Teaching Yoga in Recovery, Safe Space

Today I taught a class of 16 women in substance abuse recovery. We begin the class with a check-in; physical, emotional, spiritual. The ladies were all over the map. People shared themselves and I, as I often am, was moved. I was moved by the openness, the resistance, the heaviness, the power of the practice. The teaching theme was to choose a spot to focus of for the entire practice, bringing safe, healing energy to the spot and moving out the shit that needs to go in order to heal. There was a lot of chaos and resistance when I got there. They have made the yoga class mandatory at the center. I asked the ladies to tune in to a hell spot that keeps them into their disease and really feel into what it does to their body and spirit. Then I asked them to use deep breaths and exhales to move that shit right out as it is ready to go. I shared that my intention was to create a safe space for them in recovery to begin to feel and be in their bodies. In order for energy (prana) to move, it needs to feel safe. This is THE priority. The energy shifted so dramatically, it blew me away.