When the Body Feels Safe Again: Trauma Informed Yoga Therapy featuring Liz Albanis

In this episode, I'm joined by Liz Albanis, founder of Liz Albanis Wellness and host of the podcast Yoga for Trauma: The Inner Fire of Yoga. Liz is a senior yoga teacher with over a decade of experience, a yoga therapist in training, and a holistic health and wellness coach blending yoga, Pilates, barre, and fitness to support mental, emotional, and physical healing. Her work centers on making yoga accessible, compassionate, and trauma-informed, helping individuals create personalized practices that fit their lifestyles and support nervous system regulation, resilience, and overall well-being. Liz's belief that no two bodies or healing journeys are the same shapes everything she offers ”from private tailored sessions to mentoring other teachers on functional, mindful, and inclusive approaches that go far beyond traditional studio classes.  

Liz's own journey through stress, trauma, and recovery offers powerful context for her teachings. After losing her home in a devastating fire, she turned to yoga not just for physical movement but as a lifeline for navigating loss, rebuilding inner stability, and cultivating mental strength. On the podcast, we explore how Liz integrates her lived experience with trauma-informed practices that honor each person's unique story, how yoga can be a tool for mental health and nervous system support, and how small, intentional daily practices can transform stress into resilience. Whether you're deepening your practice or seeking holistic tools for healing and grounded living, this conversation reveals the heart of yoga beyond the poses ~ where transformation happens.

Connect with Liz: 

Instagram: @lizalbaniswellnessau

Website: https://www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au/

PURCHASE BOOK NOW!

Get Patched! 

Start Breathing & Find Your Flow! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:19

Welcome back to today's episode of Unapologetic Living. I am Elizabeth Elliott and I'm your hostess, and I am joined by another Elizabeth, Elizabeth Albanis, although I believe is it is that do you go by your full name or do you like the nickname Liz?

SPEAKER_01: 1:35

I prefer Liz, yeah. Um I don't really go by Elizabeth. Only my father calls me that occasionally, or my one of my uncles. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44

Yeah. Well, I know that when they named me, um my mom, my I'm named after my great-grandmother on my dad's side, and my mom's mother on my on my mom's side. Um, so I'm Margaret Elizabeth, but the agreement was only if they called me Elizabeth and the full name, it did I would I get my mother's mother's name. Oh yeah. So anyway, I've always gone by the whole thing, although I have a handful of people who somehow have like gotten away with calling me Liz or Lizzie or something, you know, um, like that, but not very many. I know that I was introduced to you um through social media, which that's one of the amazing things about the World Wide Web, and uh really appreciate your work well as a as a senior yoga teacher, as a health and wellness coach, but especially your work around trauma and hold hold on one second around trauma. And you know, one of the things that I do is I'm a body worker and I work with the fascia. And yeah, what drew me to the fascia work, well, I I've started I I don't I'm 47 and I started practicing yoga at um 22. Oh, a long time ago, data um and I don't even I found it through a friend who was dating a gal who owned a yoga studio. It was Bikrum too.

SPEAKER_01: 3:17

Oh, you really okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:19

And I loved it, but it was hot, and I then I found out I was pregnant, so I don't know really, you know, if it's too hot, not good. So I, you know, I had to quit practicing bikrum and then found other forms of yoga later. But um I have a spinal fusion. Oh wow, okay, and I have scoliosis. So I had uh um a the my fusion done when I was 12 years old, so it's 30 35 years old, and um it was just part of you know that's a trauma when you're going into the body and cutting open and cutting through the fascia, you're you know, it's traumatic. Whether or not, you know, and here I was 12. My recollection and memories of it are kind of vague. I have a you know, this memory and that memory. There's probably stuff in there that has been, you know, stuffed down, maybe, but I know that a lot of this stuff, these micro and macro traumas, get stuck in our body. Definitely, and yoga can be a great tool. It definitely was when I started B Crum, all of a sudden one day I was freaking bawling. No one told me you can have an emotional release. Oh, yeah. 22. I'm like, why am I crying? Yeah, and then afterwards I walked out, I talked to the owner. Um, who again was dating my boss at the time. I was waiting tables, a little vegetarian dive here, and she explained to me that you can have an emotional release. So so yeah, welcome, welcome.

