Yoga For Trauma: The Inner Fire of Yoga

Trauma Experiences and Trauma Healing Modalities (Liz on the Get Loud Podcast With Kristen Klipp) Ep 19

• Liz Albanis - Senior Yoga Teacher • Season 1 • Episode 19

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This week, I'm doing something different. I'm sharing an episode of the Get Loud Podcast with Kristin Klipp. I was a guest on this podcast in April and Kristin has kindly given me authority to share this. 

Episode Summary

Liz Albanis joined the podcast to discuss Trauma Experiences and Trauma Healing Modalities with Kristin. This podcast episode may be triggering for some. Please use caution when listening to this episode. Liz talks about the traumas she has experienced in her life and how they have affected her. If you find yourself feeling triggered during this episode, please treat yourself with care and find compassion for where you are in this moment. Liz talks about her experiences with various traumas that have occurred during her lifetime. Liz also discussed animal cruelty and how this related to trauma held in the body. She gives basic information on several healing modalities she has used to heal her trauma. She explains more about TRE, EMDR, and yoga and talks about her experiences using each of these modalities. Kristin and Liz talk a bit about how yoga teachers can be trauma informed and mindful of what could be triggering for their students.

Key Topics:

  • Multiple trauma experiences can affect one individual
  • What TRE is
  • About EMDR and how it might be used in therapy sessions
  • How yoga can help in healing trauma
  • Ways in which yoga teachers can be mindful of trauma and provide trauma informed spaces for students

Kristin Klipp is a Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator, Empowerment Coach, and Chakra Energy Healer. Kristin has been helping people for 9 years to discover their intuition, heal from trauma, and lead the life they were meant to live. Her company, Truth Lives Within, offers holistic healing sessions that allow clients to find their own inner wisdom and heal their wounds. Kristin has been dedicated to healing trauma after seeing how it has affected her relationships with her family. Kristin has seen how trauma is often swept under the rug and she is getting loud about trauma with her podcast, Get Loud. Find out more about Kristin by checking out her website, https://www.truthliveswithin.com.

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[00:00:00] multiple people can be exposed to the same thing and one person maybe has trauma from it and another person might not, or you know, it can be interesting how we're not all affected in the same way. came home and, , my parents could see that I was a completely different kid, it's one of the few therapies recommended by the World Health Organization for treating PTSD in both adults and children. it doesn't require you to go into great detail about the trauma, so it can make it less emotionally taxing. And it's had a profound impact on me,

Welcome to The Inner Fire of Yoga, a podcast about transformation, resilience, and [00:01:00] the power of yoga beyond the mat. I'm Liz Albanis, senior yoga teacher and yoga therapist in training. This podcast was born in 2024 after I survived my second fire. Fire has been a recurring theme in my life, not just in the literal sense, but as a metaphor.

It has asked me to burn away what no longer serves me to transform and to rise stronger each time. This podcast is about that fire, the one that challenges us, but also fuels us to grow.​

The content shared in these conversations is intended for informational and educational purposes only, and it is not suitable for listeners under the age of 18. Please use discretion and consult a qualified professional before making changes to your health or wellness routines.

This week I'm doing something a little different. I'm sharing a podcast guest feature from the Get Loud Podcast with Kristen Kllipp that was recorded in April of this year. She's kindly given me the authority to do this.

I wanna say a special thank you to the host Kristen Klipp for this fantastic interview. You [00:02:00] can find a link to the Get Loud podcast in the show notes to check out more interviews just like this.

Welcome folks to the Get Loud Podcast. I'm your host Kristen Klip, and today we have Liz Albanis. She's a senior yoga teacher in Australia, and she owns Liz Banis Wellness. Liz, thanks so much for joining us today. Hi, Kristen. Thanks so much for having me. I'm honored to be here today. Liz and I will be talking about trauma experiences and trauma healing modalities.

This episode may contain triggering content for some people. Liz talks about her experiences with trauma as a child, as well as experiences with fire and how that has been a traumatic ex experience. So please be advised to use caution and know that this episode may be triggering for some. And if you do find this episode triggering, please find care and compassion and love [00:03:00] for yourself.

