Moving from ME to WE by Allie Middleton

The path of transforming a personal love of yoga into a wider offering as a leadership journey.

As yoga therapy evolves as a professional discipline, we are collecting and sharing experiences and research on how yoga-based practices can assist in personal health challenges. It’s also becoming clear that communities and care systems benefit from integrating yoga into existing healthcare practices. In addition, yoga and embodied presence practices are appreciated in schools, businesses and many other places. We might think of this development in the yoga space as moving from me to we—toward union. New innovations emerging from practitioners who are supported by their personal practice and experimenting with bringing yoga into places you care about.  As our minds and hearts begin to work together amazing innovations and actions become possible. 

atha yoga anushasanam, sometimes translated as, and in the beginning, is the inquiry of yoga

Pantajali, sutra 1.1

How does this potent inquiry of yoga start?  Familiar with the personal healing path of yoga, you may now feel the desire to extend your life force to serve a group or community you care about. The stories and practices collected in the Spring 2019 Issue of Yoga Therapy Today are written by yoga practitioners finding alignment and attainment in sacred duty.  Their powerful healing actions engage in transformative change for themselves and for others.  The stories reveal the creative and courageous gift of saying yes! and following the energy of an inspiration to act. 

Accepting our sacred duty as yogis invites us to engage in something that serves something greater than ourselves. Yoga and contemplative practices may have the power to change the world.

I asked each of these practitioners,  “what is evolving as your true dharma or sacred gift; what did you try, who helped you, what did you learn, where is it leading you now?” We hope the stories in the YTT article will inspire you to try new things as you sense into your potential too!

Embodying creativity and empowering tools for a more positive choice of action lifts us up and help us inspire others too!

What LifeForce Yoga practices help you move toward a sense of possibility and strength – what are your favorite  LFY tools for  transformation?

You can read the article online here.

Allie Middleton

JD, LCSW, E-RYT500, C-IAYT, LFYP-2

Allie has been practicing yoga and meditation for 40 years. After a diverse business career leading innovative start-ups in New York City, she began to commit her life and work to energy healing practices.  As a wilderness trainer, she traveled the world teaching individuals and teams undergoing change to learn and practice deeply integrative and harmonizing ways of living while pursuing their heart’s desire. Knowing that clinical expertise would help her serve others in their personal transformation, she pursued graduate clinical education, taught at the graduate level and became a licensed clinical social worker and master coach and trainer in Neuro-Linguistic Programming. In addition to being a mental health first responder to the 9/11 disaster, she served as the clinical director of a community mental health agency and brought yoga and expressive arts into 12 programs. She worked to develop yoga programming for staff and clients at the New York Office of Mental Health and in peer-run programs, using LifeForce Yoga combined with embodied presence practices from the Presencing Institute. Now, she teaches widely and supports emerging leaders in health care as well as business with mind-body integration coaching and mind-body program development. She blends LifeForce Yoga with other mind-body integration practices in public and private psychiatric rehabilitation settings and is an experienced leader, advocate and conference presenter on the integration of mindfulness and yoga into health care reform. Allie integrates LifeForce Yoga into her leadership development coaching in business settings and in her coaching practice and trainings globally. Allie maintains a private yoga therapy practice and teaches LifeForce Yoga internationally at conferences and retreats. She and her husband live in the Hudson River Valley in New York and enjoy traveling to sacred sites, near and far.

About the Author

Rose Kress

Rose Kress ERYT-500, C-IAYT, YACEP, Owner/Director of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, and author of Awakening Your Inner Radiance with LifeForce Yoga. She directs retreats and training programs on using LifeForce Yoga to manage your mood.