SPEAKER_01: 5:01

Oh, that's great to hear, Elizabeth, about uh how you discovered yoga and your understanding of fascia. But if you're a body worker, you would understand that. And I've seen more and more of that in my own body with more traumas that I've uh been through. And yoga has helped release the trauma, and I could give you an examples of that in the last two years. So I I already I got diagnosed with PTSD at the age of 11, so a long time ago, and I always had tight hips, tight lower back, because my psoas had tightened and my diaphragm had very normal. And the Bikrum yoga that I discovered in 2011 helped open me up a little bit and reduce the hip pain I got. And I survived a fire, uh, my first fire in 2004, just uh 20 years almost to the exact day of the second one, 13 hours difference with the date. And uh I could feel in my body the changes, the the way my body had tightened up. And when I started to shake, I wasn't alarmed because I knew that was my body releasing trauma from the studies I've done with yoga and with myofascial release because I've got my diploma in fitness as well. Um so I'm a qualified personal trainer. And we learn about fascia there and myofascial release, but it was there was a lot more shaking and it was quite amazing because even when I went into cobra pose, Bushan Gasana lying on my stomach, my head would shake up and down. It's if I'm triggered, sometimes it might do that in Cobra again nowadays, or I'd sway side to side and I would just go with it. But it, you know, not all yoga teachers would be aware of this, and if they saw their students doing this in a class, they might be quite alarmed. But you'll see it in classes. Yoga teachers will see this as well as crying, they're both releases. And when I use I use yoga tune-up balls for my fascia release developed by Dr. Developed by Jill Miller in the United States, and when I would release my head, like my temporalis in the side of my head, my method's chewing muscles, SCM down the side of my neck, occipitals in the back of my head, even the levator scap in the neck, I would tremor. And I was holding a lot more tension there. There was more teeth grinding going on, but I knew it was a physical and emotional release, and I would have more intense shaking when I practiced the tension and trauma release exercises that David Bacelli developed. Um, that I've learnt as well.

SPEAKER_00: 8:30

So that's since now that's not the that's not the TRE, is it? Is that TRE? Yeah, TRE.

SPEAKER_01: 8:36

Okay, yeah, okay. But yeah, now it's known as tension and trauma release exercises, not just trauma release exercises. His first book was Shake It Off Naturally or something, where he describes the tremors that happen. And you know, us humans, we're taught to brace and keep it together, and we we we hold back from releasing, but because of my knowledge, I knew to go with it and let it happen. But a lot of us don't know that. And I mean they've done studies on this with the horrible 9-11 terrorist attack. The people that were able to run and get rid of that energy, that that trauma had less consequences in the relation to PTSD than the ones that were trapped and felt more helpless. I can't remember where I read that, but it was quite an interesting study. But what you said about your spinal fusion doesn't surprise me either because when I did my yoga tune-up training, there was a study that had come out about liposuction and people being depressed after the liposuction, not because it didn't turn out well, but because of the changes in the fascia. So it's it's the biggest sensory organ, and it's full of these nerve receptors, and it's amazing how it can change the way we feel. So when we're working with trauma, we need a bottom-up approach as well as a top-down approach in that we need to get into the body. Um, and that's been made evidence, evident with the work of Bessel Vanderkoek and Peter Levine, and as well as David Bacelli.

SPEAKER_00: 10:28

And now, let's see, one of those wrote what, Waking the Tiger.

SPEAKER_01: 10:35

Yeah, that was Peter Levine. Okay. Kitty the score. Yeah, yeah, or Holy Score. Can't remember. I lost that one in the fire, and I haven't replaced it yet. Um, because I've had a lot, I've had other stuff to replace. But anyway, so their work proved it that you need to work with a body. And I and when I was just diagnosed with PTSD, it well, this is the 19, it was the 1992. Uh there was less knowing about all of this. It's been it was just wasn't, you know, people just didn't know that. It was all about talk therapy and play therapy with kids and that sort of thing. And now we've also got things like EMDR, like eye movement, desensitization and reprocessing, which is gets into the body and the brain. So it's a top-down and a bottom-up approach for trauma. But yoga is go ahead. Sorry, yoga is one of the great um ways of getting into the body with trauma.

SPEAKER_00: 11:43

Well, the wonderful thing about yoga is that you it does utilize our own body. And if resources are short, you can now always. I think with trauma, there needs to be I, you know, it's difficult to process and move through some of that alone. And I'm with talk therapy. I started at 15.

SPEAKER_01: 12:08

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:09

You know, my I and it wasn't necessarily over my back, but my parents were going through a div, no, they weren't even going through a divorce yet. There was all this stuff going on. And you know, so I I I've seen a talk therapist. I I think the the last talk therapist I saw, which has been off and on, consistently inconsistent with with, and I think it's helpful. Oh, yeah. To a degree, but it it can only take you so far.

SPEAKER_01: 12:38

You need both, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:40

Um, and I did see a really great therapist who integrated EMDR with internal family systems.

SPEAKER_01: 12:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 12:52

She was fantastic. And when I wanted to go back to her several years back to like revisit some stuff, she's retired. Um, and I felt like I had luck with her. I also did the EMDR with a low a gal um during COVID, and that was online, and I found that did not work for me. I did not make any headway, I do not feel it was not, and maybe I wasn't ready to really go there and tackle what we were tackling. Uh, but I I think for me, being in person for EMDR, and you know, um, I had a better outcome. And I would I would revisit it again, but I think it's um, and there's no way, like, you know, I wrote a book and it's that's one of the first things I mentioned. I'm taken to this memory where we could get to go in and heal it, which a memory like I know about, but like I didn't realize the impact that it had on me at that time. Sometimes you don't until years later, right?

SPEAKER_01: 15:32

Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, it can be, I think it can be more powerful in person, especially because some EMDR therapists use a machine with buzzers.