And know that you are being held in this experience. With that being said, let's get started. Happy to have you. Um, and I'd love for you if you wanna start to tell us a little bit more about yourself. I've just moved into state and I'm currently just working online teaching yoga privately, and I'll have some.

Courses that I'm releasing later in the year, and I've taught a lot of face-to-face yoga and I've taught a lot of Pilates and bar. And I used to be a personal trainer, and before that I was working for the Australian Federal Gov government here in Canberra. Yeah.

Great. Well, thank you for joining us here today. Now, you and I had talked a little before the episode about your experience with experiences with [00:04:00] trauma, and I was wondering if you'd like to tell us a little bit more about your experiences with trauma and with Complex PTSD as you've experienced it.

Sure. So you explained it beautifully in your first episode about how we all experience trauma in our lives. But, uh, some of us unfortunately get diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, which is used to be just seen for war veterans getting diagnosed with such a thing, but it's not just war veterans who get it, and it means that.

Six months after the event or the events, you've still got those symptoms from the trauma? Pretty much from my understanding. So they don't diagnose someone with it straight after the event that caused it. Um, now, so I've got diagnosed with it at age 11. I went to [00:05:00] an abusive school, um, with. An international school with teachers from overseas, some of them who hit us, a lot of them that caught us stupid.

And um, unfortunately, um, I went overseas on a trip. It was supposed to be a month long trip or something from memory. Um, and in those days, male people who identify as male, um, they were allowed to, you know, be alone with female. Students, any students really like, um, they could be, you know, alone with people and not supervised, or they wouldn't be two teachers.

And one of them was a pedophile. And as a result, I was sexually assaulted on that trip overseas. And I also had a billet mother. I stayed with a family there. And [00:06:00] my, my French wasn't. Up to scratch because I was behind in the class because I didn't have a French speaking family, and she was quite abusive as well.

And that's why I ended up staying with my teacher and his fiance the last few nights, and as a result was sexually assaulted and. Witnessed a couple doing things that 11 year olds shouldn't really see or be around. Um, and

then I came home and, um, my parents could see that I was a completely different kid, you know? They didn't, they just knew, and I got assessed by a psychologist and that, and I wasn't diagnosed with anything, but they knew that whatever happened over there had had a dramatic impact on me. [00:07:00]But because I had ongoing things happen to me at school and then, you know, I had some other things happen.

Like I survived a, my first fire Inw 2004. I ended up being diagnosed with Complex PTSD, so complex. PTSD is apparently not officially recognized in the DSM five. And I'm not speaking here as a therapist, I'm just speaking here from what I've been told and what I've read. But it's often misdiagnosed with other things and it often goes.

Often people have A DHD as well, and I have a DHD. I only found that out at 41 a couple of years ago. So complex PTSD is when someone has had multiple traumatic events or ongoing trauma, repetitive [00:08:00] trauma, like, like I have, and I think it has. Some might say it, it changes the brain more and has more of a profound impact.

But I think we're all different and who knows, but it is a different diagnosis and it used to some pe, I think some therapist used to call it multiple personality disorder, but that's either confused as a different thing or it's an not a diagnosis That's. Used anymore, I'm not sure. But that's what complex PTSD is.

It's that repe repetition. Um, so I, I was going, well, really well with my mental health, as I will talk about later. But then, um, was it 13 hours [00:09:00] before the 20th anniversary of the first buyer? Wes, my family and I suffered, uh, another fire, a different sort of fire. The first fire, the house was okay, but I had second and three third degree burns.

Um, 'cause I was smoking at the time. And, um, yeah, the house was okay, but I wasn't, um, this fire started next door. Um, so it was really sudden. Um. It was 11 o'clock at night, made national news here in Australia for some reason, maybe 'cause three houses were affected and 50 firefighters were there, and 14 trucks.

