Gregory Hill

An ex-army officer teaches prisoners how to discipline body and mind. By: B. Elizabeth Travalini

Originally appeared in the December 1984 issue of Delaware Today and reprinted

When some people have a day off from work, they putter around the house or work in the garden. Gregory Hill, a produce clerk in Newark, Delaware, spends a lot of his free time in prison. Every Thursday for the past 2 years, Hill, a former army sergeant and an ardent devotee of yoga, has driven to the Delaware Correctional Center in Smyrna to teach the discipline to the inmates. 

Hill says his interest in yoga was born 6 years ago while he was looking at a University of Delaware course listing. "I was trying to find something to do on my night off," Hill recalls. "The choice came down to yoga or basket-weaving. I chose yoga."

Hill, 29, is now director of the East - West Yoga Club and also teaches yoga every Thursday evening at the University's student center. But it took a letter from DCC inmate Brian Winward to get the course at the prison rolling. Winward wrote to the Sivananda Yoga Center in Wilmington, where Hill also teaches, and asked for some literature. When the founder of the center gave Winward's letter to Hill. Hill saw an opportunity to serve others.

"I sent Brian eight books on yoga," the youthful - looking Hill says. "Two weeks later I went to visit him, and I could see he had a sincere interest in learning yoga. I realized that men in prison are like men everywhere. They need to feel like they can make something out of their lives." Winward, 30, says yoga has given him a new outlook on life. "I have been in and out of state institutions for 22 years," Winward says. "My background led me to soul searching  and yoga I wanted to understand why I kept making the same mistakes after being affiliated with the correctional system for 22 years."  Yoga, Winward says, helps to steer inmates away from drugs and crime and encourages them to embrace a higher code of ethics and gain a new appreciation for life.

"I don't even litter now," he says. "Gregg is such a great example. He is a very basic yet concerned person. If someone has a problem, he'll spend time after class talking to him. He even sent everyone in a class a postcard when he went to Canada last summer. His genuine concern for the inmates is unusual. He even visits some of the guys in solitary confinement."

"The first thing I did when I visited the prison," he says, "was to mentally take all the blue suits off the inmates and put them in tuxedos. Then I looked at each inmate like he was the only man in the room. I thought I could understand them because I was in the service for 4 years and spent 5 months of each year in the field. I learned what loneliness is."

But you can't help a man change his life if you don't believe he is capable of change, Hill says. "Men end up in prison because they don't have any discipline in their lives. Yoga is one way to develop discipline. It allows a person to start over and redesign his life emotionally, physically and spiritually."

Earl Gordon, a counselor supervisor at DCC says he is impressed with Hill's dedication to his students. "In prison there is a tendency for inmates to get involved in a program but not stick with it," he says, "Gregg's students have overcome this tendency and are deeply involved in both the physical and philosophical aspects of yoga."

Gordon, who has worked in state prison systems for 17 years (the last 12 in Delaware), says yoga has had a positive influence on some of the inmates. "If Gregg doesn't show up for a class one of the students will lead the class. and everything goes smoothly," he says. "Yoga is a type of discipline, and for some inmates learning that they can control their minds and their bodies in a positive way has helped them to be more comfortable with themselves."

Winward says yoga is popular at the prison because Hill makes the classes fun. "There is a lot of fun and laughter in the class," he says. "Gregg sets aside time for everyone to talk about anything they want to, from girls to girlfriends to counselors. Talking together with physical exercise and meditation, helps to eliminate stress and gets your mind off your everyday drab routine."

Jean Conway, director of the new prison arts program, says volunteers who are willing to teach inmates a skill or trade are needed at correctional centers like DCC. "There are over 1,700 people in prison in Delaware, and over 6,000 on probation or parole," Conway says. "They need more help than the department of corrections alone can provide. Many need to know that they can learn and be productive like other people. When given a chance many inmates show a remarkable willingness to learn."

Hill agrees. "My students at the center are the best students I have ever had. They pay total attention because they don't have other distractions in their lives. I can teach them something in three weeks that it would take me two months to teach someone on the street."