SPEAKER_00: 15:43

Yeah, mine, I think she had something in my hands and behind my knees, and then I was doing this. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:50

So it can be more powerful, but I mean, in the days of COVID, well, online was better than nothing, right?

SPEAKER_00: 15:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So was it your personal experience with this diagnosis of PTSD that brought you to your work?

SPEAKER_01: 16:07

Yeah, yeah. Well, I I when I discovered yoga, I was not in a great place. I was smoking a lot because I'd smoked since I was a teenager because of the PTSD, and I also didn't know I had ADHD, and I ended up getting diagnosed with complex PTSD, and a lot of ADHD can cause that diagnosis. It's not in the DSM 5, but a lot of medical professionals use that term complex PTSD, and it's just that complex. But I was working in a job that I hated. I worked for the government here in Australia for 10 years, and I'm not saying that's a bad job, it just wasn't the right job for me. It's a great career for financially, it was great because I would have had an amazing pension to retire on if I'd stayed longer, but I didn't. And so when I discovered yoga, I was a very unhappy person, and I tried to quit smoking multiple times. It was my coping mechanism. And within three months of of starting Bikram yoga, I managed to quit smoking, and that started to make me think, oh, it's not about being flexible. There's a lot more to this, it's a sp you know, and then because it had such a profound effect on me, and because I'm a privileged white person living in a first world country like here in Australia, I'd saved money, I I got a a payout from the government, I had a career change as a result of this. And this was in 2012 I did my first teacher training, and I also started um person uh studying fitness and I started group classes and in Canberra, where I'm living now in the capital, the Bush Capitol, a really small little city here in Australia of half a million people. And then we moved uh before I got married, we moved to Melbourne, uh, soon to be the biggest city here in Australia. And I did more training, and I also did I did some training specifically for yoga for mental health, life force yoga, which was developed by Amy Weintrubb in the United States. She wrote a book called Yoga for Depression. And I started and I ran workshops. I actually started to run the workshops before I moved to Melbourne, actually, on yoga for depress life force yoga for depression, for better sleep, for anxiety. Um, and just before the fire of 2024, um, I'd started my training to become a yoga therapist, which is taking it to the next level and working more one-on-one with specific populations and having more scope of practice. And before I started the yoga therapy studies, I'd started working online with people and I could offer them more personalized practices for certain things as part of my yoga therapy studies. Like I I've dealt with mostly women because that tends to be things, and you know, one of my uh clients was um early 50s, gone through menopause, and she uh was being bullied at work, she had trauma there because of developmental trauma with an abusive suicidal mother who eventually did commit suicide. And uh I was able to help her uh with coping with the bullying at work, with her mindset, and uh give her yogic practices to reduce the pain she was having in her back because she had a bad back because of because of a car accident, and uh she didn't find going to a group class accessible and she had bad experiences by being singled out. So I can help people do that sort of thing. They can come to me and I can give them sort of someone, you know, if anyone listening in the audience who thinks they can't practice yoga at home or yoga at work, you can. There are many practices you can do off the mat and even at work. So I could give you things breath work to calm you down before you have a presentation at work, or if you've been performance managed by your boss and bullied and you you've been having anxiety at work because of that, I can give things to my clients specifically for that and help using the yogic tools of self-inquiry with mindset and other practices at home that often aren't taught in classes because they can't be. There's a lot of practices we can't teach in classes, and Life Force Yoga has got some wonderful practices that don't involve rolling a mat. So I can I can offer that to people who come and see me.

SPEAKER_00: 21:53

You know, it's funny, you mentioned a couple things, coping mechanism. I I and you mentioned smoking. I smoked for five years, and just before I started yoga, it was 20 2001, maybe it was like 2001, maybe it was that spring. Could have been just before, because my son was born in 2002. I was pregnant by the end of 2001, and I had either just quit smoking and was trying to replace that habit. And when I say yeah, I was scared, yeah, I was like five or six years of smoking, and I smoked menthols, I smoked your mech marble reds and what whatever they do. They're very strong. Oh, yeah, and uh full of chemicals. Um, and I was probably buying a pack every 18 hours. Um I'm also smoking. I was smoking.

SPEAKER_01: 22:57

That's that's a lot, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 22:59

Yeah, it wasn't like I was having three or four, yeah. Right. And um so I knew I had to replace that habit with something, and that's I'd started that, I'd started lifting weights again. I had a big calendar, I was checking off boxes, so when I was successful and with the cigarette smoking, and um I was training for a half marathon, so all that was happening at once, and yoga was a huge piece of that, but as you say, you know, a lot of times you'll hear clients or potential students say, I'm I'm not flexible, and there's so much more to yoga than flexibility. And you know, I teach a handful of very small classes, and most of my students are 60 plus, and they're small groups, small. They're people who've been with me for um well, since like 2016. A lot of them have been with me, you know, since an amount of time. Yeah, and but again, they're small classes. Um and um, but you know, I you know, I remind them like, look, this is about really the word yoga means to unite with source, whatever that means for you. And it's so much more than flexibility. Um, but people will say that I'm like, it's not about it's not about flexibility. There's like so many other pieces to this. But you know, we're in America and a lot of it's been westernized, you know, it's kind of been bastardized.

