​​​"I decided to enroll in Danielle’s facilitated journey through the 12 steps to learn more about them, as someone only peripherally aware of them through my work as a counselor, assisting others on their recovery journeys.  In fact, I was quite biased against the 12 steps, but what intrigued me was Danielle’s passion and her intent to combine the deeper teachings of the yogic path and the journey to oneness consciousness as well as her intention to support embodiment of the process through movement.  

 

Little did I know how deeply transformative this process could be.  Every session has been an unfolding of awareness, insight and healing for me personally, beyond anything I could have imagined.  Danielle’s teaching is so grounded in her lived experience, that I feel blessed to be able to access this exquisite resource for personal growth and healing right in my own community. 

 

Words I would offer to describe my experience of Danielle’s teaching: impassioned, elegant, grounded, attuned, enlightening, powerful, tender, conscious, and loving. 

 

Having taken many workshops over the course of my life - many at Kripalu - I can say unequivocally that this  course equals and surpasses most I’ve had the pleasure of taking.  Whether you are new to yoga or the 12-steps, have physical limitations or have no experience with yogic philosophy, this experience can offer such potential for personal growth and transformation - I cannot recommend it highly enough."  

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-Lisa, MSN, Counselor

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Danielle’s “Eight Limbs…” deepened my understanding of the Steps and opened my door to my Higher Power wider. Danielle provides a rich selection of readings that complement the Big Book’s introduction to the Steps. She also offers daily “home practice" assignments that invite one to embody the Steps in new ways, This combination of spiritual readings and suggestions for ways to include one’s body, or felt sense, in working the Steps, enables a deeper integration of Mind, Body and Spirit. 

 

Many approaches to stepwork point to the threefold nature of addiction, and the threefold nature of recovery on the levels of Body, Mind and Spirit. In Danielle’s course, however, the Body is given more than a passing nod. It is seen, and held, and included, as a powerful means by which the "indwelling Divine" makes itself known to us. By committing to a home practice of meditative movement, or sitting contemplation or yoga i(n the widest sense of that word,) participants find new openings for their Higher Power to come to them*. This is a very difficult process to describe. Often, we begin our approach to HP by cognitive means: after admitting powerlessness, we are invited to conceptualize the Higher Power we yearn for.  Danielle’s course builds on this beautiful process by teaching participants how to develop an embodied home practice that lets Spirit come to us—that allows our right brain, so to speak, guide us to an experience of Spirit Unfolding.

 

If this all sounds like Greek, not to worry! Danielle offers easy to follow instructions, week by week, for how to develop such a home practice. For the person who already has a home practice of embodied contemplation, this course will deepen that practice. For others who are unsure about how to include their body in their spiritual work, this course will offer many helpful exercises and suggestions. I found this course so helpful that I am signing up again. The readings moved me, and the exercises helped me deepen my commitment to moving, literally, as a means of connecting with my Higher Power. Thank you, Danielle, for a very meaningful experience.

 

—a participant in Eight Limbs

 

* or new openings for our awareness of Love working in and through us

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I have found Danielle Gorman’s 8 limbs embodied yoga to be a life changer for me. Her sensitive informational instruction and detailed follow through helped give me the confidence that I needed to unite my body, mind and spirit for the first time in my 73 years of wanting to experience life through my entire body and not just my head.

  The yoga positions and techniques, the reading material, home practice and recordings of the class provided me with multi level opportunities to reinforce this new skill of entire body awareness and experience.

  My spiritual life has been enhanced by working the 12 Steps, Contemplative Prayer practices and Welcoming Prayer.

  I am looking forward to continuing this journey with Danielle in September.

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Respectively Submitted by

Sandra Simpson

ssmusic@maine.re.com

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My experience in this program....transformed how I think and react, about my illnesses, aches and pains, little or big.  In a very linear way, I can link my bodily sensations to specific feelings, fears, exhilaration and not jump to the conclusion that I am sick.  With a power greater than myself, I've found my boundaries and learned to push them when I need to, and have unveiled this power to be intertwined with my spirit, my body, my mind, my community which is growing, and filling my life with treasure.  With these tools, and many more experiences that are harder to put into words, my discoveries in recovery have been proliferate.  In short, this program is a lens of life changer.

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-Jennifer Campbell, current participant