Embodying the 12 Steps: Kundalini Yoga for Recovery

Let Embodying the 12 Steps: Kundalini Yoga for Recovery by Rachel Surinderjot Kaur be a light in the darkness on a journey towards an embodied spiritual and emotional recovery.

This 130-page workbook contains powerful, embodied practices to help those recovering from addiction find a deeper mind-body-spirit connection.
Through yoga sets, meditations, mantras, breathwork, and self-reflection, readers are taken on a journey through the 12 Steps of recovery. Suggestions for each step are easy to follow and include personal stories from those in recovery. This program is designed to address any issue (addiction, mental or physical health problems, relationships) and in any program (AA, NA, Al-Anon; or no program at all).

You can be new to the Steps or have worked through them many times. The pairing of steps with embodied practices comes from the author, based on years of experience and recovery and her work with others as a yoga teacher and therapist. In a world where addiction and other challenges loom large, a path to recovery is the key to personal freedom and healing.

This book has received the KRI Seal of Approval.

About the Author

Rachel Surinderjot Kaur has been practicing yoga since she was twelve, but her life changed dramatically when she began practicing Kundalini Yoga at age 36 after two years of sobriety. She became a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher in 2011 and immediately went to Liberia in West Africa to teach Kundalini Yoga to civil war refugees. She especially enjoys teaching women and people struggling with addiction, leading women’s circles and retreats, and working with individuals to help them heal and empower themselves to walk towards their destiny using the tools of Kundalini Yoga and Meditation. She has a Master’s degree in Classics, is a Registered Psychotherapist, and has certifications in The Yoga of 12 Step Recovery (combining yoga and 12 Step meetings) and SuperHealth (Kundalini Yoga for addictions, trauma, and stress). She has volunteered at several non-profits where she teaches Embodying the 12 Steps, and she leads groups of women in a Journey Through the 12 Steps. Rachel is the owner of Adi Shakti Yoga & Therapy located in Longmont, Colorado. She continues her recovery journey to this day through various 12 Step programs. She is available to offer trainings, lead workshops, and provide private sessions for group and one-on-one support.

Excerpt from the book

A foundational principle of Kundalini Yoga is expressed in the mantra Sat Naam. Sat Naam means True Identity. Whenever we say or contemplate Sat Naam, often in sync with our breath, we are connecting to our true selves, to Truth, to reality, to what is. Truth is a great teacher. In the Kundalini tradition, one of the ways to name God is Sat Naam, reminding us that when we have connected to Truth, we are connected to something very powerful.
When we undertake Step One around a specific substance or behavior, we are consciously examining what is true about our relationship with that substance or behavior. How do we use it? What happens when we do? How have we harmed ourselves or others with our use or behavior? How are we powerless over the situation? We’ve tried to change or control our behavior or experience, but it hasn’t worked. How has life become unmanageable, impossible, or so difficult that we are at a loss as to what to do?

These can be difficult questions to consider. Perhaps we have been trying to control or change our use or behavior, and it hasn’t worked. Step One asks us to look at whether we need to admit our powerlessness over our use or behavior so that we might have the opportunity to connect with our Sat Naam, our True Self, a source of power that we haven’t been able to access up until now. Life, our bodies, and our difficulties—what is—can often be our greatest teachers if we stop denying, ignoring, and trying by ourselves to change or control them.

In Step One, we ask ourselves: how can we listen to reality and see the Truth more deeply, not to beat ourselves up, but to learn, heal, evolve, and change? We take off the mask and stop pretending that everything is fine, and we stop believing the falsehood that we’ve got this under control. We look at what’s really going on. When we bring honesty to our situation, we open the door to accepting Truth and Reality. That is the first step towards finding healthy ways to change, ways that actually work.

Publisher: Atmosphere Press (October 5, 2021)
Paperback: 132 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1639880423
Item Weight: 12.5 ounces
Dimensions: 8 x 0.33 x 10 inches