SPEAKER_01: 24:33

It's been bastardized in my language in a way.

SPEAKER_00: 24:37

It has. And so with my clients, I don't go into the spiritual components as much. You know, we just focus. Really, at this point, they come to me to stay flexible and I honor them where they are, you know. Little little nuggets of wisdom. But you know, my audience is all over the world right now, which I just love. It was like 44 countries last year, and I can't remember what it was and how many different cities, like when they sent out my newest podcast stats. It's like so that was really cool. I have people listening from everywhere. And you know, there I don't know how many people are listening here in my town, you know, but it is so much more about flexibility. It is a wonderful coping mechanism. The other thing I I hear um is that it's uh boring, they don't like it, and you know it depends on the style.

SPEAKER_01: 25:34

Maybe they haven't found the right style, you know. So there's just so much variety there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 25:41

Yeah, so much variety. It might be the teacher. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. I mean, like, I am not gonna be everybody's cup of tea. Um, and so I invite people out there who have experienced yoga and and give it a little bit of time before you make the decision, because there are definitely some classes that I've been to just in my own community, that if I was only basing on that one class, I might never go back. But because I've got this history with it.

SPEAKER_01: 26:13

Yeah, and I've I've had clients that had bad experiences, or they just felt intimidated by the flexibility component. I can't touch my toes, I can't go. And I say, and I say what one of my teachers, I think it was Bernie Clark, who said, it's like telling someone you're too dirty to have a shower, you know. Right, yeah. The same thing. That's the anal analogy behind it. Yeah. And I I've dealt with um a male client who just he needed it for his anxiety and his mind. But he tried a meditation class out and he was too revved up, too much energy, and he just didn't have enough to focus his mind. It was pretty much vipassana meditation. And he needed more of a bone for his mind, like giving a dog a bone, more to anchor himself, but he also didn't want to be caught dead going to a yoga studio because of the stereotypes, and that's normal as well. So know that there's other ways to practice yoga, and and that yoga classes are very much a modern day thing. The ancient yogis didn't go to classes, it was handed down one you know, one to one in a really beautiful way, and they were given practices, they were taught practices verbally that were suitable to them. And you know, yoga practices, as I like to say, not just yoga poses, are like penicillin. One practice might be medicine for you, but poison to the person next to you. And and this includes breath work and meditation. There are contraindications there, and that's why I like to work people with people one-on-one, so I can develop a practice specifically tailored to them.

SPEAKER_00: 28:15

Now, now I know you went through the yoga therapist. Um, now did you you've you've completed that already?

SPEAKER_01: 28:22

No, I'm I'm I'm right at the end of it, like a couple of weeks off.

SPEAKER_00: 28:26

And so when you work, let's say you work with someone um on a personal level, uh, would you, or I came to you, would we I would assume I might get a questionnaire? Would questions, would there be questions about, aside from just like my overall activity level, weight, health, about maybe those micro and macro traumas that I may or may not have experienced throughout the course of my life. So you know what you're working with when this person, you know, when when I'm with you, you know, alone or virtually to help me navigate the the yoga practice in a comfortable way. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 29:15

Yeah, so it's like when you go to the you have a personal training session with at a gym, um, or even join some of the gyms, they they fill out a questionnaire and with not just with their goals and their injuries, but it's also an Ayurvedic one, um, which is yoga sister science, and originally wasn't separated from yoga anyway. So I can work out more about what suits them as we're so unique. So will you ask them, would you determine their dosha as well? Yeah, look, uh to me that the Vikrit is more important than the dosha, like rather than their constitution, we look at the imbalances there. Okay, and so that's part of it, and I give them a questionnaire to fill out before I meet with them. But any good yoga teacher, uh experienced yoga teacher will start assessing a person as soon as they meet them. And if they're really good at it, that person will have no idea that as soon as they've walked into the room or as soon as they've appeared online, you're being assessed. You're that you're looking at, I mean, you're reading the body as well. You're reading seeing the person's posture, their body language, like if if a person blink, yeah, exactly. Not making fists. Like if a person has a really high blink rate, like their rapid eye movement, we know that's high vata.

SPEAKER_00: 33:00

Oh my gosh, do I have that?

SPEAKER_01: 33:02

No, no, but I tell you what I did. And part of my training with this yoga therapy, I learn about this, and I learned more about reading bodies. And so that's the first part of this is the intake form of per people filling it out. And then the you meet the person and you're looking at things like this, and you might obtain consent for touch to assess other things like pulse, what sort of pulse they've got, body temperature and breath assessment as well. So that's part of the the first stage, the uh the assessment part, and then finding out their goals and what they really need. You can't solve everything, and also how much time they have, what's actually feasible. And ideally, we practice yoga daily because of the neuroplasticity of the brain. Even better, twice a day. So less is more sometimes if you can divide it up into like yoga snacks, and I like to give my clients things they can break up throughout the day, which you can't do if you go to a class, and it can be more time consuming.

