Praise for Yoga and the Twelve-Step Path
“You don’t need to be a ‘yogi’ for your recovery to benefit from this wonderful book. Kyczy Hawk shares practical strategies gleaned from years of yoga study and recovery. You will want to read, study, and practice these techniques and then share them with others in recovery. This book will deepen your recovery and sense of serenity, as it has mine.”
Rosemary Tisch, Director, Prevention Partnership International Lead Author, Celebrating Families!
“Yoga and the Twelve-Step Path is both an invitation and a profound gift. For anyone struggling with addiction, this book could be life-saving and certainly soul-saving. Conscious and cautionary, Ms. Hawk speaks to us as an authentic and powerful teacher who offers up her own compelling story in service to others. With quiet grace, clear direction, and the wisdom of experience, she gently guides the reader along a logical path to health, wellness, and spiritual awakening.”
Mary Lynn Fitton, Founder, The Art of Yoga Project
“Kyczy Hawk has made an important contribution to the field of yoga and addiction recovery. The work and practices laid out in Yoga and the Twelve-Step Path offer supports to anyone suffering from addiction or anyone who knows someone who is. This book is highly recommended on the journey to recovery.”
Rolf Gates, Teacher and Author, Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga
“Kyczy Hawk speaks compassionately from her own experience with addiction as she explores the parallels between yoga and the twelve-step path, weaving together a practical guide for enhanced healing. This is a wonderful, life affirming resource! This book offers a comprehensive understanding of yogic concepts, practices, and philosophy, including the eight limbs of raja yoga, which endorse the ideals presented in recovery meetings, and Ayurveda medicine as it relates to addiction. Thank you, Kyzcy, for creating a bridge for those in recovery to discover yoga and those in yoga to understand addiction.”
Annalisa Cunningham, Author, Healing Addiction with Yoga
“Coming from the depths of her own experience of addiction, and her practice and study of yoga, Kyczy has written an eminently practical book showing how the application of an integrated yoga practice complements, enhances, and enables recovery through the twelve-step approach. In a culture where addiction is endemic, this warm and heartfelt work will be helpful for those battling addiction, as well as students and teachers of yoga.”
Bidyut K. Bose, PhD, Executive Director, Niroga Institute
Central Recovery Press
Central Recovery Press (CRP) is committed to publishing exceptional materials addressing addiction treatment, recovery, and behavioral healthcare topics, including original and quality books, audio/visual communications, and web-based new media. Through a diverse selection of titles, we seek to contribute a broad range of unique resources for professionals, recovering individuals and their families, and the general public.
For more information, visit www.centralrecoverypress.com.
Central Recovery Press, Las Vegas, NV 89129
© 2012 by Kyczy Hawk
All rights reserved. Published 2012. Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
Publisher: Central Recovery Press
3321 N. Buffalo Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89129
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-1-936290-80-2 (trade paper)
ISBN-10: 1-936290-80-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-936290-88-8 (e-book)
ISBN-10: 1-936290-88-X
Cover design, interior design and layout by Sara Streifel, Think Creative Design
Author photo by Susan Stojanovich
Yoga illustrations/photos by Della Calfee
The brief excerpts from AA materials are reprinted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (“AAWS”). Permission to reprint these brief excerpts does not mean that AAWS has reviewed or approved the contents of this publication, or that AAWS necessarily agrees with the views expressed therein. AA is a program of recovery from alcoholism only—use of these excerpts in connection with programs and activities that are patterned after AA but that address other problems, or in any other non-AA context, does not imply otherwise.
to my seminal teachers shasta and shannon.
to my friend and husband bill.
namaste.
Table of Contents
Chapter Three • What Is Addiction?
Chapter Four • Combining Yoga and the Twelve Steps of Recovery
Chapter Nine • Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi
Chapter Ten • The Gunas and the Mind States
Chapter Eleven • Ayurveda and the Doshas
Chapter Twelve • Bringing It All Together
Appendix II • Ayurvedic Resources
Appendix III • Asana Sequences and Guide
Appendix IV • The Principles of the Twelve Steps