What does Valentine’s Day have to do with yoga and recovery? Love, admiration, and relationships that are discovered within ourselves and with one another at meetings and other sharing. But occasionally we draw in advertising, movies, and other social media and experience sadness, loneliness, and, maybe, self pity. Sometimes we crave and contemplate what we

Happy New Year! A changing of the calendar page, turning over a new leaf, the hope of a new beginning. There is hope but there is also the illusion of imagining that a future day could mean more than the embrace of the present in a new or more faithful fashion. I am a rebel.

I learn so much from people at meetings. A month or so ago we were talking about intentions, and a woman said she “found the results of her intentions in her crisper bin.” We all burst out laughing, because we all know that drawer in the fridge—the one with exotic vegetables: celery root, kale, mustard

Good stress, bad stress – distress finds redress. The word stress comes up over and over again at this time of the year as the seasons change from Gratitude (Thanksgiving) to Shopping (Christmas.)  We move from being grateful for all we have to the sales and promotion influences of needing more.  This can cause pressure.

The holidays are coming! The holidays are coming! These words can strike anguish and fear, or excitement and anticipation. Or all of the above.  There can be feelings of gratitude and generosity, grief, guilt or anger. My childhood, my memories and my dreams can color my hopes for the upcoming six weeks. It takes attention

““Yoga gives us an active role in healing. And by slowing down mental chatter through breath work, it helps facilitate self-acceptance,”  – Yoga International What a lovely promise. Depression hurts so much it would be wonderful for there to be a simple answer to healing and avoiding it. Simple but not easy is what we

I have super powers. I was taught them early in life. I can walk into a room and sense how people are feeling. I can tell if there has been an argument or if there is peace. I have honed my skills to be able to respond and “perform” according to what I think others

I came to recovery broken. I came to recovery having lost all sense of self. I had a huge sense of what I had needed; another drink, another line, another pill – anything- I just needed something!  Until I didn’t. Until I had only one thing left to lose: my being. The day after I

Before I started drinking and using, before my mom’s drinking had become the huge issue it turned out to be, before I fell in love with addict after addict I was emotionally bound to others.  It is appropriate as a baby, as a child. We learn to smile by being smiled at, how to laugh

Right now, before you start reading, take a moment to breathe, with attention, three or four times.  These deep breaths come from a soft abdomen and an expandable chest. In and out through the nose – or in the nose and out the mouth.  Not to be too concerned about a “right way”.  Just breathe.