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What People Say

“A client who returned said, "When I came before, you helped me understand and get where I wanted to go. Now you show me yoga practices I use to help myself understand and get where I want to go.” — Sherry Rubin, LCSW, BCD, LFYP, Downingtown, PA
“Yoga Skills for Therapists is the ideal resource for those who want to bring yoga practices into psychotherapy or healthcare. Weintraub, a leader in the field of yoga therapy, offers evidence-based, easy-to-introduce strategies for managing anxiety, improving mood, and relieving suffering. Helpful clinical insights and case examples emphasize safety, trust, and skillful adaptation to the individual, making it easy to apply the wisdom of yoga effectively in the therapeutic context.” — Kelly McGonigal, PhD, author, Yoga for Pain Relief, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Yoga Therapy
“I integrate strategies like mantra tones and pranayama, but above all I invite myself and those I teach to cultivate svadhyaya, to practice self-observation without judgment.” — Barbara Sherman, RYT 200, LFYP, Tucson, AZ
“My patients can now have the same effects as many medications without having to actually take medication!” — Deborah Lubetkin, PSY.D, LFYP, West Caldwell, NJ
“My life is already changed! I will use the tools I learned in my own practice and in my work. I feel safe and seen.” — Susan Andrea Weiner, MA, teacher/expressive arts facilitator, El Cerrito, CA.
I absolutely love this stuff! I have been using it with my clients and I am just finding it to be so incredibly helpful. There seriously something for everything. Although I am not as skilled as I hope to be someday, even at my level of training I’m finding that I am beginning to figure out what to do. It just blows my mind! - Christine Brudnicki, MS, LPC
“I gained perspective of who I am in the world and this will change my life significantly.” — Mary Ford, artist, Southport, CT
“I feel profoundly transformed, both physically and emotionally. The connection between mind, body and spirit was clearly evident to me, but revealed to me through this workshop as an integrally vital link to overall health.” — Nadine Richardson, program manager at rehab agency, Monroe, CT
“This workshop has changed so much — my self-image and my life. My own heart’s desire is 100% clear. I gained tools to help myself and others to live life fully.” — Marcia Siegel, Yoga teacher, therapist, Carlsbad, CA.
“I gained tools for working with my own depression and with my clients’ depressions.” — Robert Sgona, LCSW, RYT, psychotherapist, Yoga teacher, Camden, ME.
“Words do not do justice to all that I learned. This workshop changed my life!” — Jen Nolan, Teacher, Cortland, NY
“I learned lots of ways to reduce the anxiety and depression of my patients and myself.” – Aviva Sinvany-Nubel, PhD, APN, CNSC, RN, psychotherapist, Bridgewater, N.J.
“I came hoping to learn to move past some of the obstacles blocking my creativity. Over the course of this weekend, I feel I’ve gained a certain measure of faith in myself and in my ability to change. I also had some realizations that I believe will be very helpful to me. I feel encouraged. Both the content and presentation of this program were so well-thought out that I can’t think of any way to improve it.” — Andrea Gollin, writer & editor, Miami, FL
“Giving my clients a strategy and permission to quiet their minds and rebalance the sympathetic nervous system has been very beneficial to them and in our work together.” — Sue Dilsworth, PhD, RYT 200, LFYP, Allendale, MI
“I have found the pranayama (breathing practices) especially easy to introduce in a clinical setting. Some people have benefited quickly in unexpected and transformative ways.” — Liz Brenner, LICSW, LFYP, Watertown, MA
“I have gained an incredible opening and clearing of old obstructions. I hope to return to my life and fill this opening with things I love to do and that give me joy!” — Lisa Shine, administrative assistant, Ballston Lake, NY
“I have been reminded that I am not on this path alone, that others are sharing the journey that sometimes seems so difficult. I have also been reminded of the importance of daily practice and I will do that. The whole program has been an incredible experience for me. Thank you!” — Lorraine Plauth, retired teacher, Voorheesville, NY
“I have found the LFYP training to be incredibly useful in giving people specific tools to use in maintaining physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual balance, and further opening their intuitive abilities.” — Nancy Windheart, RYT-200, LFYP, Reiki Master, Animal communication teacher, Prescott, AZ
“I utilize the LFY techniques in both a class room setting and one-on-one environment. The skills have infused my teachings with compassion, mindfulness, and awareness.” — Kat Larsen, CYT, LFYP
“I began a fantasy during the meditation exercise... almost as if I’d been there. It’s now an on-going work of fiction.” — Serian Strauss, Tanzania
“This program changed my life in a significant way. It helped me connect with the spirit which is something you can’t get from psychotherapy and medication.” – G. W., artist, Pittsburgh, PA
“I have gained a softer heart, more receptive mind, and tools to enrich both personal and professional aspects of my life.” – Regina Trailweaver, LICSW, clinical social worker, Hancock, VT.
“My personal practice will change, as well as my yoga classes. I have a better understanding of yoga!” — Andrea Gattuso, RYT, Yoga Teacher, Hackettstown, N.J.
“This workshop helped me rededicate my energies and begin to work through some of the blocks I’ve felt creatively.” — Steve Mark, college professor, New Haven, CT
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