“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.

Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved, but hope for the patience to win my freedom.”

Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Poet/Saint

The best way out is always through.  Robert Frost

Ever wondered if there is anything you can do to grow out of the psychological conditions labelled ‘addict’ and ‘trauma survivor’?  Well, there are.  Eventhough each carry the burden of feeling trapped in a world of unending pain and suffering, each also hold the potential for relief and transformational change.  The question is how ready and how willing are you to do what you can do for yourself, right now, to move out from where you are and into a new condition of mind and body?  It’s a big question.  And for some one that rouses a genuine fear of the unknown.

What would happen if you stepped out of the warm emotional nest of an old identity, one you’ve been tending for a very long time, even if it’s been a painfrul one, and into an identity you’ve never expereinced before?  What would happen to the comfort of the familiar pain?  Where would it go?  More importantly, how would you feel without it?  Exposed?  Frightened?  Relieved?  How would you identify yourself when the words ‘addict’ or ‘trauma survivor’ no longer apply?  Then what?  Who would you be then?

The good news is the movement out of a comfortable emotional nest of an old identity and into a new one is a natural process.  It can be a process that unfolds at a pace that is comfortable for you, where you can do what you need to do to take care of yourself, in the now, while you grow steadily into a new you.

What would this process look like?

• Creating safety and preventing relaspe, and getting clean time under your belt.  This lays the foundation for the emotional work you may know you need to do.
• Learning to regulate your emotional experience in order to be in control of it once again.  This will help you to feel safe through the healing process, and to prepare yourself for future emotional work.
• Creating a container for your felt experience through your body to learn to be in the present moment as it is, unfettered by wishful thinking about the past or future.  The present moment is your point of power for healing and forward movement.
• Enlisting the support of compassionate others who are both walking the same path as you, and who have walked this path before and  know the way through.

Together, this approach will meet  you where you’re at to enhance your power to change by working with, and not against, your natural healing instincts.  It will help you to grow into the person you already know you are deep inside.  Stay tuned for details about an innovative new program being designed to support you through this life enhancing process.

We are designed to separate things into dualities:  this and that, black and white, up and down, good and bad, pain and pleasure, etc.  This is the dualistic mind’s way of seeing.  It sees in opposites as it gazes within to the interior relm, and as it gazes outward to the physical world around us.  This is the perceptual place from which most of us are coming, with the exception of our fully realized friends around the globe who have evolved to a place outside of duality, where they can see the harmony and perfection in all things, all the time.  Duality is also a place from which we can live our lives unaware of our conditioned responses to the world within and the world without.  And as a result, we suffer, and endure what feels like endless psychological pain.

How does this translate into the ‘real world’?  Well, take drinking for example:  What if you’ve been conditioned to want a drink whenever you feel stressed?  And what if there was a moment when you’re desiring the drink when you could allow the desire for the drink to be okay?  To see desire for what it is . . .  just another desire . . . and to feel desire in the body . . . to name what it feels like in the body . . . and then within the privacy of your own mind, lean back from desire and simply be there with the perception of it, without taking any action (yet).  What would happen then?  Well, it would give you the ability to . . . pause . . . to consider the ways in which you could respond to desire, before you actually did anything about it.  Rather than being pulled back into a tour of duty with the addictive behaviour.

How can you let desire for something be okay?  You do it by learning to hear the Witness.

In Steven Cope’s masterful work ‘Yoga and the Quest for the True Self’ he talks about how the Yogis discovered that if we can work with our awareness in a way where we acknowledge sensations as they arise in the body, experience these sensations fully, and perhaps most importantly, bear them, we can find freedom and no longer be bound to the world of duality.  We would no longer have to feel compelled to react to sensations as they arise.  In bearing them, we let them be.   In letting them be, we can see them for what they are.   In Yogic practice this is called the Witness conciousness.  It holds the power to free us from our own conditioned responses and to the play of opposites in the world of duality.  In learning to work skillfully with the Witness, psychological healing will flower.   This is awareness in action.

In the first part of this two part series on Negative Habits & Yoga we looked at the work of Yoga Master BKS Iyengar and how he understands the structure of the mind to perpetuate a negative habit.  Either through an external challenge (like a disappointment) that causes a primary ripple on the surface of the mind, or from an internal secondary wave that rises from what Iyengar refers to as a ‘mound’ at the bottom of the ‘lake of consiousness’ which is formed from repeated ripples at the mind’s surface over time.  Are we destined to be indentured slaves to the secondary wave activity in our minds?  Yoga says we’re not.  Through awareness and with time we can free ourselves from these ingrained patterns that have been built up for many years or over the course of our entire lives.  How you might ask?  Here’s what Iyengar has to say:

“If you want to intercept the secondary waves rising, you need speed and clarity of perception, an acute self-awareness.  If your lake is muddy and impure, if there are lots of toxins in your system clouding your vision, clarity of vision is impossible. . .  Someone who is clouded, toxic, sluggish, discontented (blaming others is a prime cause of discontent), and restive in mind is never going to catch a secondary wave coming to the surface.  It will have expressed itself in action before they even notice it.  It is through the acute awareness and speed of action that we cultivate in asana (postures) and pranayama (breathing practices) that we can reform ourselves.  In addition, by breathing before acting, we are able to slow down our responses, inhale divinity, and surrender ego in our exhalation.  This momentary pause allows us the time for cognitive reflection, corrective reaction, and reappraisal.  It is the momentary pause in the process of cause and effect that allows us to begin the process of freedom.

