For many people recovering from addiction, yoga is an effective tool for staying on track with sobriety. In addition to the physical benefits, yoga also calms the mind and improves clarity of thinking. Flagstaff-based yoga teacher Staci Martin teaches a class specifically for people in recovery from addiction to drugs, alcohol, food and behaviors. She herself is in recovery from an eating disorder, and every day Staci posts an original poem on social media for her students. The poems serve as daily inspiration to keep moving forward in their recovery. In this week’s Poetry Friday segment, Staci shares an original poem titled When I’m Ready.
SM: I think we’re very aware through media, and beautiful movies, and television…they do a really good job of explaining AA (Alcoholics Anonymous); even if you are a child of an alcoholic, of an alcoholic, or have a friend who’s struggling with addiction…that’s really well known.
But I think what I started to unearth in my recovery process is the eating disorder was not really the problem. It was a symptom of other problems. So I started learning about things called ‘process addictions’ and different underlying behaviors like co-dependency. So I found out that recovery means so many things to so many people.
So, Recovery Yoga is a class – it’s about 75 minutes long – where we come and we do yoga, and then we have a little bit of a minute - a la’ AA or some other recovery programs - to share. Share can be anything: it could be, like, ‘Wow! Today was amazing. I’m so glad I’m here.’ Or, ‘Wow, that reading hit me.’ Or, ‘Wow! Why did I just cry when we did that pose?’ I’m like, ‘Because you’re you, and you can cry anytime you want.’
I think the strongest thing that comes out of recovery yoga is a sense of community and a sense of you not feeling like you’re isolated because addicts…we like to isolate ourselves.
I don’t claim to be a great writer. I just write. I feel like sometimes I sit on the studio floor at 6 a.m. drinking tea, and being like, ‘What’s going on right now?’ I check in with myself. What am I feeling? And then it just kind of pours out of me. And I never meant to write a poem a day, but it just kind of happens that way.
I think I’ll read the one from today. Let me preface this, like, couch it for a little bit. A girl who’s lived in the desert for so long, I value the changing of the seasons, especially being in Flagstaff right now. And the one thing about fall, because I think it’s probably one of my favorite seasons, is that watching everything change colors, what we would normally worship about summer now we see the beauty of the death of the fall. And then also how many times – and this comes back to my recovering type-A girl, we resist change. We don’t want the change. Or, we crave the change, but we don’t know how to make the change. So, today’s poem is kind of inspired by that. It’s called When I’m Ready.
There is a time
There is always a time
Time, she waits
And she pushes
And she checks her day planner
And she knows
.
.
And there is a time
For everything
For the rise
For the fall
For the crush of hearts
For the burst of love
For the death
For the birth
For life
..
And time she waits
And I will be ready
I am ready
Even when I feel the most
Not ready
Unready
Unsteady
And she waits
.
.
I may hear far off in the distance
The snapping of fingers
The tapping of toes
And the clucking of
Tongues
.
.
But she waits
Checks her day planner
And waits
And I am the most not ready
Ready babe there ever
Was
.
.
So here
We are
In the space
The time
And she waits
Poetry Friday is produced by KNAU's Gillian Ferris. If you have an idea for a segment, drop her an email at Gillian.Ferris@nau.edu. For more information about Recovery Yoga, visit www.yogarevolutionflagstaff.com.
