My upcoming Workshop; The Middle Path, is something I have been working on for a long time now. It is the culmination of years of study, suffering, heartache and most of all, restoration. The constant through it all has been my yoga practice, my struggle with physical pain and my relationship with the world of addiction and recovery. While I have never battled with addiction personally, too many people that I have loved in my life, have. The darkness it brought to my life was at times unbearable, yet I found solace through my yoga practice and the systematic approach to recovery that I chose to embrace. I also suffered through physical pain that came into being during adolescence and was only relieved in my twenties once I found the root cause of my pain and worked hard to counteract the part of my body that was at war with itself. I found a very personal and very pro-active approach to dealing with my suffering that involved yoga and meditation but also a serious amount of self-reflection and exploration of my choices, repetitive movements and actions. As I continued down my path I realised there are so many people out there suffering in so many different ways. Some suffer with addiction, some suffer with physical pain, some suffer with mental and emotional issues that are deep seeded and have roots that can take years to unearth. But the suffering is there and it is real and our ability to alleviate that suffering is inside all of us if we can only find the methodology and approach to recognise it’s roots, surrender to them, and work hard to move beyond them.
The Middle Path is that approach. It is something I have come to explore and celebrate in my life as it is the learning and understanding of how the philosophy of yoga can be of service to those suffering in all forms. The physical practice of what we know as Yoga and the philosophy behind it is a study of “skill in action” or put another way “informed navigation in life”. With the knowledge of ourselves and insight into why we have physical pain, suffer emotional trauma, or battle with any multitude of disorders, we can use active movement along with meditation and even breathing techniques to find an acceptance and a release of the cause of our suffering and commit to action and informed choices in order to be free. The knowledge and practice of The Middle Path is restoring the balance to our lives and relieving the suffering in a way that is bespoke to each one of us as individuals. It is using yoga as a transformative force for holistic positive change and helping others discover that change themselves.
In my life I have been blessed with the knowledge and understanding through the guidance of my teachers of what it is to really have self-knowledge and more importantly, how to use that self knowledge to create a system of informed navigation through life. I, much like many of my students, have been through dark times and the feeling of hopelessness is an easy adversary to surrender to. Those who live with pain suffer that same hopelessness and often have found little or no relief from western medicine. Hopelessness and suffering is a familiar spectre to those suffering from emotional and psychological affliction. It does not have to be like this. The simple acknowledgement of our suffering is the beginning to the restoration, balance and the relief that we can manifest. Each one of us has a very personal suffering, yet each one of us can have a very customised relief from it.
The Middle Path can bring that relief to you and those in your community. Finding a methodology for self-knowledge and learning to help others discover that same skill will be the focus of my first workshop. This will be the foundation that we as yogis can build upon to create an understanding and a practice of Yoga as Therapy. Join us and find out how you can help create a bespoke dynamic therapy for yourself and those in your community.
For more information, or to join us and register and click here.
