Tommy Rosen on the Alignment Between Yoga and 12-StepTommy Rosen on the Alignment Between Yoga and 12-Step
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Tommy Rosen and A.J. Daulerio talk frankly about long-term recovery, yoga, 12-step work and the role of codependency and anxiety in addiction. The conversation focuses on practical spiritual tools, gratitude and everyday habits that can support a more satisfying sober life.
1:16:45•26 Aug 2026
Yoga, 12 Steps and Late-Night Cereal: Tommy Rosen on Upgrading Recovery
Episode Overview
- Addiction can be seen as learned behaviour, which means new training and habits can support change.
- Yoga-informed recovery offers body-based tools (movement and breath) that complement 12-step work.
- Recognising baseline anxiety or disconnection is key to understanding why addictive patterns appear.
- Gratitude and complaint can’t coexist; reducing complaint helps reclaim personal power in recovery.
- Simple daily practices—prayer, meditation, fun, and mindful eating—can strengthen long-term sobriety.
“"If you can train yourself into it, you can train yourself out of it."”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation between host A.J. Daulerio and Recovery 2.0 founder Tommy Rosen brings together yoga mats, 12-step wisdom, late-night cereal cravings and a very honest look at long-term recovery. Tommy talks candidly about his history with multiple addictions – drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, food, technology, even procrastination – and how he now sees addiction less as a fixed "disease" and more as something trained into us over time.
His core message is simple and hopeful: "If you can train yourself into it, you can train yourself out of it." You’ll hear them unpack the difference between abstinence and real recovery, including Tommy’s "codependent bottom" years into sobriety and A.J.’s shift from white-knuckling to building a daily practice with journalling, meditation and prayer.
Yoga enters as a practical tool rather than something airy-fairy: Tommy explains how movement, breathwork and the ethics of yoga line up with the 12 steps, helping to shift brainwave states, calm baseline anxiety and support a "return to the self". There’s plenty of humour too. A.J. jokes about wanting to join or start a cult; Tommy reframes "cult" as culture and describes yoga as the anti-cult: don’t believe anything, test it in your own experience.
They swap prayers, talk about gratitude versus complaint, and share concrete practices like daily sunrise/sunset rituals, AA and ACA prayers, and Tommy’s Recovery 2.0 prayer that thanks the universe for both the joys and challenges of life. For anyone wondering what to do when 10 years sober doesn’t feel like "enough", this episode offers grounded spiritual tools and very practical ideas, right down to handling 1 a.m. Captain Crunch raids. Could your recovery use a loving "upgrade" too?
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