11th Step Yoga is the result of my relapse after 20 years of sobriety. Today, I have 43 years of recovery. I learned from my relapse that in sobriety—being simply clean and sober— alcoholism and addiction disease progresses. The mental illness of addiction gets worse, never better when we just put the drug down. In recovery, however, when we return to the truth of ourselves in a daily practice of spiritual principles directly related to healing this mental illness, we get progressively better. When I came back to the 12 Step program of AA, after a year of pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization: Arrests, wreckage, destruction of my children’s safety and security—I could not hear or practice the steps, community and service. In reading the Big Book I came upon this line “the main problem of the alcoholic centers in the mind.” But it wasn’t just that, it was deeper. It was my brain that was being destroyed. In a moment of clarity and inspiration, I realized that I needed to backdoor the mystical steps of recovery in my total body, with my fellows. It was Anthony Benenati, owner of City Yoga in Santa Monica, who provided me the space on Saturday mornings at 7:30 to create the first 12 Step meeting with a yoga format. It was with a brave group of HIV positive alcoholic and crystal meth addicts that we set to. I developed a series of postures, breath work and meditation directed like a missile at the brain disease in the gut and skull—the most important part of this was the 12 Step theme of each meeting. Wondrous things happened. Healing happened. We grew, we learned, we all began to get better, the worst of us began to shine. I trained an incredible group of recovering alcoholic yogis—continuing this for 16 years to today. Lives were literally saved. Today 11SY is an open meeting. All are welcome. For free. It has a life of its own. May we bow, may we live in elevation, contented recovery and service. Love, Abbie