The endless process is breath, cognitive reflection, corrective reaction, reappraisal, and action.  Eventually this process blends into the present moment, no past, no future, but action and right perception soldered together in a peerless moment, and then another moment and another.  Eventually, we are no longer caught up in the movement of time as a sequence or current sweeping us along, but we experience it as a series of discrete and present moments.  No rising thought wave can escape the sharpness of such vision.  It is what we call presence of mind.”

How present are you to the activity going on in your mind?

B.K.S. Iyengar has been called ‘The Michelangelo of yoga’ by the BBC. Today he’s in his 90’s, and has been practicing, teaching, and developing his unique style of Yoga for over 70 years. Iyengar was one of the very first yogis from India to bring Yoga technology to Europe and America about a half century ago. It is this style of Yoga that grounds the writer’s approach to her yoga classes and yoga therapy sessions. In his latest book ‘Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom’, Iyengar, with the wisdom of a Master, clearly discusses how you can free yourself from unwanted habits iin what he refers to as imperceptible ‘mounds’ in the mind. Here’s an exerpt from this first class offering.

“If consciousness is like a lake, there are primary waves or fluctuations of consciousness on the surface of the lake. These are easily discernible. An example is that if you are invited to dinner by dear friends and, at the last minute, they ring to cancel, then you’re very disappointed, you’re unhappy, you feel let down, and you deal with that on the surface. You have to calm yourself down, get over your disappointment. This is a challenge, an external challenge as it were, that causes a ripple on the surface.”

“The secondary fluctuations or waves are different. Those are the ones that rise up from the bottom of the lake. The bottom of a lake is covered in sand and so, if in life you experience a sufficient number of disappointments, the ripple on the surface creates a wave that goes down to the bottom, and imperceptibly that ripple creates a little bank in the sand, so there is a little mound of disapointment. As a result you will find yourself frequently disappointed or sad at this mound at the bottom sends off secondary fluctuations or waves.”

“Let us look at another common example. If you constantly find yourself being irritable, annoyed by something - your wife, your children, your parents, or anything at all - a sufficient number of irritable reactions will create, imperceptibly, not in one time only, a little mound of irritability at the bottom of the lake of consciosness, and that will eventually make you what we call an irritable person, an angry person. If you have smoked since you were sixteen, every time you pick up a cigarette in the day you are also brainwashing yourself. “In this situation I pick up a cigarette” mound. That’s why cigarettes are more difficult than almost anything else to give up. Aside from their physical cravings, we create mental cravings because the habit is very repetitive. The habit of smoking puts itself into every situation. The triggers to that situation are so many that many smokers still sometimes want to smoke even years afer they have stopped because the mound is still there . . .”

“The practice of yoga is about reducing the size of the subliminal mounds and setting us free from these and other fluctuations or waves in our consciousness. Everybody aspires to be free. No one wants to be manipulated by unseen forces, but effectively, the banks of samskara* in the dark depths of the unconscious do just that. As stimuli from the conscious surface travel rapidly down through the levels of the lake, the encounter uncharted banks of sediment that cause secondary waves of thought. These in turn stimulate, in a way that is beyond our comprehension or control, behavior that is both reactive an inappropriate. Our reactions are preconditioned and therefore unfree. We cannot break out of the old pattern of behavior, however much we long to. In the end, we may accept the situation and just say, “It’s the way I am,” “Life always lets me down,” “Things just make me so angry,” or “I have an addictive personality.” But it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a way out.

In the next post, we’ll look at the nature of Yoga and how it can help us to effectively overcome our negative habits.

* subliminal mound; mental impression

What is recovery all about anyway?  What does it mean to recover?  What was lost in the first place that needs recovering?  Webster’s online dictionary defines the word recover as to regain, as in, ‘to bring back to a normal position or condition’.   This implies a movement back to a place of origin.  What would this place of origin be for the person in recovery?

In a previous post, addiction was defined in part as a condition surviving in a space of separateness through which the individual has lost a sense of connection to self.  (’What is Addiction?  March 21st, 2009)  It is a dissociated state of being that exists suspended from the experience of being itself.