Yeah, it was crazy. But, um, it was 11 o'clock at night. I was about to take my, put my phone on silent and one of their security cameras went off and it was one of the cameras that doesn't usually go off. It was on one side of the house. [00:10:00] There'd been a lot of burglaries 'cause the crime's gone up here a lot, a lot where I was in Melbourne and um, I thought, oh no, it's a burglar.

And I looked at the camera, I didn't have the sound on. If I'd had the sound on, I would've heard the house next door crashing down. Um. But I saw what I looked thought was a ghost and I thought, hang on a minute. And as I did this, my, my husband who was downstairs came pounding up the stairs of a two story house.

I was like, call triple zero nine one one for you guys next door's on fire. And I had my phone in my hand obviously, and I started to call them and he said, I'm running down the back to get Audrey off. Then 4-year-old. And yeah, and he, um, we were out of the house in two minutes. Um, our house wasn't on fire.

The smoke was over the fence, but by the time we [00:11:00] got out of the house, it had hit our house and our daughter was sound asleep and the front door was deadlocked and we're like, oh no. Where are the front keys? The neighbors were pounding on the front door, get out, get out. It was just really surreal. And, um, my husband got his car out of the, um, garage and he didn't get mine.

I told him not to, but we went across the road to the park and there are a lot of people watching us. That's what people do. And because they're worried about their own house, which is fair enough, or they've evacuated too, and we just stood there shaking and um. That's pretty normal shaking during such a time as I'll get to a bit later.

Yeah. And um, it affected me more than it did my daughter and my husband, um, because I'd already had that [00:12:00] diagnosis and it was my second fire and it freaked me out that it was 13 hours before the 20th anniversary. I'm like, that's a bit strange. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Um, luckily, um, my daughter, of course, she's scared like she's, you know, she's more aware of it.

Like the next day, oh, sorry, the next week when she went to daycare, she was like, well, where are your, where are the smoke alarms and where are the evacuation points? Can we do another drill? But she's recovered. She recovered a lot quicker from it and got assessed by a therapist and. Touch wood, she's fine.

Um, it's just over a, well, it's 14 months later now, but it affected me more because of my history. My brain had already changed because that, it does change the brain and yeah, it, it made my husband more aware of buyers, but it didn't [00:13:00] affect him as much. But we're all different. More of a, some of us are more susceptible to that.

The effects of trauma. Absolutely. Right. We can, multiple people can be exposed to the same thing and one person maybe has trauma from it and another person might not, or you know, it can be interesting how we're not all affected in the same way. Yeah, yeah. We're all special and unique. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that story.

Oh, you're welcome. It sounds like it's been a difficult road to be diagnosed at such a young age and to be affected by these other traumatic events that have occurred to in your life as well. Yeah, it has been tough. I mean, it's always can be tougher and I'm not saying we're. Not grateful to have not lost [00:14:00] everything.

Um, but people still grieve. People still find dealing with a large insurance claim that takes nearly a year to resolve, frustrating and stressful. So, um, absolutely. Yeah. People still are affected by it. Yeah. Now, along your journey, um, could you talk about some of the tools that have helped you? Um, I know before this.

Podcast. We talked about how you're a yoga teacher, you've done EMDR, and you've, um, done TRE. Um, would you like to talk a bit more about each of those modalities? Yeah, yeah. I'd love to because I'm not against medication for mental health. I'm on medication myself, but I do like to think that there are other tools we can use rather than just talk therapy and medication.

I think. Right. Other things are important as well. Um, so [00:15:00] I discovered, uh, yoga in, um, January, 2011, um, back in my home city of Canberra. And uh, it's a small city in Australia and it's a bit behind the big cities of Sydney and Melbourne, even though it's the capital. And um, Bikram yoga was a thing then. It's not such a thing now, but it was a thing then.

This is a long time ago, 2011, and my friend was like, oh, you need to come, you'll detox, you'll burn lots of calories. You know, you'll get more flexible for your horse riding. 'cause I was, you know, had horses at the time or a horse and I went along and it was, it was torture. I mean, it was. It was, um, 90 minutes long.

