"Yoga saved my life by getting me off heroin and taught me to stop hating myself"
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"When I was 12 years of age, peer pressure saw me start using drugs & alcohol just to fit in with the people around me
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When I got to the age of about 16 I started using harder drugs like cocaine & other party drugs. I was always a very angry & depressed boy for as long as I can remember & drugs were my way of escaping from what I thought was my reality
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Then at about 22 I started using OxyContin and Heroin. And my life really started to spiral downhill. About a year of using it got bad enough where I went to a Christian rehab for a year to get sober
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That was when I encountered my first experience with the spiritual realm. I came out of rehab & I was clean for a very short period of time before I started using again. Then I got into a relationship & was using on an occasional basis but all my self hate & anger was still bottled up inside me
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But during this relationship I came across meditation and started reading up on trying to have a better understanding of my mind and why I feel the way I feel. After this relationship ended I was still doing heroin, not on a daily basis, but I was still using
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Through my reading & research on meditation I started my personal yoga practice and really dove head first into the asanas . . The physical practice of yoga, the asanas, are what saved my life & got me off heroin
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But since I was only doing asanas I wanted to know more of this practice we call yoga & started learning pranayama and studying the yoga sutras. Through this practice of asana & pranayama I was able to let go of all my past self hate & start to truly love myself & love everything around me .
I just started to be present for the first time in my life
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Jump ahead 2 1/2 years into my yoga practice & I made my way to India to train as a teacher & gain all the knowledge of yoga I possibly can
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The only imitations of true bliss we have are the ones we set in our own mind .
Thank you yoga ❤
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Namsate, Daniel 🙏"
