

Mindfulness and Community Empowerment: Ali and Atman Smith and Dawson Church in Conversation
May 30, 2025
45:26
Ali and Atman Smith are Baltimore-born brothers who co-founded the Holistic Life Foundation (HLF) in 2001. Raised in a household immersed in yoga and meditation, they deepened their practice during college at the University of Maryland. Motivated to revitalize their West Baltimore community, they established HLF to provide yoga, mindfulness, and wellness programs to underserved populations. Their initiatives have reached over 200,000 individuals across diverse settings, including schools, detention centers, and wellness centers. In their book Let Your Light Shine they share insights on mindfulness and community empowerment.
Here they and Dawson discuss:
- Their background
- Counseling those in trauma
- Sympathetic dominance breathing
- Connecting with people authentically to lay the foundation
- Why other people will see the difference in you before you see it in yourself
- Being Social Entrepreneurs
- The Holistic Life Foundation's mission
- Their new program for changing detention to meditation