It was hot yoga. It was 40 degrees Celsius. I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit. You could, uh, it's, it's hot. It's over. It's, um, yeah, it's hot. We have Bikram yoga here too, so anyone who's done Bikram yoga knows that. [00:16:00] I think it's like 110 at, um, Fahrenheit, uh, or something like that. So, yeah, it's pretty hot.

Yeah, it's hot. And so it was a struggle to stay in the room, especially the first time when you don't know when it's gonna end. It's a set sequence. Yeah. So once you're used to it, you know, when you get into the end. And, um, I couldn't wait to run out of that room, but I felt amazing after I couldn't sleep because yoga doesn't always help you sleep.

Um, later on it didn't have that effect on me, but. I didn't, I got a bit more flexible, but I, the most important thing that happened was I discovered the power that yoga can have on your mind. It's about mind training really. It's a spiritual practice that helps reduce suffering and you know, gets us into that state of yoga, that state of contentment and peace and happiness.

And three months later, [00:17:00] I managed to quit smoking. Smoking is something I took up around age 14 or 15 at school. I was peer pressured into it, but because I had my issues with the PTSD and I was more prone to that, you know, susceptible to addiction and doing, try experimenting with things like that, and I'd struggled to quit for years.

And at the time I started yoga, I was working in the federal government in Australia. And it was a job I didn't like. I wasn't really suited to that work. I'm not saying working for the government is bad or you know, my husband works for the government, he loves it. It wasn't for me. Um, and I just, it was my way of coping with stress.

And then I found yoga and I had other ways of coping with stress, lifting my mood. Other, [00:18:00]and instead of using cigarettes and alcohol and um, yeah. And then I since read that 80% of people who practice yoga, either they start practicing yoga for mental health reasons, or they keep practicing for mental health reasons according to the research that's out there.

So it made a lot of sense and um, because before that I just relied on medication, going to the gym, horse riding. And talk therapy. And, um, also, um,

oh, the words word has lost me. Um, when do you get, oh, I'm thinking, oh, the word hasn't come to me. When you're, um, someone puts you into a trance. What's that word? Oh, hypnosis. Hypnosis. I had hypnosis. They were the only other things I tried to. For my mental health. Um, hypnosis and the [00:19:00] hypnosis, um, helped with the, the nightmares temporarily, but not permanently.

Yeah. Yeah. The other things helped with that. So that was the start of me discovering, you know, there's more that you can do for your mental health, um, than what I tried in the past. Yeah. And I, I also had the effect of me starting to look after myself better and. Not just quit smoking, but eating better, not mm-hmm.

You know, um, eating for mental health. And that can have a, a profound effect what we eat Well, you feel how you eat as professor Felice Jacker in Melbourne says he's a nutritional psychiatrist. Yeah. So, mm-hmm. Yeah. That was the start of me, um, discovering other things, I think. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you for sharing.

When your yoga practice started and that it wasn't all [00:20:00] butterflies and rainbows, right? Like it, it sort of started in a way that wasn't great, but you found ways that yoga was able to help you in your journey. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's, it expanded beyond Bikram, which is good too. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Luckily, there's many parts of yoga that you can explore, so that's, yeah.

And good. Yeah. It doesn't have to be heated, it doesn't have to involve flexibility, doesn't have to involve poses, really. Yeah. Right. Well, so you had also mentioned to me that EMDR was helpful to you. Could you talk a little bit about what EMDR is and how, uh, you've experienced using that modality in your healing journey?

Yeah, sure. I, I first heard of, um, EMDR, which stands for, I have trouble saying this one, eye movement. Desensitization and reprocessing in 2008, and it wasn't really as well known then. [00:21:00]Um, and I was told it was a bunch of pocus pocus and not to look into it, and there was no one in Canberra who offered it anyway.

