Maureen Benkovich (00:01.081)
Welcome back to another episode of Sober Fit Life. I have a question for you guys. What happens when your yoga mat becomes your path to freedom? Well, we're about to find out today. My guest is Heron Dixon. And Heron Dixon went from using alcohol to numb his pain to discovering deep healing through yoga, mindfulness and the 12-step approach in yoga. So he's going to talk to us about that today. He's a yoga teacher, a facilitator certified in the Y12SR.
or yoga of 12-step recovery. And he's passionate about the intersection of sobriety, mindfulness and movement. I would love for Heron to start with telling us his story. Basically, Heron, tell us a little bit about yourself and when you realized that alcohol was no longer serving you and what shifted for you and how did you transform and make these changes to become the yoga instructor that you are today.
Hearon DIckson (00:54.478)
Okay. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I love talking about all of these subjects, meaning sobriety, yoga, meditation, mindfulness, healthy living. So I'm 63 years old. This month, August 31st, I will celebrate 10 years of continuous sobriety. Big milestone.
Maureen Benkovich (01:11.82)
birthday!
Maureen Benkovich (01:17.839)
Congrats. Yes.
Hearon DIckson (01:19.022)
But what that means, of course, everybody on here can do math. That means I didn't get sober till I was 53. I didn't have a moment of clarity on that. Very candidly, I was worried about my drinking for years before I ever did anything about it. Yes.
Maureen Benkovich (01:40.921)
And you were in the corporate world, right? Can you tell us a little bit, is that where the drinking culture really ramped up?
Hearon DIckson (01:47.31)
You know, mean, Mari and I was a partier. I was the life of every party. Last one to go home from every party. That did carry over into my work life. I had some pretty big jobs in the corporate world and responsible for a lot of salespeople, so a lot of entertaining. Interestingly,
Maureen Benkovich (01:51.626)
Mm-hmm. I get that. was too. Mm-hmm. Me too. Yeah. Yep.
Hearon DIckson (02:18.094)
no employer ever said anything to me about my drinking being problematic until after I had told them that I had quit drinking and I was getting sober.
Maureen Benkovich (02:31.549)
What kind of response did you get then? What did people say? I'm curious.
Hearon DIckson (02:35.406)
The person I was working for at the time and in the off chance she happens to hear this, she was phenomenal and very supportive. But when I told her that I was getting sober, she said, yeah, well, your drinking at functions and whatnot has been a topic of conversation among the higher levels.
Maureen Benkovich (02:56.6)
And were you surprised by that?
Hearon DIckson (03:01.15)
I was surprised I had not been told that before. I was not surprised with the feedback itself because it was certainly was true. I was very, and at that point I was pretty vulnerable, right? I was getting sober. I'd been drinking pretty heavily for decades. So I was accepting, I was pretty vulnerable. I was pretty accepting of that feedback. Yeah. But it was, I think it back.
Maureen Benkovich (03:08.107)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (03:22.05)
It was kind of validation that you're doing the right thing that you're, yeah.
Hearon DIckson (03:29.374)
specifically to your question, drinking was no longer serving me. It was much more of a problem than it was a joy. I still have on my phone, this is just shocking to me and it's amazing and you might have experienced this yourself. The rear view mirror is there's a lot of clarity in the rear view mirror, right? Okay. Hindsight. I have on my phone in the notes.
Maureen Benkovich (03:30.5)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (03:58.255)
on the app phone, notes app on my phone, excuse me, a list that I was keeping of bad things that happened when I was drinking. And it is a long, long list over not a very long period of time. So you look at this now, I pulled this up in preparation for this call, thinking about it. And I'm like, holy cow, it was the first episode, not enough to tell me, right?
Maureen Benkovich (04:01.442)
Hehehe.
Maureen Benkovich (04:25.348)
Right?
Hearon DIckson (04:27.566)
But I think a lot of your listeners probably might be going through that or have recently gone through that. Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (04:33.092)
Well, let me hang there for a second because I'm interested. When did you start this list? Were you still drinking? You started keeping this list or? Okay. So that's when you were going through the awareness process and starting to think, I got to change this.
Hearon DIckson (04:38.87)
yeah. Hell yeah.
Hearon DIckson (04:45.486)
Yes. So the term I use when I'm talking to people generally is seeking. I was seeking, right? How many times did I fill out the questionnaire online? Do I have a drinking problem? And today I was four yeses and last Tuesday I was three yeses and next Thursday I'll be six. Right. I mean, how many times did I do that? Unbelievable. And again, here I would say to anybody listening who might be seeking.
