Craig Hodgson: From Homeless Addict to Forrest Yoga Teacher

Craig Hodgson: From Homeless Addict to Forrest Yoga Teacher

Craig Hodgson delivered his first ever public yoga class at an event at Gateshead Leisure Centre for World Mental Health Day last year. He represented Tyneside & Northumberland MIND, where he volunteers on the ‘Get Set to Go’ project. A year on, as World Mental Health Day comes around again, I’m attending Craig’s yoga class at the Gateshead Clubhouse, which is a mental health community hub run entirely by its members. Craig also volunteers at Gateshead Evolve, an integrated drug and alcohol service for adults in Gateshead, delivering yoga sessions for both clients and staff. One of the staff, Wayne, remembers Craig from many years ago, when he was working at the Tyneside Foyer and Craig was a troubled young man – homeless and addicted to hard drugs.

How times have changed.

How things have changed for Craig Hodgson, the 21 year old lad who was thrown out of his home in a small village near Durham by his dad after overdosing on heroin and fled to the streets of the busy nearby city of Newcastle.

My mam had died of breast cancer when I was 21. I’d been a pretty normal lad up til then. Smoking and taking recreational drugs since I was 12, yes, but good at football…playing for the District and the County. I was popular then and had a girlfriend, but when my mam died, everything fell apart and I got heavy into drugs. I withdrew. I had nothing. I came to the city vulnerable and scared and alone.

It was through the Tyneside Foyer and Crisis Skylight that Craig Hodgson came across yoga teacher Jambo Truong. Jambo was volunteering and delivering classes. Jambo saw something in Craig. Craig was drawn to Jambo. Still turning to heroin and cannabis to get through the day, Craig attended a yoga and meditation class. He couldn’t sit still for more than a few seconds, but he loved the energy of the practice. He had no idea what it was doing to him. He couldn’t begin to put it into words. He just knew it was having a good overall effect, physically and socially. And so he went back to class each week, to this very physical practice – a blend of different styles of yoga that Jambo created to help with addictions and mental health issues – and to this guy who had a gift of recognising things in people and could see the good energy in Craig.

By 2005, Craig was looking to bring about change in his life. He tried to get rehab but it wasn’t available to him. He became reliant on the benzodiazepine (Valium) as a result of crippling anxiety and methadone to treat his heroin addiction. Jambo Truong underwent further training, travelling to the US. Craig was in and out of services, was not practising yoga and life was pretty chaotic. Craig’s dad died, having been drinking heavily since Craig’s mam had died.

Jambo returned to the area in 2009 and a year later, persuaded Craig to attend his public yoga classes at the Newcastle Buddhist Centre. Craig felt totally out of place. He was paranoid, anxious and sweated profusely. And yet he came to see that nobody was left out, there was a great sense of community.

Having trained as an yoga teacher in 2005, Jambo became a Forrest yoga teacher in 2011. Craig Hodgson was attracted to Forrest yoga and found it helped him enormously in his life.

Forrest yoga is a modern form of yoga based on the traditions of Hatha and is evolving all the time. Jambo’s class had a new vibrant energy and I loved the way the classes were sequenced and taught. The feeling I’d get after class kept me coming back for more. It was like a new drug, but a healthy one. Yoga has massive healing properties, allowing you to tap into the physical and emotional holding patterns held within. For me yoga connects me to that which I numb away from, and awareness of the area is the first step to healing that place of suffering, whether it is physical, mental or emotional. I’ve learnt over the years from practising and my teacher training that it’s usually the emotions that contribute to mental and physical deviations such as doubt or posture as an example. But for the most part in my drug addiction back then, it just kept me from reaching for more drugs, and led me to gradually feeling my body and emotions again.

Craig began to feel a part of something. With the support of Jambo, who was popular among addiction services in the city for helping the people who needed it the most, Craig was welcomed into a community of yoga practitioners in the North East and hence yoga became an everyday necessity for him. He discovered that when we connect to ourselves and our spirit, it allows us to connect to others and feel a part of something bigger.

This is community.

And when the time was right, he knew he needed to get clean. He would do whatever it took to free himself from his drug dependency.

Two years ago, Craig Hodgson finally received appropriate psychotherapeutic intervention. He spent an intensive two weeks detoxing in Huntercombe hospital, a tough ask after a 15 year script of Valium and opiate substitutes.

My yoga practice and community helped me so much at that time. Yoga and breathing got me through each day. I’m certain that having several years of yoga behind me helped me heal faster. I’ve been clean for just over two years now. I’ve got my own flat. I’ve attended courses in massage and music production. It’s taking time, but every day, everything settles a little more. I understand what my triggers are, and I’m triggering less and less. I couldn’t have done it without yoga in my life.