And my psychiatrist at the time was like, no, don't. It's just, you know, hocus pocus and Umhmm. I came, moved to Melbourne in 2017 and much bigger city. And um, in 2019 I had my daughter and I happened to find, um, a therapist who specialize, is a trauma therapist, specializes in EMDR. So it's, it's a structured therapy designed to help people resolve distressing memories that contribute to PTSD anxiety and depression.

And it's now backed by over 25 scientific studies, and it's one of the few therapies recommended by the World [00:22:00] Health Organization for treating PTSD in both adults and children. I believe they don't just use it for people with PTSD, they do treat it for other. Things like people who have depression mm-hmm.

And things like that. Um, so it's one of the only things other than trauma focused CBT, which is cognitive behavioral therapy, which never worked for me, I must say. Not that I'm against it, it just didn't work for me. Um, it's, yeah. Um, it's also endorsed by the Australian and the American Psychological Associations.

And, um, yeah, so I was, I thought I, initially I'd only need a few sessions, and I think some people do, but if, as, as we've been saying, we're all different, um, I've had mult many sessions, um, and there's different protocols. Some therapists use a machine. It pretty much involves you looking [00:23:00] side to side, you know, with a following, either someone's finger.

Or a machine at various speeds. And there's different protocols. Um, if you're, like, if you're processing a really old memory from childhood or a, a recent one, like with me last year, so my therapist did different, um, protocols on me and. She uses a machine most of the time, and, but there's different protocols, and I'm not a therapist, but it's guided eye movement.

And, um, it, it, the thing about it is it doesn't require you to go into great detail about the trauma, so it can make it less emotionally taxing. And it's had a profound impact on me, uh, a profound, amazing [00:24:00] impact on me. Uh, yeah, that and the yoga, but yeah. Yeah. So, um, yeah. Uh, but one thing I would say about it is it's not, it's not something I'd recommend you try and do yourself.

'cause you can buy EMDR machines and books. It's, it's something I think you need to do with a qualified therapist, um, in my opinion. Yeah, I also had experience with EMDR and um, I've done it with the app, the rapid eye movement you were mentioning. I've also done it where I'm holding these two, um, little kind of balls and they're pulsating as, um, so instead of the eye, the rapid eye movement, they're kind of doing that same movement or just pulsating at various speeds [00:25:00] depending on.

What we're working through. And often it's to try to find a better thought, right? So there we might start with like, this is the thought that's causing suffering. And then the, the goal, at least for the sessions I've been in, have been to come to a better thought that makes me feel better. And so often when I've done it, um, it has definitely, like, I walk away feeling like, oh, I feel better about that specific situation.

Um. So, yeah, there's different ways to do it. I would definitely recommend being with a practitioner. 'cause I think too, that that can, it can be more helpful if you have someone kind of guiding you through it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I do some of it myself at home, but that's only the regular, you wanna process something and only 'cause I've been doing it since 2019 and Right.

It's, I, I have a guided therapist. [00:26:00] Um, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, they sometimes use the pulsate as well as headphones and lights or, yeah. Right. Yeah. So many ways they do it and mm-hmm. There's a lot of training for therapists to get qualified in it, and there's more and more research that's coming out on it. I know that the therapist I've been using, she recently went overseas to do more, um.

Training on it as well. So yeah, it's amazing what's coming out of it. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so the other modality you had mentioned to me was TRE. Would you, um, like to tell us a little bit about what that is and what that entails as well? Yeah, sure. So TRE used to stand for just trauma release exercises, but it, it's now known as tension and trauma release exercises, and it was developed by David [00:27:00] Belli, um, who discover, discovered, um, that it helps the body release deep muscular tension through a natural shaking or tremor response, something the nervous system is wired to do after stress or trauma.

So. For instance, you've got, it's a healthy, so after the fire, I was shaking, but that's actually, it was a healthy shaking. It wasn't, I mean, people could say it's shock, but it's also a way of your nervous system downregulating itself. What we don't want is someone to go into the freeze state, which they describe in polyvagal.