SPEAKER_00: 34:23

So yeah, I mean, definitely uh when you go to a class, you you cannot get that same one-on-one attention.

SPEAKER_01: 34:32

And it's not usually daily either. Yeah, and sometimes you can't get there. Or what about if you injure yourself and you're relying on us and other postures for your overwhelming? Like I've known I've had clients who've said to me, Oh, I've I'm going nuts because I've injured myself and I can't go to my class, and I and I'm mentally I'm feeling frazzled. And I've shown them practices that can help calm them, like bee breath, pranayama, making that sound of the bee, even pressure on the eyes to stimulate the vagus nerve that tells us our parasympathetic nervous system to switch on. But yeah, that's the first part of it. And then it's me giving them a program, but even though it's online, I give them resources like handouts, instructions, videos, that sort of thing, because the platform that I use allows me to do that and then catch up with them again and tweak it if need be. Keep seeing them because we're all different, and you know, I don't here in Australia, especially where when I was in Melbourne, we were the COVID capital of Australia. We had a record number of lockdown days. We had multiple lockdowns, but it was over 240 days in full lockdown with a few. And that's okay. I'm not saying it didn't need to happen, but a lot of businesses did not recover. And the wellness industry, as you would know, was hit hard. And there are just not as many yoga studios around in many parts. And that's another reason to try to practice yoga at home, and that you don't need to go and become a yoga teacher to do that, and not not all yoga teachers know how to practice at home anyway.

SPEAKER_00: 36:33

Yeah, I mean, at least two yoga studios here I know of closed down, right? They're you know, I don't know, just I think they were already looking to close the doors in a year or so, but after that March 13th date, or whatever day it was, it was not far behind that they went ahead and closed their doors. At least two I know of.

SPEAKER_01: 37:01

Yeah, and it's devastating for the owners and the community and the industry, but yeah, I know people that had to close their business. I feel bad for them, and I mean it must have been horrible. And that's what made me start working online because you know, my favorite yoga studio closed its doors. They tried to sell it, couldn't sell it. Two other places I worked at closed, and I saw it as a sign of, hmm, maybe there's some other things I could be doing as well.

SPEAKER_00: 37:30

Well, and I think that's one of the beautiful things that we have learned from COVID is that we can have these sorts of exchanges between people like you and I, or you and you know, um yoga students or clients, right? That it doesn't, I mean, there's there's something wonderful about the face-to-face and the one-on-one, but it doesn't always happen. And um, you know, who was I talking to the other day? The benefit for for let's say a young mom or any parent, let's say any parent, to not have to spend 15 minutes in the car to go or have to get a child caregiver to come into the home while they go, right? And just be able to do it from home. That saves you time, money.

SPEAKER_01: 38:26

And we're time poor, most of us. Yeah, yeah, we are like rushing around from activity to activity.

SPEAKER_00: 38:32

Yeah, yeah. And many, I mean, at least over here, it's mostly I would say, I I don't want to say, I would say predominantly two parent income homes. And so a lot of parents are not at home with their kids. Now they were home a lot more. We learned that we could do a lot more from home than we thought.

SPEAKER_01: 38:48

Yeah, oh yeah. You we've seen that here in Australia with a lot a lot of people working more from home.

SPEAKER_00: 38:53

Yeah. Yeah, and their kids are home, and if they figured out a way to work while their kids were home, and you know, and some found ways to exercise at home or, you know, decided to do calisthenics or build a home gym or take a handful of things that they own to create what they needed to. Um, so I do think that is one of the wonderful things, one of the tools that we have taken out of COVID.

SPEAKER_01: 39:18

Um, oh yeah, because nothing's, you know, it's I like to say that trying not to be black and white, there's good with bad.

SPEAKER_00: 39:25

Yeah. Now, you know, that whole experience too um was traumatic for me.

SPEAKER_01: 39:33

Oh, oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 39:34

Yeah, it was definitely there was a lot going on there. I know that when people think of trauma, um, you know, like the operation I had on my back was was hefty, and I can't recall maybe emotions that have gotten stuck there and stored there. And and you know maybe I've released some of those. Maybe another, you know, yoga pose might help me release more. I did some of the TRE work and I had no idea. Then I I was like, I went into the class. Oh, I was in a class. It was a workshop, and there were like seven of us. Oh right. We fatigued our psoas and we lay down, and and uh I was like, I'm not gonna trim her. There's no way. And then it was happening, and I was like, you know, and and it really is a kind of a cool feeling, I think. Yeah, it's and it made me think about times when you know, another time that I feel as though I experienced that was after giving birth. I think what they tell you is you have your baby, and then you're gonna get really cold, which you might, but then your legs start shaking. Oh, really? Or both in mine. And I think you know, that's because I'd just given birth. It was more of a trauma response due to a powerful thing that my body was capable of doing, but that's still a big thing. Yeah, my body's made to do it, but my body needed to release all that was taking place up to, during, after, and it and it did so with this leg shake. And I think that can also happen um in a powerful, you know, um, sexual experience after orgasm. You can but you're not, we're not, we're not no one's really talking about this tremor piece, right? To where we can release, and we're doing it throughout our lives and not really knowing sometimes.