Maureen Benkovich (04:50.2)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (05:06.05)
Yeah, because we could always alter it the way we answered it too.
Hearon DIckson (05:14.92)
listen to that voice in your head, right? if, you're wondering that that alone means something. yeah. So, but that was, I went through, I don't want to belabor this. I went through periods of that from, you know, early thirties to when I finally stopped. went through periods of that kind of seeking. but just prior to finally deciding to do something about it.
Maureen Benkovich (05:22.87)
Exactly. Don't ignore it.
Maureen Benkovich (05:32.802)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (05:38.872)
Me too.
Hearon DIckson (05:44.758)
It was, I mean, it was a daily torturous thing of beating myself up. A lot of regret, lot of shame.
Maureen Benkovich (05:53.795)
Was there fear? I know for me, had fear. Who would I be if I didn't drink?
Hearon DIckson (06:02.968)
What an interesting question. I don't think I was afraid of that. But a lot of shame and the irony of that in my particular case, of course, everybody thinks they're unique, but I think the irony of that shame in my case is there's a lot of alcoholism in my family.
Maureen Benkovich (06:15.256)
Yes.
Hearon DIckson (06:31.022)
And there's a lot of recovery from alcoholism in my family. So it's not like I would be the first one to, but I still just had tremendous shame. And also was afraid, go ahead, sorry, go ahead.
Maureen Benkovich (06:37.262)
Right.
Maureen Benkovich (06:42.262)
Yeah, because, and I say this, I say this all the time and it's important to recognize we have been conditioned to feel shame because with alcohol different than every other drug, the onus is put on the person. Not the fact that you're drinking an addictive drug every day, but that if you can't drink an addictive drug responsibly, you have a problem. And that's been clever marketing and conditioning over the years. So of course we feel shame when we think, you know,
Hearon DIckson (06:56.034)
Right.
Right.
Maureen Benkovich (07:09.304)
Why can't I drink it responsibly? Because we've been taught that that's the message. Yeah. I hear you.
Hearon DIckson (07:11.412)
He's right, right. Yeah. Yeah, that's well said.
But, you know, sort of conversely, once I, so I'm sure we'll talk about this eventually, but I did go to AA, especially at the outset. I sat in a parking lot of an AA meeting three times before mustering the courage to go in. But once I did, I was filled with overwhelming relief.
I mean, it was the literal way to the world off of me when I finally did that.
Maureen Benkovich (07:45.443)
Mm.
Maureen Benkovich (07:53.081)
That is such a good feeling. when you, it's making the firm decision when you're in the indecision, the back and forth and that is so painful. But making that firm decision of change, I'm not going to drink anymore. This is no longer for me. I mean, it might not be this amazing linear process from there, but making that firm decision is key. Yeah. So then what happened from there? When did you start to find yoga? Were you doing yoga at this time?
Hearon DIckson (07:55.02)
Have.
Hearon DIckson (07:58.392)
Yeah, I am.
Hearon DIckson (08:03.788)
Right.
Hearon DIckson (08:11.736)
Sure.
Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. A lot of relief.
Hearon DIckson (08:22.744)
So my path with yoga and my sobriety path are parallel. And I'll talk a little bit about how they finally intersected, but they're parallel. I started doing yoga. So I went to my first yoga class ever in my life. I love telling this story. was January, might've been January 1st. It certainly was around January 1st.
Maureen Benkovich (08:33.188)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (08:50.382)
of the year that I ultimately eight months later would get sober. And a friend of mine, a work colleague of mine said, hey, you should try yoga. In hindsight, I think the work friend was telling me that maybe I would benefit from all the aspects of yoga. But what I interpreted and what I went for, Maureen, was a new exercise regime for the new year. Okay.
Maureen Benkovich (09:14.072)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's okay. Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (09:16.952)
So I've never done yoga before, call it January 1st, maybe January 2nd. I go to a yoga class, we were living in Raleigh, North Carolina at the time. I go to a yoga class, I don't know any better, so I get there exactly on time, which means I'm the last person there. And of course, like I said, it's New Year's, the room is packed, so there's one spot available. It's right in front of the teacher, and I've never done it before.
Maureen Benkovich (09:28.866)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (09:41.288)
boy.
Hearon DIckson (09:41.795)
But what she said at beginning of that yoga class, and every time I tell the story, I get goosebumps, I'm getting them right now. We sat there and I'm coming off a terrible year, bad year work wise, just a lot of stuff going on. Again, hindsight, my drinking off the rails. And okay, and we sat there and she says, breathe in your hopes and dreams for the new year.