During that time in hospital, Craig had to work on a five year ‘goal’ plan. His five year goal was to be a massage therapist and yoga teacher. Soon after he left hospital, he went away on a 28 day Forrest Yoga Teacher Training in Peterborough. There were sessions from 7:30am to 6:30pm every single day. The first weekend there, Craig had to stand up in front of approximately 30 people and teach three poses. He’d always had trouble talking to people and here he was, in front of a room of people, about to teach yoga for the first time.

It was canny triggering but so rewarding. The stage was set so you could step into a power you’ve never quite had the opportunity to access. The training was life-changing and definitely speeded up my healing process. Ana Forrest, creatrix of Forrest yoga, is so intuitive and through tuning into life’s wondrous energy has learnt to see things many others don’t. When you read her book ‘Fierce Medicine’, you can begin to understand the healing process she went through and how she dealt with it. I learnt how to open up and be authentic through the ceremony and truth-speaking.

Craig remembers a special moment with Ana Forrest……

One incident in particular is when Ana assisted me and applied pressure in my neck area, it was intense. This was stagnant and tight tissues from a lack of truth speaking and letting things go.

Now Craig is offering yoga sessions on a voluntary basis at Evolve and at the Clubhouse. He sees it as delivering a healing practice to those who need it the most. These people can relate to him because he’s been through it himself. He’s completely honest about the journey that he is on. It’s still early days. He’s happy to start with these really basic yoga classes for beginners. Attendance is unpredictable as many of his clients have chaotic lifestyles. He simply focuses on the body with whoever turns up in a class designed with basic moves to prevent injury and relieve tensions. He focuses on posture and supporting the lower back and relaxing the neck. He’s gaining confidence and experience all the time.

Craig maintains a daily yoga practice at home alone in his flat – at least one hour everyday. He has a vast experience of sequencing, of knowing which poses work well together. He feels for them in his own body; his body cues them as it knows what it wants and needs.

As we separate, I ask Craig exactly what yoga has meant to him in his life. He’s momentarily lost for words. He can’t find the words to adequately describe the transformational effect of yoga on his own life.

To me, it’s a necessity. I cannot imagine life without it. Yoga’s changed my life 100%.

Emotional and physical trauma occurred throughout my upbringing and drugs disconnected me from those traumas and society. Mental health has been prevalent as a result of numbing out with illicit substances for many years. Yoga made me aware of this and allowed me to sit in my skin more comfortably. It took a long time. Practising intensely for many years made it easier, much easier and healthier for me to connect to myself.

Disconnection is the key, whether from society or emotions. Drug addiction is just a symptom of that which can end up having a hold on you. It’s deep-rooted trauma which is blocked out with mind- and body- numbing drugs and which needs attention to be able to break free from that suffering. Forrest yoga has changed a lot of destructive aspects of my life and now I focus more on the ability to tap into what ‘core tension’ I’ve been storing in my body. It truly creates the space needed to heal and be much kinder to yourself and the world around you, as well as brightening your spirit and view of the world.

I was going to say ‘I’m not that special’ (old habitual thoughts) but in fact we are all very special. There are many others out there like me whose lives have been turned around by having a yoga practice, and there are a lot more of us waiting to go through that turning point of making the change.

I still have a lot of work to do. We all do. But today, I’m clean and happy and feel as good as I ever have, and I will always thank my yoga practice for that. When you go on the mat and take time out to go inside, your spirit really does communicate to you. This allows you to step into a brighter and more wiser version of yourself, not just on the mat but off the mat. We can then be much more compassionate to the outside world.

Craig Hodgson is living proof that yoga can change lives. He’s a great reminder to all of us that as we commit to our yoga practice, our lives will be transformed. I had the privilege of attending Craig’s yoga session at the Gateshead Clubhouse. It was a deeply moving and inspiring experience. Each person in that small room was there with a hunger to learn. They asked questions, they focused on each pose, they made the adjustments Craig suggested. Craig moved among us, gently adjusting and suggesting modifications to meet the needs of each individual. He offered us an authentic, thoughtful practice. At the end, there was a lightness of being. Tension had lifted. You could see it in each face. One lady was explaining to me about her stress and high blood pressure which she believes yoga can help with. She always feel so much better after each session.

And so we wish Craig well as he continues to move forward in his own particular life journey and we look forward to catching up with him again in the future.

To find out more about Forrest yoga, then visit www.forrestyoga.com
To find out more about Jambo Truong, visit http://www.jambodragon.com and www.yogabodyworkers.com

To hear Jambo Truong talking about Mindful Exercise, you can watch his TEDx Talk at https://youtu.be/EpQFq9NtR1k

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