This document discusses integrating yoga postures and philosophy with the 12 steps of recovery. It outlines how various yoga poses and principles can help embody each step. For example, step 1 of admitting powerlessness is aligned with physical, energetic, and emotional surrender in yoga. Step 2 of believing in a higher power connects to changing one's awareness. The 12 steps are seen as a moving meditation to achieve union, integration, and balance of body, mind, and spirit.

1. Integrating Yoga Postures
with
Recovery Philosophy

2. http://clipartist.info/SVG/scallywag/CLIPARTIST.NET/YOGA/yoga_poses_stylized_1-999px.png
Body
Mind Spirit

3. “The basic principles …
were ancient and universal ones,
the common property of mankind.”
Bill W. in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 39

4. The Approach
Union, Integration, Balance
Somatic + Cognitive + Spiritual
Intentional coping and healing skills
A moving meditation

5. Body, Mind, Spirit
• Yoga and The Serenity
Prayer
– Balance - serenity
– Strength - courage
– Flexibility - wisdom
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7. Now it’s your turn

8. 1. We admitted we were powerless over our addiction; that our lives
had become unmanageable
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore
us to sanity
• Physical, energetic and
emotional surrender
• Change of awareness
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9. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of
God as we understood God
• “Supreme Universal Spirit”
• Freed of restlessness and
negative desires
• Individual spirit and
• Spirit from within unite

10. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the
exact nature of our wrongs
• 5 Yamas - universal morals &
values commandments or
restraints
• Ethical practice that changes the
direction of one’s thinking
• Restructure sense of Self

11. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of
character
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings
• Be content; accept and embrace
character flaws
• Surrender and acceptance

12. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to
make amends to them all
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except
when to do so would injure them or others
• Nonattachment
• Nonviolence
• Truth-telling
• Cleanliness
• Modesty

13. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong
promptly admitted it
• Self-study, inquiry, examination
• Cultivate Self-awareness and
Self-forgiveness
• Balance

14. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious
contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for
knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry it out

15. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we
tried to carry this message to other addicts and to practice these
principles in all our affairs
• Keep what we have by
sharing with others
• Model through service
• Sponsor or guru
• Learn and apply

16. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Om
Peace within self
Peace amongst one
another
Peace within the world
Self
Others Universe

17. Namaste