Maureen Benkovich (09:52.004)
Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (10:09.646)
And man, I was hooked. The class was great. The yoga class was great, but that message really resonated with me. And incidentally, anytime I teach a class of people who are all new to me, I tell that story because that's what it's all about, right?
Maureen Benkovich (10:21.934)
Right.
Maureen Benkovich (10:32.174)
Yeah. Right.
Hearon DIckson (10:35.342)
breathing in the good stuff, breathing out the bad stuff, metaphorically, literally and metaphorically. So I started doing a lot of yoga and then got sober. So again, it's a parallel path. I'm doing a lot of yoga and I'm in this sobriety journey. And we moved to Annapolis, 2018. A good friend of mine, very close friend of mine, who's now my business partner in a yoga endeavor I have, says to me, hey, you should
Maureen Benkovich (10:41.262)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (11:07.405)
I'm like, where in the world is that coming from? But it takes a year to get certified to teach yoga. So I sat on it for a year and then I decided to do it. So I went through the process of getting certified, got certified in April of 2020. Well, you know what that was? That was COVID. So that dynamic made it challenging.
Maureen Benkovich (11:10.285)
You
Maureen Benkovich (11:27.768)
Right.
Hearon DIckson (11:31.823)
So I'm getting ahead of myself. We started an online yoga studio, but I'll circle back to that. anyway, so during the process of the yoga teacher certification, I learned, of course, a lot about yoga philosophy. And there are eight limbs of yoga and the first two are the yamas and the nyamas. And that's basically a code of conduct. Five yamas, five nyamas for our purposes here, kind of
five healthy things I do for myself and five ways that I am outward to the world. Okay.
Maureen Benkovich (12:08.58)
Love that.
Hearon DIckson (12:11.188)
independently, I think to myself, holy cow, this really lines up with the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. I have that thought because they do. I've since realized that kind of all spiritual programs are pretty much the same, right? Or they have the same thread of how you treat yourself, how you treat others, kind of whether you believe there's something, whatever it is, bigger than you, right?
Maureen Benkovich (12:23.277)
Right.
Maureen Benkovich (12:35.758)
Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (12:41.194)
So, kind of coincidentally, I then learned about Y12SR, Yoga of 12 Step Recovery. That was started by Nikki Myers. And I'm not comparing myself to Nikki Myers, but of course she had the same very obvious realization. There's a connection between the 12 steps of any recovery program and the Yamas and the Niyamas, Yoga philosophy. And she started this entire program.
Maureen Benkovich (13:02.104)
Right.
Maureen Benkovich (13:08.202)
Interesting. And where is she located? Is she somewhere? Okay.
Hearon DIckson (13:09.934)
She's located in Indianapolis. And she has a just very quickly has an incredible story that includes intravenous drug use prostitution, just an amazing recovery story. Okay.
Maureen Benkovich (13:22.954)
Mm, mm, all the way down the rabbit hole. Well, I wanted you to maybe describe a little bit what yoga 12-step recovery is. I asked you before we started recording, is this part of AA and you described it's recognized by AA, but kind of an adjunct to any 12-step.
Hearon DIckson (13:39.181)
Yeah, so AA recognizes it, which is a big deal because AA is kind of its own thing. So AA does recognize Y12SR and allows Y12SR to use the 12 steps of AA as written. And so at a Y12SR meeting, and incidentally, I'm not currently.
Maureen Benkovich (13:42.852)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (13:57.496)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (14:04.576)
leading those meetings right now. I have in the past and I was, but I'm not doing it right now. But the typical Y12SR meeting, one of your prior guests was in one of my meetings several times, would be starting with some meditation, having sort of an abbreviated meeting of sorts, any sharing that anyone wants to do if
Maureen Benkovich (14:05.177)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (14:18.317)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (14:31.78)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (14:34.126)
they feel the need to. And then a yoga practice or a meditation practice with the idea that meditating, which that's one of the 12 steps of AA by the way, meditating, moving your body a little bit is good for us, right? There's a connection between.
Maureen Benkovich (14:56.908)
Yeah, I also want to share like you're pointing out the spiritual aspect and there's also the central nervous system regulation aspect of all of this, of the breath work, of the meditation, of the movement, of being with other people. All of that down regulates your central nervous system. And I always like to talk about the science on here. So I just want to say that the spirituality and the science go together. And you're right, I had another guest on here that talked about
Hearon DIckson (15:20.563)
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Maureen Benkovich (15:24.876)
yoga of 12 step recovery. I just want to ask you this question to clarify, does it have to be people who've been to AA or can it be anybody who's reevaluating their relationship with alcohol? Okay.
