STICK WITH THE WINNERS! –
June 10, 2025 – Brian Hyman is the author of Recovery with Yoga: Supportive Practices for Transcending Addiction (Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner). He is a yoga and meditation teacher, recovery activist, speaker, and father. He’s taught yoga at Cliffside Malibu since 2012, and he’s been sober since 2009. Brian is a member of Yoga Alliance and International Association of Yoga Therapists, and he’s a Legacy Ambassador for Lululemon. Brian has contributed popular guided meditations and courses to Insight Timer, where his offerings have received more than one million plays.
Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?
A. Drug of choice: Alcohol. Sobriety Date: November 28, 2009.
Q. What do you like most about 12-step meetings?
A. The camaraderie and open-heartedness, and when I get to see, hear, and feel what I like to call the Three H’s: Honesty, Humility, and Humanity.
Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice, or a wicked twist of fate?
A. From the personal experience of someone who drank for nearly two decades and now has more than 15 years of continuous sobriety, I believe it’s a disease that becomes awakened when certain circumstances – such as family history, environment, neglect, abandonment, trauma, and similar causes and conditions – come together and the person who is suffering from these types of things seeks release so they reach for drugs or alcohol, sex or shopping, gambling or eating, among additional addictive behaviors. I believe we engage in these types of dependencies to escape the present moment or reality as it is; we want to check out and forget about life; we want to quiet our mind. We may feel that we do not have any other options or solutions other than to obliterate our consciousness so that is what happens for those with substance use disorders, mental health issues, codependency challenges, etc. And I also believe that once an alcoholic drinks or an addict uses or acts out, the phenomenon of craving is indeed induced and we become powerless and life becomes unmanageable – until we find a spiritual solution that incorporates the unity of mental, emotional, and physical sobriety.