To be, means to exist.  To exist, means to be present.  What’s missing in the life of the person in active addiction is their undoctored present moment experience.  How do we gain entry to our present moment experience?  By paying attention to our experience in the here and now.

The Yoga tradition teaches through the vehicles of the breath and the body that we can become attuned to paying attention to our experience in the here and now.  By watching, sensing, and feeling what is happening in the body, and by following the rhythm of the breath, we can leave the experience of separateness in a bygone moment.  In so doing, we become better able to re-connect with our authentic experience in the present, no matter what it may contain.  For the person in recovery, coming back to our place of origin implies coming back into our authentic experience in the here and now.    

Before we talk about what you can do about addiction, let’s be sure its addiction we’re talking about.  Using the dependence on a substance as an example, a behaviour qualifies as an addiction if it meets three or more of the following criteria over a 12 month period:

• Tolerance:  Either taking more to achieve the same effect, or taking the same amount that has less effect.
• Withdrawal:  Either experiencing characteristic withdrawal symptoms for a substance, or doing something to avoid or relieve withdrawal symptoms.
• Usage:  Either the amount used or duration of use, is more than what was intended.
• Control:  Either trying repeatedly to control usage or reduce usage.
• Time:  Either using, recovering from use, or trying to get the substance to use, is how a considerable amount of time gets spent.
• Blinkers On:  Either reducing or abandoning important work, social activities and/or leisure activities to focus on using.
• Negative Consequences:  Continuing to use in spite of being aware of developing physical or psychological problems.

So . . . having said that, if it’s addiction you’re dealing with, and you know in your heart you want to stop, here are a number of things you can do about it right now.

• Detox:   If it’s an addiction involving alcohol or drugs, consider going to a medical detoxification facility in your area, to safely withdraw your body and mind from the substance. You will be supervised by a doctor and/or nurse and other support staff while you transition into a clean and sober life.  If there is no such facility in your area, consider consulting with your physician, or a doctor in a local walk-in clinic or hospital emergency ward, or with a counsellor in an addiction focused outpatient clinic, for information and support about the withdrawal process.
• Safety: This is a critical issue in early recovery:  creating a safe world around you to abstain from the addictive behaviour.  This is where a 12 Step meeting like Alcoholics Anonymous or Overeaters Anonymous can be very very helpful.  You will find other people there who also want to stop.  Gathering together with like-minded people is not to be underestimated as a potent medicine for recovery.  It is.  Addiction grows in isolation.  You begin to turn things around when you give yourself permission to come out of isolation, that sense of feeling separate from yourself, the human community, and the natural world.  Moving out of isolation can occur through the synergy created from the process of sharing your experiences with others, and listening to them while they share theirs with you.  When done in a safe environment, it’s one way to begin healing the effects of addiction.  If there is no 12 Step meeting in your area, or you’d just rather not go there, ask yourself this:  Who in your life is on your side? Who can you call when you feel like using, and don’t want to?  Who can you call when you need to talk your way through a difficult or triggering moment? Who can you call when you just need to talk?

• Start Developing a Plan.  Think of it as a map you could use to help get you to your desired destination.  Here are a few things to consider as you begin developing your map to prevent the return to an addictive behaviour.  Is where you spend your time free of the behaviour you’re trying to stop?  Are you taking care of your body with good nutrition, healthy fluids, and regular exercise your body enjoys?  Are you being kind to yourself?  Do you commit acts of violence against yourself?  Do you know how to relax?  Is there a hobby or talent you enjoy that you could bring back into your life?  Can you identify people, places or things that could trigger the addictive behaviour?  Do you know why you started the behaviour in the first place?  Do you know who you are?

Stopping an addictive behaviour is no small feat.  It’s something few people can do alone. Most people benefit from meaningful support to launch them into recovery and a self-affirming way of living. Needing or wanting support is not about being weak. In fact our brains are hardwired for relationships.  That’s how we’re built.  Needing or wanting support is about being human.  Personal isolation is one of the hallmarks of addiction. Allow yourself come out of that frightening, lonely place. You’ll be so glad you did.

If you know you’re dealing with addiction and you’re not sure you want to stop, talking to someone you can trust can be enormously helpful while you come to the very best decision for yourself.  Take the time to talk it out.  You’re worth it. 

Where can you turn?  To a local addiction clinic, a compassionate doctor or nurse, a good friend or trusted relative, a professional in a mental health office who understands addiction, a non-judgmental minister or priest in your community, a person at a local Alcoholics Anonymous (or other 12 Step) meeting, an online forum or service, just to name a few.  Take the time to talk it out.  Having a future depends on it.