Hearon DIckson (15:33.999)
Absolutely anyone. Absolutely anyone. And incidentally, I'm happy to talk about AA if you'd like to, you know, AA is interesting because the only requirement for participation in AA is a desire to stop drinking. That's the only one. And I think, know, as you embody, there are different paths to sobriety. AA is not by any means the only one.
Maureen Benkovich (15:57.971)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (16:04.62)
But I'll tell you just a great story. The very first Y12SR meeting that I ever held, you're probably familiar with Child's Pose. And I'm sure most of your listeners are familiar with Child's Pose, but that is you're on your hands and knees and then you push your hips back towards your heels. it's Child's Pose.
Maureen Benkovich (16:17.677)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (16:27.82)
Right. Very relaxing.
Hearon DIckson (16:31.15)
very relaxing pose, also a very vulnerable pose because of your exposed, your neck is exposed, your back is exposed. And one of the things that we talk about Y12SR is that it's a pose of surrender. It's a picture of visually child's pose, it's kind of bowing, right? And the very first meeting that I held, there was a young woman there who was just brand new, freshly sober.
Maureen Benkovich (16:34.168)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (17:01.35)
and she just started sobbing in that vulnerable pose, getting that sort of release and just really started sobbing. And so the whole rest of the time became sort of central to comfort for her with the other people there, which is really meaningful experience.
Maureen Benkovich (17:21.366)
Yeah, I've had that experience in yoga, certain poses and just all of sudden tears will start streaming down my face. And when I really didn't get into yoga until I stopped drinking and was learning about regulating my central nervous system and started to make the connections between breath work and movement and stretching and all of that. But yeah, it was amazing the emotional release that I've experienced. So it's good to know that there's this yoga 12-step recovery that people can look into.
Hearon DIckson (17:25.4)
Yeah. Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (17:35.576)
Right.
Hearon DIckson (17:43.598)
Sure, sure.
Maureen Benkovich (17:50.884)
So I hope people who are listening who might want to consider that you can look it up. I guess there's probably a website
Hearon DIckson (17:57.343)
y12sr.com and they do have a pretty extensive list of online meetings in the event. No matter where you live there, if there were not in person meetings nearby, they have a pretty extensive list of online meetings.
Maureen Benkovich (18:13.516)
And you have to be a yogi or can you be someone like you or the first time you went to a yoga class and had never done yoga before?
Hearon DIckson (18:19.008)
great question. Absolutely. You can be brand, absolutely brand. You can be brand new to, not drink. Thank you. Not drinking and yoga. That's great.
Maureen Benkovich (18:27.682)
Not drinking and... Yeah, I just like to clarify that so people aren't thinking, know, I have to know how to do yoga because believe me people, I do not, I'm not a yogi, but I try hard to experience. I think the most interesting thing for me about yoga is the correlation that I share with my clients about embracing discomfort because some of the poses can be uncomfortable instead of...
Hearon DIckson (18:42.53)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (18:55.246)
bracing against it to be curious and release into the discomfort and breath work and let what's happening in your body. Same thing with, I tell people to be curious when they're resistant to making this change around alcohol, whatever it is for them, you know, to be curious. So think there's a huge overlap.
Hearon DIckson (19:10.816)
Absolutely. Totally. And the Y12SR meetings that I've attended and what I tried to model is pretty gentle. a pretty gentle, pretty slow yoga practice, sort of more meditative in nature than a workout type class.
Maureen Benkovich (19:33.124)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (19:38.499)
Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people are very uncomfortable with meditation and sitting in stillness and yet it's so, and that's one of my weak points, so I have to go to a class to make me do that. Because we're all so wired, we have all these screens, we can be in touch with people at any time. So that meditative aspect or sitting in stillness is just so important. How do you help people do that who haven't really meditated or this is new to them? How do you help them?
Hearon DIckson (19:50.284)
Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (20:01.569)
Absolutely.
Hearon DIckson (20:09.258)
Is that a word? how do I help them? So I like to start small. One of the things that I've done sort of just as part of my persona as this yoga teacher is three times a week on various platforms, I post a one minute meditation. You mentioned science backed aspects of all this. mean, the science shows that even one minute
Maureen Benkovich (20:15.618)
always good.
