Holistic Life Foundation

Another wonderful story of folks out there doing amazing things.

This is about a group of guys who returned to the neighborhood where they grew up and they're helping the kids who live there find peace of mind in a way you might not expect.
They were asked to coach peewee football, but Andy Gonzalez, along with brothers Ali and Atman Smith, had another idea...
Yoga, offering an extraordinary experience to Baltimore kids who know nothing about inner peace.
Nine years ago they formed the Holistic Life Foundation, a nonprofit offering free yoga classes. They got the kids that had all the behavioral issues, anger management issues, emotional issues. They started with 15 students. Now they've taught more than 1,000.

Away from the yoga mat, these men are tutors and mentors. They've even gotten kids who once destroyed property to help build this neighborhood park. There haven't been a lot of studies on how yoga affects kids, especially inner- city kids like these in Baltimore, but early findings show this kind of exercise is helping kids manage their stress.

Brothers Ali and Atman Smith met Andres Gonzalez at the University of Maryland College Park, spending a lot of time reading books on spirituality, philosophy, religions and other related topics. They all saw some things wrong with the world but it wasn’t until Andres asked. “So, what are we going to do about it?” that they all knew they had to do something.

What that something was, they had no idea. During this time they also began their journey on the path of yoga practice. As young children, Ali and Atman actually grew up with yoga in their home, with their father having them meditate every morning before school. You see, their parents were big hippies. They were also into yoga, vegetarianism, and all the stuff of their parent’s generation.

One summer afternoon, after graduation, the three were watching TV when they saw a commercial about a book telling how to get grant money to help you do almost any type of work. The commercial said something like: “Doing what you want to do in life is like being on vacation every single day!”
They knew they wanted to help people and the planet, and now had some ideas on funding.

At the end of that summer, they moved back into the house that Ali Atman grew up in and immediately noticed the sense of family that was present in the neighborhood when they grew up there was gone.
The Smith brothers remembered when they were living there as children, the neighborhood was like one big family with the older guys there serving as mentors and big brothers to all the younger kids. They say that as important factors in their growth and development. They knew then that they had to try and do something to help bring that feeling back to their neighborhood.

During this time, they began the planning and development for the formation of the non-profit organization. They also began to delve deeper into their practice and study of yoga. After months of hard work, on December 19th 2001, the Holistic Life Foundation was officially incorporated.

The services they now provide include:

Training:

Providing trainings for teachers, administrators, and youth workers. Trainings help participants incorporate yoga mindfulness, breathing, centering and related techniques into their work to improve the deliver of the services they provide.

Workshops:

The Foundation facilitates workshops in many formats, including one-time workshops and workshop series. Workshops include yoga, holistic health, Tai Chi, games, discussions, role-play, interactive activities, lectures as well as holistic solutions for all problems.

They also provide Mentoring, Environmental Advocacy programs, Stress reduction and mindfulness curriculums, Healthy Seniors Programs and much, much more.
So obviously, these two brothers and their friend found unbelievably creative ways to put their collage degrees to work for the benefit of humanity with funding readily available in the form of grants and donations, forming a non-profit organization, which allowed all deserving participants free admission.
All it took was their intelligence, drive, hard work, determination and hearts of gold.

Once again proving beyond a doubt there are people out in the world who do care. Not only care but also make things happen. Every day, every moment, these things are out there happening.
Isn’t it about time we demand our news media’s start focusing on these angels instead of just the negative? At the very least do their duty to show us the truth with balance instead of just one sided?

Want to learn more?
http://www.hlfinc.org/home.htm



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