WE ALL BEGIN SOMEWHERE
We hurt ourselves in many different ways. Sometimes we know we’re doing it, sometimes we don’t. For me, depression, anxiety, shame, self harm, and almost 10 years of drug abuse and addiction left their marks. But wounds heal when we have the right medicine.
I found yoga when I was a young child, learning through books and VHS videos with my mum. I came to formal practice back in 2009, I found that medicine, and slowly but surely healing happens. We underestimate our capacity for change and growth by such a huge measure. It takes time, but there’s a point where we stop being defined by our scars and are instead defined by our healing.
We can Recover. we can Thrive
I’ve been living clean and sober for almost a decade now. The practice gave me strength, clarity, and healing but it took 12 Step programmes and their community to help me finally leave that world behind. I owe my life to those fellowships, and whilst i eventually moved away and established ongoing recovery through my own practices, my ability to thrive today is predicated on the power of those years in 12 Step recovery.
If you are struggling, you will find support there, you will find people who know what you’re going through and who can offer you hope.
We can all learn
First and foremost, I will always be a student. Anything I know is not a credit unto myself, but to my teachers, and those seekers who’ve gone before me.
YOGA & QIGONG
Mimi Kuo-Deemer
Jean Hall
Sifu Matthew Cohen
Aki Omori
Eileen Gauthier
MINDFULNESS & DHARMA
S. N. Goenka
Mark Coleman
Martin Aylward
Tara Brach
Charlotte Joko Beck