Theory, like when my, my poodle years ago, she got attacked by a kelpie and nearly killed. She froze and just went limp. We don't want that. Mm-hmm. The shaking is good. So there's exercises you do to help encourage the body to shake. It's [00:28:00] mainly releasing the SOAs muscle. Um, so when we suffer. A stressful, traumatic event are so as tighten, so are so as, as you and know is a, a hip flexor muscle, but it's a, a unique muscle in that it starts in our lower back lumbar spine and it's got a connection to thoracic I believe, and it wraps around the front, over a hip into the inner thigh and it tightens.

And that also has an effect of tightening the diaphragm up. Primary respiratory muscle we should use for breathing. So it affects our breath and it stops us that. So as tightening then tightens the diaphragm, which stops us breathing properly, which then affects our central nervous system because how we breathe affects our central nervous [00:29:00] system.

So he has these exercises to help you release your SOAs. And to help release the diaphragm and to, and if you're feeling hypervigilant, restless, to do these exercises, to downregulate yourself. Um, because trauma is said to be held in the body. Um, so there was, uh, a case here in Australia where some cattle were exported.

To, uh, another country. I won't say which, but, um, they saw their, their friends being slaughtered and the complete, and they knew this was going to happen to me next. And they started to shake, they trembled, they tremors, and that's what we do. And because they did this to downright their downregulate, their, um, central nervous system.

And when the cattle. [00:30:00] Were slaughtered and that that sort of, the meat was eaten, it actually tastes different, tastes different because the trauma's held in the body. And, um, VanDerKolk wrote a book on it called The Body Keeps the Score It, and How Trauma Just Lives in the Body. It shows up in muscle tension, posture, breath.

And so David Bocelli's work is. Helping to release that tension out of the body. Um, because people who get diagnosed with PTSD, um, are often suffered from, uh, chronic pain because of the change in the fascia and the change in the prefrontal cortex in the brain. And, um. Yeah. So, um, after the fire I show I would shake a lot more.

I'd go into my, anyone who practices yoga, I'd go into a back bend like cobra bows and [00:31:00] I'd start to shake up and down because my body was releasing all of that. And it was, I'd do my myofascial release with the yoga tuneup balls and, um. I would shake when I released the side of my head in the temporal next to my eyes.

And it never happened before, but that's because I was releasing that trauma that was held in the body. So a lot of therapists, um, they, some therapists will only treat people who are, are practicing somatic things like yoga and TRE, alongside talk therapy. As a holistic approach for that reason. Mm-hmm.

Thank you for sharing. Okay. Um, yeah, and, and thank you for sharing all your experiences with these different modalities. 'cause I think it, it can be sometimes helpful to be doing multiple modalities to [00:32:00] help release that trauma from the body and, and release some of that stored. Energy and emotions that we're holding that we might not realize are there?

Yeah. Yeah. So you and I had talked a little bit we're both yoga teachers. We had talked a little bit about ways that yoga teachers can make their classes more trauma sensitive. Um, and I know we were sort of discussing how there are even some ways I've, I've been a trauma sensitive yoga teacher for.

Since 2018 and I'm, you know, you, you mentioned another way that te teachers can be even more aware of ways that people can be triggered in class. Would you like to share some of those ways that teachers can be, um, can be more aware and can be cognizant of how they're setting up that space so that it's safe for people with [00:33:00] various types of trauma?

Yeah. Yeah, sure. Um, I mean there's a lot of, uh, I think it's important for us yoga teachers to realize that we're going to have people come in who have that a a lot of teachers are, say, have the attitude of like. No one in my class has trauma or has PTSD. I said, well, how do you know that they're not gonna come and announce it to the class?

Oh, by the way, I've got trauma or I've got PTSD. I suffer from anxiety and depression. Most of them are gonna tell you that. Um, we've gotta make the assumption that a lot of us have got stuff going on and a lot of us come to yoga to relax and, you know, as part of our self-care. And I'm not saying I haven't made mistakes.

My students are, my best teachers been teaching yoga since 2012 and my teaching has changed. But, um, what came out of the fire [00:34:00] that we were talking about is candles. I never thought of candles as a trigger. Um, but, and if someone has survived a fire candles. Especially in the acute phase, are going to be in a trigger or they're always gonna be a trigger.

