Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #24

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hannukah, or Happy Kwanzaa. Or whatever other holiday floats your boat this time of year. Although I no longer consider myself a Christian, I do celebrate Christmas since I was raised Christian and family traditions around the Christmas Holiday.

I taught my last "community" class at 3Sisters at least on Friday nights because it will conflict with my Sober Yogi class I teach at Soul Stretch in Westlake. I also taught my weekly Fitworks class as well as subbing on Wednesday night. I am now over 50 hours of teaching since getting certified. Still have a long way to go as a Yoga instructor but so much better than when I was first certified. Still need to find my voice in terms of expressing and talking about themes. Well themes with a spiritual bent anyway.

The Fourth Limb of Yoga - Pranayama

So this year I have been slowly reviewing the the 8 Limbs of Yoga in order to figure out what my intentions for 2016 are going to be. Clearly, since it is already November, this process will transition to preparing for setting my 2017 intentions. As we get closer to the New Year's or early next year I'll review what I had defined, what I achieved and see where we end up. But let's keep moving forward.

Which means, next up of the 8 Limbs is the fourth one, Pranayama.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #23

This weekend started off with my Sober Yogi Hour followed by a Life Is Good discussion. After YTT Anatomy weekend last weekend, I was back to teaching my class at Fitworks. I also subbed at Stat Crossfit at 8am on Sunday before heading to my weekly infusion of Marni Goodness. Went grocery shopping and Christmas present shopping then spent the rest of the day cooking, watching football (Browns, ugh).

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #22

This weekend started off with my Sober Yogi Hour followed by a Life Is Good discussion. Spent most of the rest of the weekend taking Gina Schatz's Anatomy class for Marni Task's YTT program. I skipped out early on Sunday to take my fellow YTT grad Kim Hackman's restorative yoga class at Confluence. I may or may not have snored.

Weekly Tao Te Ching Verse - Week #21

This weekend started off with my Sober Yogi Hour followed by a Life Is Good discussion. Took my weekly infusion of Marni Task goodness on Saturday morning before teaching at Fitworks in Highland Heights. Sunday I headed out early to take Lori Palmer's yoga class at Soul Stretch in Westlake.

Sober Yogi Yoga at Soul Stretch Yoga in Westlake

So if everything goes according to plan, Soul Stretch Yoga in Westlake will open its doors for business this Friday Dec. 2nd. I am also happy to announce the inaugural Sober Yogi class on Friday at 6:30pm where we will begin the journey of exploring the integration 12 Step programs, the 8 Limbs of Yoga, and a whole foods, plant based diet in recovering addicts lives. After 60 minutes of an All Levels Vinyasa flow we'll have an hour long Life is Good discussion recapping all the good things that have happened in the last week because we are sober.

The class is a donations based class, and we are suggesting a $5 donation. All donations received during the month of December will go to The Lantern Center for Recovery in Cleveland (http://www.thelantern.info/) . The Lantern Center's mission is to provide quality sober living to chemically dependent men and to educate and assist people with recovery from drug & alcohol addiction. So if you want to donate more please feel free!

I am a recovering alcoholic of 21 years, a recovering smoker of 4 years and a SAD (Standard American Diet) recovering addict. My class is open to addicts of all persuasions with the only caveat that your are committed to your recovery process.

I do get a lot of questions about classes for friends and family. While the Sober Yogi class is for recovering addicts only, the Roots of Recovery classes are open to everyone impacted by addictions - friends, families, and the addicts themselves. Check the Soul Stretch Website or Mindbody for the schedule details.

If you know someone who may be interested, feel free to share this post.