Hearon DIckson (20:39.214)
can be beneficial of blocking out the noise, sitting in silence. So I try to start small. I have on my website and various other places, introductions to meditation, and those are no more than five minutes long.
Maureen Benkovich (20:46.66)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (20:55.249)
good.
Yeah, I think that's important because it's intimidating. People think, I have to like set aside a half hour and know how to chant and close my eyes. And so can you speak to that, that thing that people get really worried about?
Hearon DIckson (21:05.058)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think, again, I'm a believer in starting small. What I would say, if anybody listening to this, watching this, or curious about just trying meditation, my suggestion would be to set a timer on a phone or whatever for two minutes and focus on your breath.
Maureen Benkovich (21:13.316)
M2.
Maureen Benkovich (21:28.365)
I love that.
Hearon DIckson (21:33.431)
Now, what does focusing on your breath mean? Right. So there's two ways to focus on your breath. One is counting it. Inhale one, exhale two, inhale three, exhale four. If you do that, technique, and it's actually a technique, it's called Anapanabhrivin. The technique is when you reach 10, you start over at one, or when you lose the count, you start over at one.
Maureen Benkovich (21:35.054)
Yes. Right.
Maureen Benkovich (21:45.56)
I'm doing it with you.
Maureen Benkovich (22:02.094)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (22:03.118)
And you might be surprised to hear this pretty advanced is to be able to count to 10 three times with that interruption. Imagine thinking about it. But sounds simple, right? Three times. I can do that.
Maureen Benkovich (22:12.751)
I believe that.
Not really because we are always so distracted and not in the present. It's like bringing you back to the present to stay there. So no, that sounds challenging actually to me.
Hearon DIckson (22:20.598)
Right. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. so it's, and the other way to focus on your breath is just literally just inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. And then once you've done that a few times, you might experiment with just focusing on what it feels like the air coming into your nostrils and what it feels like air leaving your nostrils. I would tell any, yeah, I would tell anybody set your timer for two minutes and just try it.
Maureen Benkovich (22:32.697)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (22:46.754)
Hmm. I like that. Yeah, that's important.
Hearon DIckson (22:55.182)
Maureen Benkovich (22:55.416)
That's so important and what I like to add to that when I try to encourage people to do the same is then you want to notice after you do it, what do you notice? Was there a change in your physiology? You feel calmer? Did you like it? And then maybe try to do it maybe four days in a row or something and see if you notice because noticing is a huge part of making a change.
Hearon DIckson (23:20.408)
Correct. And the other thing I would say to that person who's completely new to it is getting distracted, but then returning is success. So what people think, it sort of ties in with what you were just saying, people tend to think, my gosh, my mind got so distracted. I'm so bad at this. And then you spiral down. Well, that's not accurate. If you noticed it.
Maureen Benkovich (23:33.175)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (23:42.37)
Right, I'm a failure.
Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (23:47.914)
and you also, even for just a moment, returned back to it. That's meditation. That is the success. I was distracted. I acknowledged it. I came back.
Maureen Benkovich (23:53.316)
That's it.
Maureen Benkovich (23:59.237)
Yeah, I love that. That's so important because so many people like I'm so bad at it. And I thought that too. And then I started to understand exactly what you're saying. I love how you framed it. So let's go back to you for a minute. So you take this class and you just fall in love with yoga and you move here and you're teaching yoga. So did that really support, how did you find that yoga and working on breath work and meditation supported your sobriety?
Hearon DIckson (24:02.926)
right.
Hearon DIckson (24:07.766)
Right? Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (24:29.006)
So at this point, I would say that my journey with yoga and mindfulness and meditation is central to my sobriety. It's what I do to maintain equanimity in my life. It's what I do. The definition of yoga in the yoga text is the restraint of the modifications of the mind stuff. That's a mouthful.
Modifications of the mind stuff are fear, anger, worry, jealousy, hatred. So, right things. Okay. Those are the modifications of the mind stuff. Definition of yoga is restraint of that peace of mind. Right. So, so I would say that my path with yoga and meditation, mindfulness, both as a practitioner and as a teacher is very central.
Maureen Benkovich (25:05.59)
Anxiety too. Yeah. Yes.
Maureen Benkovich (25:14.637)
Hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (25:28.12)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (25:28.556)
to my sobriety and sort of using the language. Now that's my program. Right. And I know, you know, when you're starting, when you're feeling angsty and feeling squirrely and this and the other, for me, that's usually when I've been away from the practice for a while and very relevant to subject matter. That's when
Maureen Benkovich (25:34.37)
Right. Right.