And I know they make nice lighting, they're not bright. And if you're going to use them, that's fine, but advertise it, stay. Look for this class. It's a candle lit class. We are going to do a special meditation like Uck, which you need. Well, they use a candle to gaze upon as part of the meditation. So people can go, oh yeah, that class isn't for me.

That's gonna really trigger me. So, so advertise it, give people warning rather than just doing it or, or saying to people in the class. Oh, does anyone mind if I use candles? Because if PE people [00:35:00]may not wanna put their hand up and say, oh yeah, I do mind. Because they might get embarrassed and you know, or they may just run out of the studio.

So I know candles are lovely. Um. But they're not for everyone. I, I will, I've, I've had studio owners who said to me, you have to use them. I, uh, would I, I would also encourage studio owners not to enforce it. Incense. Is also going to be an issue. Um, not even just the people who have trauma because of fires.

Um, certain smells. I think from what I've heard, there was a studio here in Australia and someone and some, a teacher used incense and the smell triggered it and she had a panic attack. Oh, wow. Um. So the incense is something else you've gotta consider. [00:36:00] Is it a good idea to use it? Um, that's something I'd never thought of either.

'cause again, I've had studio owners that have said to me, no, you've gotta light incense in the reception to set the scene. Right. So that's something that's really come out for me. There's many things, um. It's also holding space for your students, centering yourself before class so you can hold space for your students.

And knowing that you might have students come into class, uh, come into the reception and say, oh, where are the emergency exits? Um, do you, you know, or if they've suffered a burglary, maybe they're like, do you lock the front doors so no one can come in? Or they might actually ask if your smoke alarms are working, or they may look at your smoke alarms and say, oh, where are the, the, the, um, smoke alarm?

And I guess the thing, the worst thing you could do is laugh and ridicule them and say, oh look, there's not [00:37:00] gonna be another fire. Um, right. Well, I've, I've survived too, and I know people who've survived free. Um, so lightning does strike more than once sometimes. Um, but it's good to hold space and have compassion and think, well, yes, I don't learn to smoke alarms.

Most people don't. But you are gonna have students that might, you're going to have students that, um, are going to shake in class. Um. Because not in in, like, especially in a hip opening class, a hip opening pose like, uh, goddess pose or something, or bridge pose. They might shake in Cobra like I did. I think the worst thing you could do is, you know, say to them loudly, why are you shaking to in front of the whole class?

Right. Calling them out. Yeah, yeah. You know, so we've gotta learn how to deal with that and make sure maybe if we're concerned. Maybe see if they're okay, [00:38:00] but maybe just leave them for a while and see how they're going. Obviously they're not having a panic attack and shaking is gonna happen in a yoga class.

It's somatic. Um, crying is also common. I've had a few students cry and I've heard of yoga teachers freaking out when a, a student. Really? Yeah. Um, certain poses will bring out crying. I cried in a yoga class when I did a lot of hip. I have too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of yoga teachers freak out. And I, I guess it could be confronting if it's never happened, but we've gotta learn how to deal with that and make sure they're okay if we think they're not, but not, you know, make a big fuss and point them out to everyone as well.

Um, I mean, I, I know someone who lost her father, and she would, she's a yoga teacher herself, and she went to a, she's got a strong. Strong physical practices and she's one of those people that do handstands, [00:39:00] not that that's necessary. Mm-hmm. And she went to a Vinyasa class and she pretty much was in, spent the class in, in child's pose, and she asked another final resting pose, crying.

That's all she needed from her practice that day. That's all she needed. And there's nothing wrong with that. Um, so giving our students options, variations or using invitational language, like if it feels right for you rather than no feet together, you've gotta do it that way, you know? Um, right. My teacher.

Yeah. I feel like we could do a whole, a whole call, a whole podcast episode about that too, right? Like ways to be more trauma sensitive as a teacher. Yes, for sure. Yeah. So they're just some of the things, um, and I'm not saying they're all of, I just wanna say they're not all of the things, but they're some of the new things that have come out for me since this event.