Speaking as someone who works daily with folks struggling primarily, but not exclusively, with alcohol and drug addiction, I perceive it to be a multi-dimensional condition touching all aspects of an individual’s life.  Their biology, their psychology, their social network, their educational and vocational aspirations, as well as the spiritual dimension of their existence.  I see it has its genesis in the DNA of the individual, predisposing them to its development under certain inter-related psychologial and environmental conditions, as it has in previous generations.  I see it being related to chronic trauma related stress, and the absence of stable and nurturing relationships, particularly but not exclusively with primary loved ones early in life.  I see it being related to the absence of a role model or guide to help navigate through internal responses to a stressing and troubling situation or environment, and being guided to do so with non-harming strategies.  I see the straining and isolating nature of these experiences sending messages to the brain that lead to the development of psychological and physical pain, as the two are inter-connected, as well as to the human need to cope with that pain.  On one level, I see addiction as a conditioned adaptation to unbareable pain.  A conditioned adaptation to unbareable pain that stems from chronically unmet needs.

Dr. Gabor Mate, a physician working with people struggling to live with and overcome alcohol and drug addiction on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an area in the poorest postal code in Canada, writes in his very very good book “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts:  Close Encounters with Addiction”, that ‘Addictions always originate in pain, whether felt openly or hidden in the unconscious.  They are emotional anesthetics.’  He goes on to say ’Not all addictions are rooted in trauma, but I do believe they can all be traced to painful experience.  A hurt is at the centre of all addictive behaviours.’

Through chronic addictive behaviour, over time the unhealed hurt can lead to things like arrested emotional development, arrested vocational development and its tethering to underachievement and  underearning, fragmented relationships, impaired health and well-being, spiritual disconnection from self and the world around them.  It can lead to acting out the unhealed hurt through violence toward self, other, or community property, which  can lead to jail time and loss of freedom.  It can lead to the loss of time, and with it the loss of opportunities to cultivate a life worth living.  Addiction devastates and destroys life in those who seek it, and in those who love the ones that do.  How many of us are not touched by the life of someone who is engaged in addictive behaviour?  Has such a behaviour taken hold in yours?

In our next post we’ll take a look at what can be done to heal the hurt that leads to the development of addiction.  In the meantime, take care and stay safe.  As always, we welcome your thoughts below.

Since the 1970’s, the field of Yoga therapy has been slowly and steadily emerging in the healthcare industry as a viable treatment for an impressive range of medical conditions.  It’s been used in the treatment of osteoperosis, multiple sclerosis, cardiac arrest, chronic pain, schizophrenia, addiction, just to name a very few.  Not only that, but more and more Yoga’s been actively researched with impressive results in America, Europe and India.  Some of these results were showcased at the third annual Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research in Los Angeles at the beginning of March.  It was an electifying experience to be there!  It was an opportunity to mingle with over 600 medical doctors (including psychiatrists), psychologists, researchers, psychotherapists, nurses and other healthcare professionals who were integrating Yoga and Yoga therapy into their healthcare practices and business ventures. 

It was particularly exciting to learn about new approaches to the treatment of  psychological trauma and the neurophysiology that underlys it.  It was heartwarming to learn there was a strong research interest in the treatment of psychological trauma from a Yogic perspective, and to see recent research revealing its positive effect on symptom reduction.  It was so encouraging and validating to learn this as for over 10 years I’ve been weaving Yoga philosophy and practice into my counselling and coaching work with people struggling to overcome the psychological effects of trauma and addiction.  Now a part of me can breathe a deep sigh of relief as this approach is proving to be as effective as my clients and my own practice has taught me it is.

Yoga is such a sophisticated science.  It can meet the individual where they’re at and offer relief from painful or troubling symptoms across a range of conditions, and with a depth that is out of the reach of our traditional medical doctors.  We’re in an exciting era of coming to understand from a scientific perspective the depth and breadth of Yoga’s effectiveness!  Of course the ancient sages, seers and enlightened beings who’ve been behind it over the past five or six thousand years have known all along what western science is beginning to learn about Yoga’s viability as a therapeutic model:  It works!   Here’s hoping more research will be done internationally to continue to demonstrate its efficacy to Yoga enthusiasts of all persuasions.   

For more information about the recent symposium or the growing Yoga therapy profession, consider contacting the International Associaion of Yoga Therapists at IAYT.com.  For further discussion about Yoga in the treatment of psychological trauma and addiction, I welcome your thoughts below.  This is indeed a very exciting time to be a Yoga enthusiast!      

In the Flow is a fresh new e-zine coming soon to psychologicalhealingandyoga.com!  In this bi-weekly publication we’ll be enhancing your power to change by sharing stories of personal success, exploring aspects of western and Yoga psychology, or sharing insights on timeless wisdom.  In the e-zine’s first article series, we’ll be delving deeper into the secrets of psychological healing and expanding on those detailed in our free publication ”The Ten Secrets to Psychological Healing”, which you’ll receive as a big thank-you! from us when you subscribe to the site.  More information on how to receive your first edition copy of In the Flow is coming soon!