Jackson Free Press

Bilal Hashim is intentional and calm as he welcomes me to the recently relocated StudioOM Yoga studio in Fondren inside the Woodland Hills Shopping Center. Wearing a moss-green shirt and a Hawaiian-stone necklace, he admits that mindfulness is a trait that took him decades to achieve.

"I've always been busy. If Ritalin was around in the '60s, I would have been on it," he says. "But now, it feels good to be calm."

The 46-year-old says living on the islands of Hawaii and Okinawa during his service in the U.S. Navy, and discovering yoga in the early '90s helped him achieve inner tranquility. As an instructor at StudioOM, he teaches beginners the principles of Iyengar yoga, a style developed by B.K.S. Iyengar in the 1930s, which focuses on uniting the mind and body while using props such as ropes, straps and blocks so that anyone can participate.

"Yoga requires presence," he says. "It requires you to be attentive. ... The mind is just as much a part of what we do here as the body."

In 1990, the Jackson native moved to Hawaii where he trained as a hospital corpsman at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Bay, and went on to treat injured soldiers during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Once he returned to Hawaii, he was discharged from the Navy and worked as an information-technology technician for the Veterans Affair's Pacific Islands Health Care System. He moved back to Jackson in 1995 to work as a network manager and a picture-archiving and communication-systems manager at the Jackson VA Medical Center, where he converts data from MRI scans into three-dimensional digital images for radiologists.

"It's seeing the body function in real time--the heart beat and organs in the body," he says about his job. "It's where the future meets medicine."

Hashim also counsels veterans who struggle with addiction. He says his combat experiences help him relate to his patients.

"I had to get away from those experiences and not let them smother reality," he says about his combat missions. "I encourage a lot of vets to experience yoga because it has a calming effect mentally. I have found that Walter Reed (Army Medical Center) and other hospitals are starting to introduce yoga to patients, and that is significant."

When he isn't working or teaching yoga, Hashim enjoys long runs through open highways from his home in Pocahontas. Hashim is a barefoot marathoner; he wears Vibram FiveFingers barefoot running shoes to absorb shock and limit potential harm to his muscles and joints. He also mentors students at Provine High School and is currently forming an inner-city running club for area youth.

"There isn't a lot of (marathoning) participation among my ethnic group around here, and I want to change that," he says. "... We are a heavy state, and it's unnecessary."