he has helped to integrate yoga in many of the prisons and is the founder of www.gangsteryoga.no and “Yoga for Life”, a non-profit organization bringing yoga to the underprivileged and those that struggle to find integration and a meaning in life. Alexander has made four documentary films, “Yoga for Gangsters” (2011), Mysore Magic” (2012), “The Healers” (2012) and “Kumbhamela” (to be released 2014).
'Meet' the rest of the team here http://backinthering.com/about/
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2 comments:
Vijaya and Vijay are two different people
Yes, Thank you Anon, Michelle mentioned that, thought I'd got rid of the parts of the post where I drew the connection, have just taken out the last one.
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