SPEAKER_01: 41:34

Yeah, and it's an important conversation to have. So people who are listening and yoga teachers as well, if you had someone tremor in your class, it's normal it's gonna happen, and someone's probably gonna cry in your class, and you don't want to single them out, and you don't want to make the assumption that they're going to have a panic attack, they may just be having a release like you did.

SPEAKER_02: 41:57

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01: 41:58

And if you go to a yoga class and know that this might happen, it's normal. Don't don't get too worried.

SPEAKER_00: 42:05

Now, would you would you um because you because you were talking about how your neck and head were moving, right? Would you uh connect that with uh the kundalini energy? Or would you isolate them? I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_01: 42:26

Uh usually from my understanding is when the circle with the kundalini as in the serpent, it's it's all along the spine. But some people actually, some people would say any sort of shaking could be. I felt the kundalini shakti more. Um I did a kriya meditation called Sudhashan Kriya, sky meditation, one day here in the new house we have. Uh, it's quite a powerful meditation that's got, you know, it's contraindicated for manic depression and psychosis and stuff like that. And it's a kundalini one, really, with the breath work and the chanting, and it's a because it's a career. And towards the end of it, there was a house down the road that was getting demolished, and I could I heard the trucks, and it it it it it uh triggered me because it reminded me of my house, what was left of it getting demolished, which was quite confronting. And I I spasmed all throughout the spine. I was without and I just went with it because I knew from my practice. So I would I was lying on my back in Shavasana at the end of this Suddhashankria, and that noise happened. I suddenly spasmed, arching, and you know, the the spine was just rolling all by itself, and that was felt to me like Kundalini Shakti. But yes, that that's true. The shaking just there could be deemed to be the Kundalini Shakti.

SPEAKER_00: 47:01

Um so how long did that um last for you with the shaking? Yeah, yeah, with that kundalini that time. Yeah, that time, yeah. That specific time.

SPEAKER_01: 47:16

Oh, it was probably five to ten minutes. I didn't time it, and then I thought to myself, okay, and then after that I was calm, but I thought I just need to go out and see if I'm right, what's going on. But yeah, it felt good though. It felt like a beautiful release. As it felt nice, but I I think some people who've practiced yoga, or even some yoga teachers wouldn't know that this might happen. So anyone listening know that this might happen, it's kind of normal. And yoga teachers, it's important to learn how to hold space for your students and ground them if they do get triggered like that, and have a supportive, non-judging space and to help normalize it for students if they think, oh my god, there's something wrong with me, I just cried in class, or I just started shaking, oh my, what's something wrong with me? Because I've heard of many yoga teachers um freaking out when someone's cried in their class. Oh that that that person needs to go and see a mental health professional. And I I disagree with that. It's not necessarily the case, you know, right now yoga teachers to cry in a class and stay in child's pose um when they're grieving the loss of a loved one.

SPEAKER_00: 48:38

So it's yeah, yeah, and and and being able to hold space, it's not always uh comfortable. And sometimes it's just asking the individual, you know, what is it that you need from me? Because it may just be, I mean, with anyone really, um, you know, maybe it's a Kleenex. Right? Yeah, we can assume that they want a hug. Well, that person may not want a hug. That person may not do well with hugs, you know. So, do you want me just to listen? Can I offer a hand? Can I give you a clean? You know, and so sometimes it does take a little bit of learning and just hands-on, not hands-on, kind of hands-on experience without the hands-on, um, to navigate the these scenarios when individuals do have these emotional releases and such. And then there is the time where there are going to be individuals who might need to seek out care or expertise outside of, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 49:45

Oh, exactly. And and then as yoga teachers and even yoga therapists and and bodyworkers, we've got to be careful to stay within our scope of practice and and refer them on to someone because we do you do in this sort of work, you do have people that divulge a lot of information and you need that confidentiality, but there comes a point where you might need to refer them and to someone who's got those skills and not say, Oh, I'm going to cure your trauma because I'm a yoga teacher or I'm a yoga teacher. Or I'm going to purposely trigger you to practice as well. Right. Yeah. So I've heard of yoga teachers, you know, saying they purposely triggered someone, and I I believe that's outside of the scope of practice. You wouldn't want to purposely do it. Do you have the skills to do that? You're not a therapist, a trauma therapist, or a psychiatrist or whatever. Yeah. So it's important to stay within that scope.

SPEAKER_00: 50:45

So I want to kind of maybe this is switching gears, maybe it isn't. When your I don't know who Miguel is, but when he reached out, um one of the things he mentioned in this in in this email is uh how chronic illness, stress, and insomnia can surface repressed trauma. Can you talk a little bit about that? Um like I actually have some clients who are struggling with insomnia, and I think it is, you know, stuff trying to come to the surface. And I I think it is the same with and can be chronic illness or chronic pain. It's not always physical.

SPEAKER_01: 51:41

Well, I've I've I suffered from insomnia after the fire. I don't know what he meant there by chronic illness. I mean, certain illnesses, if they affect, you know, cause issues with the HPA access.

