Morning Meet and Greet

Meditation: this is a practice in which the reality is both a blessing and a curse. I practice for the former and it is the latter state I work to ameliorate even as I meet it. 

Meditation: the discipline of focus and non-engagement, the practice of silence among the mental clamor, the gift of being in the midst of doing. Breathe, regard the posture, the pose of the body, the feeling tones, the activity of the mind and then...again. 

Meditation: while I may look for "nothing"; nothing is in the space between the moments of attention. It is there that I can meet myself in silence- practicing unconditional love as I see all there is of me. I meet the good and the difficult, the clear and the murky. I can breathe and greet myself just as I am. 

Now; to sit.

“In meditation we have the opportunity to meet ourselves, to see ourselves clearly for the first time. We have never met ourselves properly or spent this kind of time with ourselves before. . . . We cook, we talk, we take a walk, or we swim. We never just sit with ourselves.”

—Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, "Cool Boredom"

Kyczy Hawk RYT E-500 is a yoga instructor and author. She teaches in treatment centers as well as yoga studios in her hometown of San Jose, CA. Her volunteer time includes teaching yoga in Elmwood Women’s Jail and The Recovery Cafe San Jose. She has been a space holder for the internationally known Y12SR (Yoga of Twelve Step Recovery) for over six years.

Kyczy has published several books including “Yoga and the Twelve Step Path” 2012 and “Life in Bite Sized Morsels” 2015. Her book “Yogic Tools for Recovery; A Guide To Working The Steps” will be out November 14, 2017.

She is a contributor to national and international magazines (I Love Recovery Cafe, Yoga Times, 12 Step Gazette, OM Magazine, Recovery Today Magazine and Indigo International, among others.)  Kyczy has developed a series of yoga sequences for Studio Live TV that incorporate recovery principles in all-levels yoga classes. The link for them can be found on her website www.yogarecovery.com.

Recovery has allowed her to heal and enhance her relationships with her kids, her family and her grand-family. Life is now rich with possibilities which she explores with art, craft and travel.

Our thoughts are not the [only] reality

I used to hear a pharse in the rooms of recovery: "feelings are not facts". While I do maintain that feelings are real, they are indeed not facts. Neither are my thoughts! 

The impressions of the present moment are real, but the charge or ruminations of the past- not reality. The ponderings and prognositactions about the future, also, not reality.

It is hard to grop, to get, to absorb this as my thoughts can give rise to energy in my body. My body feels in the present moment. My heart is beating hard and fast NOW. My hands are cold, NOW. My shoulders rise NOW. And there is nothing but the feelling of the fingers on the keys and the sounds of the tapping that are real.

My issue seems to come from identifying my fears about the future as being real. The mis-education in my body, the lack of breath and present time awareness scalds my mind- making the ideas in my head more real than what is around me.

So, yes, the thoughts are not the problem. It is the illusion that they are real, when I identify with them. And I may think that the thoughts themselves are facts, as if every thought were of the present.  

With breath, with my senses, with practice I come to the moment, let go of thoughts, and just let them road. I do not need to own them.

The thoughts are not the problem. Thoughts are the nature of the mind. The problem is that we identify with them.

- Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, "No Excuses" 

Kyczy has published several books including “Yoga and the Twelve Step Path” 2012 and “Life in Bite Sized Morsels” 2015. Her book “Yogic Tools for Recovery; A Guide To Working The Steps” will be out November 14, 2017.

She is a contributor to national and international magazines (I Love Recovery Cafe, Yoga Times, 12 Step Gazette, OM Magazine, Recovery Today Magazine and Indigo International, among others.)  Kyczy has developed a series of yoga sequences for Studio Live TV that incorporate recovery principles in all-levels yoga classes. The link for them can be found on her website www.yogarecovery.com.