Yeah. Yeah, and I think it's really important [00:40:00] to, like you had mentioned, staying in the advertising, what, you know, whether there's candlelight. That's something I've noticed in terms of having essential oils or incense or even sage or uh, pa Santo because some people. Have sensitivities to those smells and they really would like to know in advance if that's gonna be an issue during the class.

So yeah, I think it's very important to be advertising those things that are being offered for specific classes and also have options that don't have those things and yeah, as well. Yeah. Um, sorry to interrupt you, but also, um, darkness can be another trigger. Um, right. Keep lights on. If people want darkness, they can use an eye pillow.

Um, but don't force students to use an eye pillow. 'cause some of them will get triggered from that for sure. Mm-hmm. Interesting. Yeah, that's one that I again, didn't know about, so thank you for bringing that, [00:41:00] bringing that up on the call. Um, so getting close to wrapping up, but if you wanna share, I know we talked about, um, a tool that has been helpful for you, if you'd like to share that with our listeners.

Yeah. Yeah. So regulating the breath, um, is great. I mean, obviously if you're really anxious, you, you might need to get rid of some energy without stirring yourself up too much, but I won't get into that too much. But, um, something we like to use in yoga is B breath, bumblebee breath. And, um, you can do this just by curling your tongue back towards.

Your tonsils if you still have them. And taking a normal breath in through your nose. And on the exhale you make a sound of the Z sound of a B. So it sort of sounds like this. [00:42:00] Mm.

And usually it makes you, um, lengthen your exhale. So you breathe out longer than you inhale and that helps you calm down with, um, switching on your vagus nerve, which is the nerve that tells your rest digest system to kick in. And the sound, the use of the vocal cause does that as well. And then some people add, cover their face as well with what we call a, a mudra in yoga.

So yeah, and we just do that for a few rounds or maybe more. Um, but if you haven't done it before, try it without closing, uh, without blocking your, um, eyes. Yeah. Thank you for sharing quickly. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, so it's a great one to calm down. Yeah. [00:43:00] Yeah. That's one I've used a lot, especially in my kids' yoga class.

They like to pretend they're bees. Oh, yes. Yes. And as an adult as well. Absolutely. Totally agree. Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing. What are some ways that people can work with you and learn more about you? Uh, they can head over to my website, which is liz alban wellness.com au. And I do offer one-on-one.

Sessions with people all around the world 'cause it's on online. And I have some we'll have be having some more courses coming out, um, to help you learn how to practice yoga at home with various, um, yoga practices that don't have to involve, uh, yoga mats and, um, some myofascial release courses and y yoga courses to, um [00:44:00] mm.

Make your fascia, your type ology in this connective tissue, um, healthier and happier to relieve tension and can help with a holistic approach to trauma. Yeah, and I also mentor, oh, sorry. And I also mentor. Okay. Which is, and, but it's all on my website. Yeah. Awesome. That's great. Yeah. Thank you so much Liz, and I'll be including links to your website and your social media in the description of the podcast episode as well.

Yeah. Thanks Kristen. That's thanks for having me. You're welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today, and thank you all for joining us on the Get Loud Podcast. We'll see you next time.

Thanks again to Kristen Kllipp of the Get Loud podcast for letting me share this.

Thank you for joining me podcast. I hope today's episode has left you feeling [00:45:00] inspired and informed and empowered to take meaningful steps towards your wellbeing. If there's a topic you'd like me to cover, or if you'd like to share your story, I'd love to hear from you. Just fill in the form on the podcast page of my website.

Your voice is an important part of this journey. I want this podcast to reflect the conversations that matter most to my listeners. If today's episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might benefit from these conversations. Don't forget to subscribe. It helps grow this incredible community of resilience and support.

Until next time. Take care of yourself and never forget the power, the possibilities of a regular yoga practice. See you soon.

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Liz Albanis

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