SPEAKER_00: 52:00

And so you would be saying like that would be like

SPEAKER_01: 52:05

Yeah, and and I mean trauma causes major issues with the HPA access. Okay. The automatic nervous system, which is really not as automatic as we think. But yeah, I'm not exactly sure about that statement.

SPEAKER_00: 52:24

Well, that's okay. I mean, I I mean I I kind of agree. I think just just with you know, just with chronic illness and stress, I don't think people realize, right? I don't even know that people realize that. Um like what what did you call it? We uh something with our time. What did you say?

SPEAKER_01: 52:45

Oh, we're time poor. We're time poor. A lot of us have too much stress.

SPEAKER_00: 52:51

And yes, and they don't even know it, they don't think they're stressed, but it's showing up in the body.

SPEAKER_01: 52:59

And they often we don't realize it until as Dr. Gabor, I don't know if he's a doctor, yeah. Yeah, and but uh but some one of the key takeaways here, and something people would not realize that I would like to get across about yoga is it doesn't always help you sleep. It can sometimes do the exact opposite of that. And people with trauma or ADHD uh can be more sensitive towards practices that may cause insomnia. Not everyone's going to be as sensitive towards it, but it's something that needs to be said because I've had I've I've lost count of the amount of people who said to me, Oh yeah, I'll just go to a yoga class, I'll be relaxed, blah, blah, blah. Not necessarily. You go to a some people will get insomnia from a bikram class because of the kapalabati breathing, the fast breath at the end, uh, the heat, the deep back bends opening up the front of the body, which can be quite triggering too, and releasing. So they're not not all practices are going to help you sleep. They can do the opposite, like going to an aerobics class. So if we want if we want to have a practice to help us sleep, which yoga can do, we want to slow the breath down. We want to stimulate the vagus nerve that tells our parasympathetic nervous system to switch on. And we want to breathe through the nose and we want to do our forward bends. And things like yoga nidra can help sleep, but they're not foolproof. I've had a client and Yoga Nidra was too much for her. And I gave and I had to give her something else because it was just too stimulating with all the the vision, uh, the bhavana, the imagery. So it's important. And then obviously, so the time of day we practice yoga needs to be taken into account as well as the time of year, and that's also something I take into account when I design programs for other people, individuals, especially if they've already got insomnia, which I think many of us do have trouble with. And uh sleep is something I've had to work hard at and still do because ever since the PTSD diagnosis, well, age of 11, I've I haven't been a great sleeper.

SPEAKER_00: 55:50

And well, I and I guess that's what I'm saying when it comes to insomnia. Could some of that be trauma, you know, the bodies, I guess, inability to relax into that? Yeah, the tension, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01: 56:02

Yeah, no, yeah, that's right. Yeah, sorry, I don't think I heard you correctly.

SPEAKER_00: 56:07

Well, I mean, and I might have been unclear. I I was just trying to like, you know, figure that piece out because it seems like at least those I know who have, you know, really struggle with insomnia, and you know, uh at 47 in perimenopause, I am struggling with this more.

SPEAKER_01: 56:24

That's another that's another problem with hormones can do it too, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 56:28

Yeah. Um, but um, you know, I think individuals who maybe and and it may be if traumas they can't remember, or you know, little macro, micro, just tension they've you know, collected along the way that has kept them, you know, bound.

SPEAKER_01: 56:47

That's suddenly come up. Yeah, because the body remembers all of that.

SPEAKER_00: 56:52

Yeah. And so it can't quite feel safe to just um rest into that deep slumber. Um, and so, but I hear you, I agree. I can understand why like um certain breath work practices or certain even postures would not always be beneficial. Uh, what about yin?

SPEAKER_01: 57:16

Yeah, so yin, yin can be great, and and again, there's misunderstandings with yin, like, oh, you need to practice it in the morning when your body's cold. And I would say, well, it depends what's your intention with your practice. But yeah, yin can be a nice practice to do at nighttime, and a lot of the yoga studios have yin or restorative yoga late at night for that reason. Again, may you still be careful what how you sequence it because maybe you wouldn't want to focus on the kidneys and urinary bladder meridians too much because that can be energizing. But most people I don't think would be too stimulated from yin, unless maybe they put in some couple of body in yin or for some reason or bastrica, some other fast, rapid breathing. But yeah, yin that can be nice because of the stillness and and that it's not getting the breath rate up and that sort of thing. That's no not usually heat, although there is still hot yin classes that that some studios have. But something else that might surprise people about anxiety and yoga, and that I get told a lot that people might not have thought of is uh a lot of people have been told, oh, go to a restorative yoga class, go to a yin yoga class. You need the stillness, you'll feel more relaxed. Well, not necessarily. If they're like me, they got ADHD or if they were acutely had trauma, they need to burn off that energy first and meet their mood where they are. And because I I've I've had students come to a restorative class and they've struggled to become still because they probably didn't meet their mood first, and that that's nothing against them. They they may not have known that. So they might actually feel more restless in that restorative yard class because they've just got too much pent-up energy, and they needed to meet it first without exacerbating it.