Hearon DIckson (25:57.123)
people maybe pick up a drink, right? So, but yeah, but that's so that's my program now is doing that stuff.
Maureen Benkovich (25:59.023)
That's right. Yes. Yeah. And it's so important that people understand. And it took me the longest time. The only way I could be successful not drinking is it's not enough to remove the alcohol. You have to replace it with things to down-regulate your central nervous system. And just like in plain speak.
to help with your anxiety, your frustration, your anger, stress. We are all going to have stress. Like life doesn't stop being stressful because we stop drinking. But learning how to manage all that differently and yoga hits so many of those boxes. Yeah. So replacement.
Hearon DIckson (26:26.702)
Sure.
Hearon DIckson (26:34.552)
Correct.
Hearon DIckson (26:39.918)
Correct. Yes. So, yeah. Yeah. And so it's been, like I said, I mean, it's, I feel like I've been sober long enough that it's just kind of who I am, a guy who doesn't drink, kind of, right? And I'm very comfortable with that, thankfully.
Maureen Benkovich (26:59.07)
Mm Yeah. Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (27:05.41)
Yeah, me too. Right.
Hearon DIckson (27:06.318)
I get there overnight by any stretch of the imagination. I think that's also where I am with yoga and meditation. I am a person who does those things. Those things are super important to me. They're central to who I am. Certainly not my entire identity. I'm a husband and a dad and a
Maureen Benkovich (27:28.558)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (27:35.064)
Pick a ball player and all that other stuff. Absolutely, 100%.
Maureen Benkovich (27:36.74)
but it helps you to be better at all those other things. I mean, even the pickleball as far as flexibility and strength and warming up and all of that. So, yeah.
Hearon DIckson (27:44.106)
For sure.
Hearon DIckson (27:48.143)
I teach two, during the course of the week, teach two classes that are specifically for men. And the reason that I do that, and that's the first thing I ever did as a yoga teacher, by the way. But the reason I did that was because a yoga class can be pretty intimidating if you're a not very flexible.
man who's never done yoga before and you're surrounded by very flexible women who go to yoga four times a week, not to use a stereotype, but right. um, and that's a big draw, big draw for that is the back, their spine is a little more supple for their golf swing. I mean, if that gets them there, that's great. I do. I do. Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (28:13.027)
Right.
Maureen Benkovich (28:17.848)
Yeah, yeah, I bet.
Maureen Benkovich (28:28.93)
Yeah, yeah. Do you have a lot of men now in your classes? That's great. Because I don't know many male yoga instructors. Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (28:37.826)
There aren't There aren't many. In fact, I teach a weekly men's yoga class at a fitness center you and I are both members of. And we haven't been able to find someone to be a male sub for me. Well, I can't do it. So there are not many out there. Well, if you're a man listening to this and you're interested in yoga, go for it.
Maureen Benkovich (28:47.673)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (28:57.572)
You're a pioneer. Yeah. Well, along those lines, Heron, you have a new venture, a new program that you'd like to share with us and talk about. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Hearon DIckson (29:08.215)
Yes.
Hearon DIckson (29:12.59)
Gladly, thank you for asking me and thank you for giving me that opportunity. I've been teaching yoga for about five years and meditation for about three years. It's really interesting and it's like so many things that have happened in my life. I've been wondering for five years, what's the next step with this? Where is this leading me? It's led me to some pretty neat places. I alluded to my partner earlier.
She and I lead international yoga retreats. I mean, we do a lot of pretty cool stuff, but still I felt like there was something else. And then I went to a college reunion, 40th college reunion, if you can believe that, and I offered a yoga class and had a lot of people show up for the yoga class, most of them men, which is not really relevant, notwithstanding what we just talked about.
Maureen Benkovich (30:05.049)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (30:08.558)
And most of them who had not done yoga before. And somehow all that made me realize that offering these type programs to organizations is an opportunity. And I mean, both an opportunity for me, as in the next step in this journey, but also an opportunity for those organizations. And...
Maureen Benkovich (30:23.288)
Yes.
Maureen Benkovich (30:28.214)
Mm-hmm.
Hearon DIckson (30:34.126)
I can tell you do a lot of research. I I've started researching this. 83 % of workers in the United States are stressed out about their job. Now, I can't cite where that comes from, but I believe it. So I think there's a real opportunity for organizations to offer mindfulness programs for their employees.
Maureen Benkovich (30:44.674)
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (30:56.59)
Yes.