And the inmates are not the only students in his class, according to Hill. "They see the class as having one teacher, but I see it as having 15. I am learning more than they are. I see some brilliant and creative people who need to find a way to use their talents and natural gifts in a positive way. I think yoga is making that possible for some of them. If it helps only one man to turn his life around then it was worth every minute of my time."

Originally appeared in the December 1984 issue of Delaware Today and reprinted with permission in the January/ February 1986 Yoga Journal Magazine.

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Getting to the Foot of the Matter

Originally Appeared in the Sept 28th, 2000 copy of the Houston Chronicle.

By Steve Sievert

Gregg Hill has amassed a pretty amazing streak. He has been running injury-free for 27 years, and he owes much of that good fortune to his use of reflexology.

Reflexology is an ancient Eastern therapy centering on the principle that there are reflex areas in the feet and hands that correspond to all organs, glands, and other parts of the body. Activating these reflexes can help treat many health problems in a natural, noninvasive fashion.

"The Japanese have a saying that 'the feet are the gateway to 10,000 illnesses,'" said Hill, a certified reflexologist and owner of the Japanese Massage & Reflexology Institute in Houston. "By manipulating and applying pressure to the feet, reflexologists can impact and treat every part of the body."

Reflexology, like acupuncture, is viewed as an alternative treatment in Western medicine. However, it has been used with success as a first option remedy in Egyptian, Chinese and Japanese cultures for more than 40,000 years.

Hundreds of techniques are applied in reflexology, but all are based on the belief that the feet, hands and sometimes ears are pathways to the rest of the body. Hill's approach primarily focuses on the feet.

"The feet are the foundation for good health," said Hill. "If there's an imbalance into he feet, it'll go all through the body. If you have a shoulder problem, for example, it can be solved with treatment to the feet. the whole system is connected."

The feet serve as sort of a road map for the body. The toes, a reflex area, correspond to the head and neck; the upper arch connects to the diaphragm and upper abdominal organs; and the outer foot corresponds to the arm, shoulder, hip, leg, knee and lower back.

By applying massage-like pressure, especially with the thumb, to these reflex areas in the feet, reflexologists speed therapy to the corresponding, or linked, body parts.

Gregg Hill, who has logged nearly 3000 hours of training in the specialty and often performs the treatment on his own feet, has been practicing reflexology in Houston for three years.

"Reflexology is much more than massage," said Hill. "The techniques are different and more advanced than traditional massage. The foot can move about 52 different ways. Reflexology uses pressure and movement to manipulate the feet in a variety of angles."

While it is unclear exactly how reflexology works, the benefits include an increased blood flow to affected areas and relaxation.

"Everything that's done with reflexology is designed to relax the body and decrease stress," said Hill, who counts several runners among his clientele. "Anytime you can relax the body, it is going to become more efficient. This is helpful for runners who can get more work out of their body because it's free of stress.

Muscles that are relaxed and under less stress can become stronger and more flexible and have greater range of motion. With a 27-year-long injury-free streak as part of evidence, Hill is convinced that regular reflexology treatment can improve running performance and help reduce a runners risk of overuse injury.

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Training & Performance from an Eastern Perspective

Originally Appeared in the November 2000 issue of FootPrints

By Gregg Hill, RMT.

I have been a regular at "the Park" for the last 10 years, ran the Houston Marathon, and have been running injury free for the last 27 years. I would like to share with my athletic friends what I have learned - what has been known for thousands of years - concerning injury, pain, rehab, and training.

The first Monk I studied with was Swami Vishnudevananda. He had been practicing Raja Yoga for 30 years when I began studying with him. Raja Yoga is the most popular style of Yoga in the U.S. and includes Hatha Yoga (postures) and Pranayama breathing classes. His 5 points of Yoga, Proper Exercise, Proper Breathing, Proper Relaxation, Proper Diet, and Positive Thinking & Meditation, are greatly needed by athletes to avoid injury and to feel good about their training. This article will focus on Exercise and Breathing.