Monday, August 15, 2011

New friends - old souls

The Y12SR and Sunday night yoga classes have new students. I am enriched with knowledge, insights and struggles brought by each new person who comes to class.
I have had the delight of getting to know a young person who is the friend of one of my kids. An "old soul" who has wisdom and kindness, yet has experienced so much pain from the journey to wholeness. Coming back to the class week after week I get to hear the serenity being developed, the healthy solutions being sought and the tenacity that grows out of living a life in recovery one day at a time.
I have met people further along their path of recovery who want or need to expand their tools of coping and soothing. Yoga coupled with the tools of recovery do fit that bill: yoga philosophy giving an additional framework in which to discuss our recovery ethics and what it true to us. Yoga movement helping to release the tensions that have built over time. Pain in the spirit, the body, and the mind can be lovingly addressed and let go.
I have met people who are not sure what the problem is: self or another, personal behavior or the "unacceptable" behavior of a loved one. Sitting in the discussion circle, hearing what is read and said, can help unravel the confusion. Taking it to the mat can assist working things out; as the body moves through the poses - the subconscious mind can move through what has been said. Sivasana can then integrate the activity of the body and the enlightenment of the mind.
So new folks are arriving each week; some stay , some drift in and out, but I am always left with the honor of having been in their presence. I am grateful.

Friday, August 12, 2011

There is a publisher for my book!

"Yoga and the 12 Step Path" may well soon see the light of day! I am so excited, I am savoring every moment of this process of becoming published. A year to write, four months to edit, five weeks in the hands of an able agent and a decade to experience, research and live.
It is exciting to experience this stage of the journey and I am in each moment OF the experience. At this time my healthy brain is allowing me to be in the gratitude and joy of the moment. Rather than anticipating what may come, or being anxious about my choices up until now I am bathing in the beauty of now. Gratitude and the breath make the miracle of each minute real.