What started out as written contemplations have ended up in little books. It began with a few booklets that were part of ongoing workshops I was leading for a local group. We were online trying to figure out ways to assess, admit, and address the stressors we have been experiencing over the last few years. Yes, it has been several years. Society has been reeling from ongoing and increasing social stressors that have been ramped up on so many levels due to the pandemic. Inequalities, the impacts of privilege, anger, and frustrations played out on the social stage and illness. Illness, job changes, and job challenges all added to what was then the normal pressure of daily life exacerbated now with Covid-19 and its variants.
Rather than succumbing to the pressure, rather than becoming overwhelmed with stress: stress unabated transforming into trauma, I wanted to map a way out. This started with developing an understanding of what a stress response was, and then discovering what I could do to identify and then mitigate the impacts on body, mind, and spirit. That brought about my first booklet “Up-Level Your Resilience“.
After that, I discovered that more details were needed on two of the practices: Meditation and Movement. I wrote two other booklets “Minutes for Meditation” and “Mindful Movement“. These were also accompanied by weekly meetings to practice the “practices” I detailed in the texts.
Finally, going back to my roots in the 12 Step program of A.A. I wrote a booklet combining the promises of AA and select teachings of yoga: “The AA Promises and Yoga“. This is an exploration of my experience with both the promises and certain sutras from Patanjali and my personal interpretation of them both. It is an introduction to this study and hopefully will inspire some discourse on the topics.
All of these booklets are available here– and I look forward to your feedback!