Yancy Scot Schwartz took his first class in the Dominican Republic while on a skate tour. He initially loved yoga solely because it improved his skateboarding. In 2008, at the encouragement of the owner, Yancy attended the Yoga to the People 200 hour Teacher Certification. He was then sent out to open and build Yoga to the People in San Francisco in 2009. In 2011 he moved back to New York where he met Sri Dharma Mittra. He completed the 500 hour Life of a Yogi Teacher training in 2013. Later in the year he attended the 50 hour Rocket Certification at Asta Yoga in San Francisco.

Yancy’s personal practice includes meditation and pranayama 5 days a week. He also regularly attends classes at the studios he teaches at, or from renown teachers in the L.A. area.

Yancy hopes that through the yoga practices and techniques you will not be bound by the body or the mind.

“You are not your body, you are not your mind.” -Sri Dharma Mittra

Here are Yancy’s SHAIR Podcast interview highlights:

Omar: Yancy, tell us a little bit about what’s going on in your life today, your hobbies, exercise. Take us into your normal daily routine, including recovery.

Yancy: My normal routine ... I wake up, have a little bit of coffee ... A little bit, not too much. I look at social media, like a couple of things, get that little bit of coffee in me. I do a meditative practice for about thirty, forty five minutes, which involves breathing exercises, chanting, and all sitting in a - if you understand, if you're a yogi - lotus position, which ... It's pretty intense. Once you get used to it, it's pretty good.

After that, I go teach a class. I get on my little scooter, go by the beach, teach some yoga classes at the studios. In between classes, I'm either skating or messing around doing yoga on the beach. There's a skate park over there. I teach my last class and then I might take a class and then I bail and go back to Hollywood on the little scooter, go home, eat dinner. That's it. Simple.

Omar: It sounds very simple. Now, how do you maintain your recovery program? Do you have a recovery program? Do you hit meetings? I mean, how is that integrated into your life?

Yancy: I think my recovery is doing my meditations and my pranayama ... Man, I got hit hard when I was dabbling with stuff. Yeah, I stopped pretty cold, but there's always a little relapse here and there or not knowing, I suppose, what to do or how to do it. I was slow ... I got off hard drugs. I was still drinking here and there and so that took a little while. After I got the yoga ... Yoga is my recovery program. Just going to yoga. That's it.

Omar: Well, I'll tell you one thing is for sure, when you're doing thirty to forty five minutes of meditation in lotus position every day, that's pretty intense.

Yancy: Yeah. Now, it's pretty normal.

Omar: I was just thinking about being in lotus position. First of all, I can't get into lotus position and then, even sitting with my legs crossed for more than five minutes becomes so, so uncomfortable. My wife's a yoga instructor. I get to watch her bend and fold and she makes it look so effortless. I commend you ...

Yancy: Well, it took me three years of just sitting half lotus. Three years, man. Three years to sit in full lotus comfortable. Well, three years, so I've been sitting in lotus for three years to be very comfortable.

Omar: Well, that's a testament to dedication, to patience. It comes when it comes. You just keep plugging away and plugging away and moving forward. You stay vigilant until it finally happens. That's a lot of what my wife tells me, too. She's just like, "Look, it doesn't matter how far you get. You're going to get a little bit further every day and your body will tell you. It'll help you along." I should probably do a little bit more of it, but I don't. I watch her do it and I could see how much she loves it.

Omar: All right, so tell us when is your anniversary date and how long you have clean?

Yancy: I have clean ... Man, it's been so long.

Omar: Good. Awesome.

Yancy: It's been a long time. I would say ... What year was the Northridge ... Do you remember that earthquake?

Omar: That earthquake in Northridge? Dude. I mean, that's a long time.

Yancy: Yeah.

Omar: Man, maybe ... Is that over twenty years?

Yancy: At Northridge, I was out of my mind crazy. A little bit after Northridge maybe ... Whatever that time is. Probably, I'd say, nineteen years clean ... Well, there's some relapses. There was some drinking, but hard drugs? Clean. Nineteen years pretty Sobi-Wan Kenobi.

Omar: Well, it says here Northridge earthquake was in 1994.

Yancy: I'd say I was clean about '95. Before that ... I grew up skateboarding in New York City, so there was a lot of corruption and I got roped in. It was out of control.

Sober Señorita Kelly Fitzgerald joins us on The SHAIR Podcast today.  Kelly grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in a small town called Royersford. From as far back she can remember she has always had an addictive personality.  She lived to party and was branded the “social butterfly” in high school.  Kelly attended college at Millersville University in central Pennsylvania and earned 2 undergraduate degrees while playing 4 seasons of NCAA Division II soccer, as well as establishing her drinking career.  Binge drinking and blackouts became the norm as she falls deeper and deeper into denial about just how bad her drinking habits had become.

After graduation she moved to Cancun, Mexico where her alcoholism morphed into full blown alcoholic debauchery. In May of 2013 Kelly took her last drink and began her journey into sobriety.  In 2014 she started blogging on here website Sober Señorita where she made her first official blog post about sobriety – the post heard round the world!

Today Kelly is the Sober Señorita and her goal is to let others know through her own story that help is available for substance use disorders and that recovery is possible. By sharing her story with the world she hopes to break the stigma of addiction and let others know you can live a life beyond your wildest dreams.

Jeff Tabler joins us on The SHAIR Podcast today. He recently celebrated his 1 year Sobriety Anniversary 2 days before St. Patty’s day.

