Perspective On Utilizing Yoga Therapy for Addiction Recovery
These days most everyone has heard about yoga and it’s benefits. Having begun my study and exploration of yoga in 1974, I am surprised that today there are still so many misunderstandings of the scope of what yoga is about. By utilizing the time tested tools of yoga in my own life from a young age, I can attest to the power of deep, and lasting transformation and growth that yoga promotes and supports. It encompasses more than physical exercise.
Yoga is an wholistic approach of mind, body, Spirit healing and does not have to be connected with any particular religious views. Of course if one does adhere to a specific religion or philosophical view, yoga respects and enhances that capacity to deepen in the tradition that one is comfortable with.
We all have an inherent wisdom and compassion within us, no matter how far away from our source that we’ve become. Given the tools of breath and movement we can uncover these inherent human capacities. You can use the metaphor of churning milk to get butter; we cannot churn water to get butter. We are like the milk - as humans we have the ability to use these ancient tools of healing in the context of our modern lives, to attain balance and peace.
Neuroscience speaks of the plasticity of our brain, as well as even saying that the nervous system which goes throughout our body, can also be called the brain. By learning the techniques of connecting breath with movement, finding ‘appropriate tools at the appropriate time’ (as we say the definition of Viniyoga is, the style I’ve been trained in), we become embodied in a vital and authentic way. In a very grounded, felt sense way, we reshape patterns of stuck energy or movement to release the past and become more free to be in the present. Free to notice when difficult emotions emerge, and free to choose how to work with them, adapting to what is true within. One day at a time, one breath at a time.
Neuroscience has reframed and validated much of what the ancient yogis’ knew about working with the human condition. When we understand how our brain works, how buried emotions can trigger us, and how we can learn to shift those patterns, we have tools for life. Taking the time to listen to our body with the movements of yoga asana is a strong foundation to begin with. Individual Yoga Therapy acts as a road map for your needs, with respect to where you are in the now, and where you’d like to go. Group class helps us stabilize in the shared strength of peace and the power of community.
~ by Phyllis Moses www.phyllismoses.com
