For Joh Jarvis, the bustle of an hour plus commute is offset by the inner peace and hope she can give others once she reaches her final destination.

What You Need To Know

  • Knowing all of the positive changes that meditation has brought into her own life, Joh Jarvis is now working to make sure it's accessible to even those who would otherwise not be exposed

  • Jarvis wanted to focus specifically on incarcerated individuals who could highly benefit from the stress relief

  • She hopes to expand her work on Rikers Island to include staff and officers, as well as inmates, knowing that everyone can find a benefit from connecting with their inner peace

“It started with myself. I used to be really stressed. I was really depressed. I was really anxious. And I tried a lot of things to change how I felt and eventually I found meditation,” Jarvis said. “It had such a massive impact on my life that when I became a teacher, I wanted to share it with people who would otherwise not get an opportunity to learn this.”

Since 2020, this meditation teacher has been taking her class to Rikers Island.

“I couldn’t imagine being locked up and not having access to something that’s really simple that makes you feel better. So that was my initial motivation,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis is originally from Sydney, Australia. She moved to New York nine years ago. She’s the founder of “The Light Inside” -- an organization that offers a five session course to help people manage stress through meditation.

“Everybody is really stressed,” commented Dionne Spencer, the executive director of Facility Programs on Rikers Island. “And being able to take a moment and calm yourself and decompress is really needed here.”

The day before her class, Jarvis visits the cell block to explain the course and creates a sign-up sheet.

Her journal holds 110 names of those who have joined her sessions.

Addressing her participants, Jarvis asked: “Have you tried meditating outside of the class? And what was your experience?”

“It gives you more control over yourself,” one participant said. “You start caring about the little things. Focusing on the bigger things. It just puts you in a better state.”

The goal is to teach those on Rikers Island the basics so they can be self-sufficient, using meditation as a coping mechanism.

“Instead of trying to talk yourself out of being angry, talk yourself out of being frustrated, meditate regularly and you won’t be in that place to start with,” Jarvis said to those participating in her class.

“When the body relaxes, it releases that stress. In so many ways, you improve as a human being,” she said.

Jarvis hopes to expand her classes to one day include staff and officers.

“Meditation is not an end,” Jarvis said. “What it’s about is having better lives. So it’s about how you feel outside of meditation. It’s about how you feel when your eyes are open.”

For bringing a sense of Zen inside prison walls, Joh Jarvis is our New Yorker of the Week.