Don't Turn Your Back On Yourself

Feelings are not permanent- they DO deserve acknowledgment as they arise. To refute, refuse or dismiss them is to turn your back on yourself.

Joy, sorrow, frustration, resentment, happy anticipation, celebration: they all are temporary. Feelings have an energy in our emotional body and in our physical body. Letting them BE is the way to let them through. While I want to cling to the positive and avoid the negative; there is no neurological way to put a gate, a filter on feelings. I block one I block them all.

This difficulty with ANY feeling is how I respond to it; if I crave for more, if I dampen or resist. In fact, the feelings themselves can nourish me- I am alive, I have people whom I love and whose absence makes me sad. I am rich with this feeling. I am alive, I have people I anticipate seeing whose presence lifts me up. I I have work to do that allows me to experience curiosity and challenge. Feelings flow and the sensations witness the life in me. They sustain me.

I am human; I have preferences. It is being open to them all, however, without gripping or turning my back that helps me stay in the REAL feeling and not the rage, the depression, the hysteria or the anxiety. I am able to have my feelings, and acknowledge them in health. Acceptance.

When we open to our feelings as they arise, we create the causes and conditions of mental and physical health. This is what acceptance-based inner awareness entails; it is not a practice to put off, any more than breathing, sleeping, or consuming nourishment.- Josh Korda, "Flowing Feelings"

Kyczy Hawk is the author of “Life in Bite Sized Morsels” (2015), “Yoga and the Twelve Step Path” (2012) as well a several short books and manuals. She is the creator of S.O.A.R.™ (Success Over Addiction and Relapse) teacher certification program. Her students have gone on to create recovery oriented classes and workshops to serve this population across America and around the world.  

In her third decade of recovery she has faced many situations that have called on her abilities to face adversity while maintaining sobriety. Those that have come in her recent years

Ms. Hawk lives in Silicon Valley, California sharing her time between her family, practicing and teaching yoga, writing and pottery.  www.yogarecovery.com

How can I tell if I am "getting better"?

HOW CAN I TELL IF I AM “GETTING BETTER”?

Look back, not forward, to see growth. Whatever the skill (knitting, baseball, baking) or practice (yoga, meditation, recovery) we may not see improvement bit by bit, day by day. But by contemplating where we were when we started we can see the progress.  

A daily practice grows at its own pace; no amount of emotional, verbal or energetic encouragement (or force) will increase its rate of growth.   You only practice and let go. 

The Patience of Cultivation

“When you plant seeds in the garden, you don’t dig them up every day to see if they have sprouted yet. You simply water them and clear away the weeds; you know that the seeds will grow in time. Similarly, just do your daily practice and cultivate a kind heart. Abandon impatience and instead be content creating the causes for goodness; the results will come when they’re ready.”

Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Meditator's Toolbox"

Kyczy Hawk is the author of Yoga and the Twelve Step Path and founder of S.O.A.R.(tm) Success Over Addiction and Relapse. She offers training on line and teaches in person in Treatment Centers, and Jail. She also leads Y12SR classes at Willow Glen Yoga in the Silicon Valley area of California.

www.yogarecovery.com

When being productive ISN'T

When being "productive" ISN'T productive - produces activity but no heart purpose.

Starting a new week can begin with a long list of "things to do" - a list of duties, of obligations as well as things of pleasure and recreation.  Sometimes this list can include activities that are not so necessary but come from "should"  or from "must". 

See where THOSE items stem from and and check them out.  Let go (kindly, gently, with care) of those things or reframe them in a healthier way.  

Some items on the list aren't mine to do, some are not pressing but are busy, and some are there out of ego or fear.  How can I add space to my day? I check my list and start anew.

"We are born with all the wisdom, playfulness, and imagination we need; we just sometimes need a reminder to return to our senses and get out of our own way. Let go of whatever fears, assumptions, distractions, resistance, and busyness may be hampering you. Allow yourself to think and feel and live that way". - Marc Lesser "Do Less Accomplish More" 

Kyczy Hawk is the author of Yoga and the Twelve Step Path and founder of S.O.A.R.(tm) Success Over Addiction and Relapse. She offers training on line and teaches in person in Treatment Centers, and Jail. She also leads Y12SR classes at Willow Glen Yoga in the Silicon Valley area of California.
www.yogarecovery.com