When Lou Prendergast attended her first yoga class she "ran away" from her mat, but now the yoga teacher is hoping to help people living with addiction through the power of the ancient posture practice.
In 2009, Lou was living with Lupus, an autoimmune condition that left her with painful, swollen joints. Her son recommended she try a Bikram yoga class after his teacher suggested it could help with joint pain.
But half way through the class, where a series of yoga poses are performed in a heated room, she "literally ran out of the door".
READ MORE: Learning construction skills lays foundation for future of ex-offenders
She said: "It was a physical and emotional response. The class was physically challenging and I didn't understand what was happening, I was having anxious thoughts and not breathing properly which was causing that feeling of overwhelm. It was all a bit too much and I fled."
Lou didn't give up on yoga though, finding her way back to the mat and qualifying as a yoga teacher six years later, and now the owner of the BodyMind Studio in St Georges Cross, Glasgow is bringing the first ever addiction recovery model of yoga to Scotland.
Yoga of 12-Step Recovery (Y12SR) is a therapeutic style of yoga designed to address the effects of addiction and trauma. Created by American yoga therapist and former drug addict Nikki Myers, the programme is modelled on the 12-step meetings used to support people living with substance abuse.
It is a vitally needed extra tool in enabling people living with a range of addictions to recover, according to Lou, who will facilitate the first class next week.
She said: “Yoga skills are transferable to everyday life. It just gets people out of their bodies who have maybe been too much in their heads.”
Practicing yoga has helped Lou overcome her own difficulties after a turbulent childhood.
She said: “My sister and I were brought up in Glasgow in the 60s. There were alot of drugs around - my parents were a bit bohemian and maybe went a bit too far. They might have forgotten to feed you.
“It was definitely unstable beginnings and I think that had a big impact on me. I had to kind of find out who I was and build my own relationship with myself in ways that I probably didn’t get to do as a child.”
Lou has secured Big Lottery Funding to help people with any kind of addiction, from sex to substance abuse, for a year through her free twice-weekly, two-hour classes.
During the Y12SR classes, participants will gather in a circle, listen to some ground rules and share their experiences for an hour before practicing a series of gentle postures tailored by Lou in the moment based on what the group has shared.
Lou already works with people in residential rehabilitation in Glasgow, as well as others accessing drug and alcohol outreach and support services.
Y12SR is not just for people recovering from addiction but for their friends and families who support them. There is no religious aspect to the therapy but a focus on spirituality - whatever that means to each individual.
Lou said: “It’s spiritual and completely inclusive so people of any, none, and every religion can take part. It’s just about realising there’s something that’s bigger than yourself."
Lou’s style of teaching Y12SR is an invitation to participants. She is mindful that people suffering from trauma, as many living with addiction are, can react negatively to commands. She said: “The teaching is not coercive. Nobody has to do anything they don’t want to do. It’s all about choice.”
Poses are held for a little longer than in other yoga classes, so that people learn how to ride out any slight discomfort.
Lou said: “The idea is that you’re teaching someone how to stay clean, that they don’t have to reach for the substance when the going gets tough.”
READ MORE: SPRING social prescription initiative: how fresh air saved my life
She hopes that people in recovery will eventually go through Y12SR training and facilitate their own groups across the city.
She said: “I can imagine recovery cafes and classes in community centres where people pay what they can. Nobody should ever not be able to do it because they don’t have any money.
“We’d have Y12SR sessions in places that have issues and people will come and they’ll do yoga instead of going to the pub.”
To find out more about Y12SR contact Lou through her website or on Facebook.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here