Hearon DIckson (30:58.656)
So that's what we'll be doing with this new venture. I've not very creatively named it Heron Dixon Wellness.
Maureen Benkovich (31:06.803)
Well, I love that you're 63 and you're doing this. Sorry, I have some co-hosts here that are demanding attention. Yeah, I love that you're 63 and doing this, not slowing down, actually thinking of what else can I do? And I think this is important. I want people to hear this. You decided to give up alcohol, get sober in your 50s, and look at all that has happened since.
Hearon DIckson (31:10.242)
Yeah, thank you. Mine is awesome.
Maureen Benkovich (31:33.292)
removing, I like to say, ditching booze and all the opportunities that have opened up for you. And you're still going. You're creating.
Hearon DIckson (31:40.271)
I thank you for saying that. That might be the most important little nugget to come out of this. I, you know what? I don't think about that enough and I don't give myself enough credit for that, to be very honest with you. And that is absolutely the truth. I would not be doing any of this if I were still drinking, especially the way that I was drinking. that was going to stop one way or another, if you know what I mean.
Maureen Benkovich (31:46.702)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (31:53.689)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (31:58.991)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (32:04.075)
yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (32:07.3)
Right, right, I do, I do. But I think it's important because sometimes people will contact me on a discovery call and they'll be like, yeah, but I'm 70. Can I change? so it's important for people here. Yeah, you can change at any age. And there's a lot of opportunity for you once you on the other side of alcohol. It's amazing. I mean, it's not all unicorns and rainbows, I like to say, but it's hard work, learning to feel your feelings, feeling discomfort, picking up something like yoga.
Hearon DIckson (32:10.254)
Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (32:20.483)
Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (32:30.68)
Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (32:37.486)
helps you to manage all of those things.
Hearon DIckson (32:42.208)
Yeah, and gosh, I don't want this to sound judgmental at all. But the other thing when I, I can often leave a conversation with someone and this never comes up. And I'll say to myself, that person is sober. Right? mean, right? There's a, there's something that happens to clarity.
Maureen Benkovich (33:00.516)
Yeah, me too. Yeah.
is a clarity.
Maureen Benkovich (33:17.048)
Yes.
Hearon DIckson (33:19.386)
I usually can tell.
Maureen Benkovich (33:25.932)
Yeah, me too. I think there's a level of transformation and a different kind of perspective. Yeah, I like to hear that.
Hearon DIckson (33:29.4)
Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (33:33.102)
It's also interesting how many people out there who are, for lack of a better description, popular in the culture who are self-help people or gurus of some sort, for lack of a better word. And what do you find out? You find out they're also sober. All right. big part of their journey of all that was
Maureen Benkovich (33:46.925)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (33:53.602)
Right, right.
Maureen Benkovich (33:57.849)
Yeah, because alcohol just makes you lazy and tired and not creative. And you're thinking of so much mental real estate. You're thinking about how much you drank. Are you going to drink again? It's just when you remove it, is this been your experience? The first few months of not drinking, I was like, wow, how did I get all this time? Yeah. How come I didn't notice this before? Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (34:01.707)
Great.
Hearon DIckson (34:16.974)
Right. Absolutely. You know, and you may say this to people sometimes and they either get it or they don't get it. But alcohol lowers your vibration. Right. I mean, it just does. And a more negative way to say that, but maybe it's more frank, is alcohol doesn't improve anybody.
Maureen Benkovich (34:33.641)
Mm. Yes. Does.
Maureen Benkovich (34:46.136)
Mm hmm.
Hearon DIckson (34:46.806)
Now, there's, I get the social anxiety and the truly moderate drinker who has one drink and it helps them. I get that. And I'm really not talking about that person, but that person is few and far between. Yeah, that person is very few and far between, right? So exclude that very small segment, those unicorns, if you will. Alcohol doesn't improve anybody. It just doesn't.
Maureen Benkovich (34:52.418)
Yeah, me too.
Maureen Benkovich (34:58.402)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep.
Right. call them unicorns.
Maureen Benkovich (35:14.404)
No, but we're very much marketed to and sold in every movie, every book, you know, and so we have been conditioned. And I think that's important to remember because people are like, why did I get this way? And part of it is because it's so in our culture and so conditioned, all the commercials show beautiful, happy, healthy, fit people, you know, and all that kind of stuff. So it's so important to have that self-compassion piece when you're trying to make a change. And I think yoga offers a lot of...
Hearon DIckson (35:20.856)
You're right. It's amazing.
Hearon DIckson (35:35.736)
Right?