He’s a prominent member of the SHAIR Private Facebook Group and very active in his local recovery community. But prior to joining 12 step recovery Jeff battled with severe alcoholism that lead to 5 DUI's, incarceration, and the loss of his wife. Join us now and hear the whole story.

Clean Date: March 15, 2015

Omar: Let me ask you this, Jeff. How do you maintain your spiritual condition, that conscious contact with a higher power?

Jeff: Prayer. Prayer and meditation. Every morning I get up. People say get up and hit your knees. I just don't. I don't know. I'm not the kind of guy. I can talk to God as a man, and I feel like I don't have to get up and literally ... I get that maybe it's figurative for people, sometimes. I just lay in bed, I open my eyes, I think through my day, and I ask my higher power, I ask God. I say, "What would you have me do today?"

Then I carry on throughout my day and if I start to question what's going on, I stop and try to center myself. I don't need to take fifteen, twenty minutes to meditate, either. If I need to stop for thirty seconds, a minute and a half, just to stop and say what's my motivation here? Am I doing this out of necessity, or am I doing this as an attention seeking behavior? I can usually figure that answer out right away.

My friend Mary joins us today on The SHAIR Podcast. At the time of this interview Mary was 5 months pregnant and now 8 months pregnant at the time we are launched this interview. So I hit her up on Facebook real fast to see how the last 3 months have been.

Since the interview Mary has been working on getting LCDP certified (licensed chemical dependency professional) to further her substance Abuse treatment career and has received her Tobacco Cessation Certification as well.

My good friend Andy, Mary’s fiancé, spends months away from home as a merchant marine which has allowed her to accomplish to big mile stones during this absence. So in a nut shell Mary has basically, in her words not mine, been doing lots of training for work, is getting ready for maternity leave, getting really fat (again Mary’s words), and more importantly getting ready for our AA baby as she puts it, “We’re too Blessed to be Stressed”

Andy…Mary…I wish you all the love and happiness in the world and I look forward to see all the beautiful baby pictures, HP Baby!

Clean Date: June 23rd, 2014

Here are Mary’s SHAIR Podcast interview highlights:

The SHAIR podcast YouTube channelOmar: Now, listeners, just a little history, actually. Mary and I met because she is the fiancée of a good friend of mine and she had come down to Costa Rica. They were touring Costa Rica. My wife and I took them out to dinner and Mary told us that she was pregnant.

How far along were you at the time when you were in Costa Rica?

Mary: I was about seven weeks, so I was really sick and pretty miserable ... It was good. It was a good trip.

Omar: Well, you were a trooper because you didn't let my wife and I see you sweat.

Mary: Yeah. It's all about putting on your game face, you know?

Omar: Oh, absolutely. I get it ... You were just telling me right now before we started about how tough it's been these last few months because your fiance's been gone. Tell us a little bit about how that's been.

Mary: Yeah. Well, Andy is a merchant marine. For people who don't know what that is, they work on these big cargo ships that go deliver huge things across the ocean from different countries. He works in the States, so he's in Alaska. He's been gone since Thanksgiving and it's February 7th now, so he comes back in two weeks. It's hard because he hasn't been around. I've been kind of doing this early pregnancy thing by myself, which is a little bit challenging, especially in recovery.

Omar: No, I can only imagine. The main reason why I reached out to you is because I was on Facebook and I was reading this post you put up. It just cracked me up. It totally cracked me up. Obviously, I am not a woman, I'll never be pregnant, I'll never get it, all right? It was kind of a cool thing to read. I knew Mary's in recovery, so I was like, "I'm going to reach out to her because I want to get her on the show and discuss what it's like to be pregnant and sober." It can't be that easy.

Mary: No, it's definitely has a whole new range of challenges to it. I compare it a lot to early recovery in terms of emotional rawness. There's all sorts of crazy stuff going on, so it's kind of like experiencing something new all over again.

Omar: Here are the rules that you're supposed to have for dealing with a pregnant woman, right?

Mary: Yeah.

Rule 1. Never tell a pregnant woman she looks tired, especially on a Friday. Okay?

Rule 2. Never comment on how much weight a pregnant woman has or has not gained. Ever.

Mary: No.

Rule 3. If you are going to make a comment about a pregnant woman's appearance, a simple "You look great" will do the trick.

Rule 4. No uterus, no opinion unless you are the actual creator of the baby.

Rule 5. If you tell a pregnant woman she looks tired and she gives you attitude, do not immediately respond with "Wow. Pregnancy hormones, much?"

"I can't believe I actually have to post something about this. For all of my friends who have refrained from unsolicited belly touches and commenting about my appearance, you are the real MVPs. Sincerely, a very sassy pregnant Mary."

Omar: Does it sound more funny being read back to you?

Mary: It kind of does, but actually, all those things were based on real actual experiences that I've had so far in this pregnancy. People have actually said things about each of those rules that have made me make that list.

Lauren Yoder started writing poems in grade school and wanted someday to write a book. Unfortunately like so many other teenagers, she got introduced to drugs and alcohol and began writing many depressing, lonely, and sometimes suicidal poems. Ultimately Lauren hits rock bottom with drugs and alcohol and was left with two choices go to a treatment facility or lose everything.

Her family gave her the ultimatum that would change her life forever. In February of 2014 she flew 1900 miles to California to live with a bunch of alcoholics and druggies, staying there for 45 days. She has been sober every day since, one day at a time.

Since that time Lauren has now written two books, From the Weeds: a collection of poems, and100 Days(Sober) a book of journal entries from her first 100days sober. Joins us now as Lauren takes us into her journey of recovery!

Clean Date: February 10,2014