Hearon DIckson (35:42.858)
Absolutely.
Maureen Benkovich (35:44.246)
self-compassion. Yeah. Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (35:45.899)
for sure. absolutely it does. And you're the sober fit. I mean, I'm sure you're the same way. mean, the more you know, I don't want that in my body. Sure.
Maureen Benkovich (36:01.666)
That's what this is all about is giving people information so they can make informed choices. Because I was fooling myself before thinking I could detox during the week and binge drink on the weekends. That's just not how alcohol works. So the more informed choices you have, like, do I? And it's not in alignment with your values and that really helps people make a change. So I'm so glad you came on here to share your story. Where can people find you?
Hearon DIckson (36:14.722)
Yeah, right. He's right.
Hearon DIckson (36:29.377)
Okay.
Maureen Benkovich (36:29.41)
If they want to follow your meditations or you said you do retreats or here in town.
Hearon DIckson (36:34.028)
Yes. So, there are two places to find me. The business that I have the partner with is Stay Tuned Yoga. So that is StayTunedYogaUnlimited.com. The unlimited is for the very reason that we had to have another word in there to get the website. So that is, okay, great. So that's Stay Tuned Yoga.
Maureen Benkovich (36:57.38)
We'll have that in the show notes just so everybody knows. Yeah.
Hearon DIckson (37:02.344)
And Lisa, my partner and I both teach two classes a week via Zoom. So that's accessible to anyone. I don't need to go into details on that, but we both teach two classes a week via Zoom. And that is also where information about retreats would be. We're going in 2026 to Mexico for a week. We're going to Finland for a week. We're going to Peru for a week. We're going to the Galapagos for a week. Getting ready. They're not.
Maureen Benkovich (37:06.424)
Okay.
Maureen Benkovich (37:11.886)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (37:28.76)
And these are alcohol free retreats. Okay. Okay. I just want clarify that.
Hearon DIckson (37:31.843)
They're not alcohol-free retreats. They're, yeah, thank you for that. They're not, but certainly, well, they're not alcohol-free. And then my new venture is Heron Dixon Wellness. So that's herondicksonwellness.com. And by the way, there's a link to that within the Stay Tuned Yoga website. But I have on there three times a week, I post a one minute video that's...
Maureen Benkovich (37:39.054)
Yep, I just wanted to clarify that, okay.
Maureen Benkovich (37:52.995)
Okay.
Hearon DIckson (37:59.937)
Mindfulness or Meditation. that's on there. A link to a five day introduction to meditation is on there. And then for people super curious about meditation, also teach on Insight Timer. And that's a meditation app, if you're familiar with that. So I teach on Insight Timer. So you search my name and you can find me on there.
Maureen Benkovich (38:16.75)
Okay. Yes. That's great, Heron.
Hearon DIckson (38:26.37)
But I lead every Friday morning. I've been doing this for about a year, a 15-minute live guided meditation on Friday mornings.
Maureen Benkovich (38:36.15)
I'll recommend that because I always do encourage people to try meditation for the very reasons I mentioned on here. So I always end with asking this question. I think I know the answer, but I'm going to ask you, what do you do to be sober fit, Heron?
Hearon DIckson (38:52.062)
I am a very active person. I do some physical activity every day. I've recently joined a group that is about via FaceTime is doing a sort of 30 minute workout, push-ups, sit-ups, stuff like that for 30 minutes every morning. Of course, I do a lot of yoga. Usually,
Of course, we're all so tied to all this stuff, but I usually do manage to walk 10,000 steps a day. I play golf. I play pickleball. pretend I'm pretty active. I'm pretty active.
Maureen Benkovich (39:24.834)
Mm-hmm.
Maureen Benkovich (39:34.636)
You are very active. So, and you would, as we said, and I just like to bring this home without removing alcohol, you may not be the person you are today. This very active, involved, engaged, energetic person.
Hearon DIckson (39:49.974)
That is absolutely the truth. I certainly would not be getting up at 6.15 and doing this work. Ask me in a year if I'm still doing that. yeah, I've stayed pretty active.
Maureen Benkovich (39:55.844)
Right. Yeah.
Maureen Benkovich (40:06.084)
Yeah, that's great. Thank you so much for coming on Sober Fit Life and sharing your story. Everybody, if you want the energy and vitality of Heron at 63, check out his website, listen to his meditations and keep being sober fit.
Hearon DIckson (40:20.354)
Thank you so much for having me. love conversations like this. So thank you very much.
Maureen Benkovich (40:24.815)
Thank you.