SPEAKER_00: 59:28

Well, now that you say that, I remember showing up for this class and gosh, I don't know if it was considered yin or restorative, but we were holding, I think we did four different postures for 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_01: 59:43

Oh, it sounds more like restorative, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 59:45

And I I mean I stayed, but I was like, oh, this is not what I wanted. Like I was energetically, I needed to move stuff. And um I stayed.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:07

Yeah, that sounds like restorative.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:09

Yeah, and then you know, covered and comfy and all of that. But I just that's not, I didn't realize what I'd signed up for. This was years ago. Um, before I knew more about yoga, but um I hear what you're saying there. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:26

Yeah, and I hope anyone who's listening who's been in that circumstance knows it's normal. You might have come out feeling worse after a restorative reading glass for that very reason. Or maybe they had bright lights on that made you feel uneasy. Maybe they forced props on you that made you that triggered you, like props. Um, and yeah, it's important for people to know that yeah, it's not always going to be right for you, and that's why it can be nice to have a a home practice that that's tailored to you so you know what works for you. And yeah, because we're all so different, and as we get older, our our needs pr change as well. Like women with even if I mean women with hot flushes, you know, there's certain breath work practices to help with those hot flushes. I've had a client use um certain breath work to help with hot flushes as well.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:24

Well, and then you have, you know, knee replacements and shoulder and frozen shoulder or shoulder replacements and hip replacement, you know, you are working or somebody has not everybody who comes to class. So I I can I mean it's okay, like with my scoliosis specifically, you know, I've learned a bunch over the past couple of years about certain poses that would not be good for my body that I've done forever, but that could actually make exacerbate either my curve or the rotation of my spine. And so for me to go in to a regular class even today, like I went to a complimentary class last week, it was great, but I don't twist as much anymore. Sometimes I'll do it because it feels good and I like the way it feels, but I know that when I do that, I could be compromising my spine. So to have that one-on-one, absolutely, would be because it's catered to me.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:27

Yeah, exactly. And scoliosis, well, you may not be counterposing every pose, you see, or doing Steven.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:35

Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so anyway, and that's just something I've learned over the what what is not, what works for one, and that's with everything. What works for one may not work for another, which I do think why your work is so incredibly valuable.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:52

Oh, thank you. And you can access it on the other side of the world, because I'm on the other side of the world to most people.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:58

Yeah. Well, it depends. I've got some Australian listeners.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:02

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:04

Yeah, I do. Um so um on that note, how can people, how can my audience find you?

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:13

Yeah, well, the the best place is to go to my home page, uh, to my website. And the website is lisalbanus wellness.com.au and you'll see there's a menu there and work with me, and I've got a freebies page with a great, I mean, even just an easy practice like B breath to calm you down, to learn that practice, which is beginner-friendly, and most people can do that, and you don't need to roll out a yoga mat. And I'm on Instagram with the same handle, Liz Albanis Wellness AU. That's the main places you'll find me online, as well as um my podcast as well.

unknown: 1:03:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:54

And and your podcast is hot of yoga, host of yoga for trauma.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:00

No, yeah, it's yoga for trauma. You're the hostess of yoga, and it was exp it was inspired by surviving a second fire. It lit a fire within me. Tapas, burnt something, and it it's yeah, it's I love it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:14

Yeah, I mean, mine was inspired for you know another reason. But yes, sometimes we need that inspiration to actually like get it going, right?

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:24

Oh, absolutely. And that's and now yoga helps us see that yeah, and things can happen do happen for a reason. And you might you might think at the time, why the hell did this happen to me? Later on, you can see, oh yeah, this was what came out with it. It's not a hundred percent bad, it's not a hundred hundred percent good. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:48

Yeah, I um yeah, you're exactly right. It's not 100% bad always. And I mean, sometimes it's almost 100% good, right? You know, I got pregnant at 22. I wasn't expecting that. I, you know, like when you look back, you're like, oh, like there are things in your life no matter what, you could almost not take them back. Because if you took one thing back, then you have to take anything after that back, right? And then you have to miss all of this other, all of these other moments. Um oh, that Garth Brook song. I forget if you know, if I had to miss the dance, the dance, I think it's called. I forget the lyrics, but I do want to thank you for your time. I also want to apologize because I think I said Albanus, it's albanis, and I I did not.

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:33

You did well. It's Greek. It's I'm my married name, it's uh a lot more complicated than my maiden name of Alan. But uh yeah, no, you print it's fine, it's not a big deal, but yeah, it's Greek, so a lot of people mispronounce it, but doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:48

Well, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. I know um we didn't really know each other until now, and I've loved it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:56

Yeah, no, it's been nice to be on your podcast, Elizabeth, and um yeah, keep doing what you're doing and your way.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:05

Yeah, yeah, and then make sure um to connect with Liz. You go to you said Liz Albanis wellness.au.com.com dot um and albanis is a l b A N I S. And all of her links will be in the show notes, so be sure to find Liz uh in the show notes below.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:31

Thanks so much, Elizabeth, for having me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:34

You're welcome. Have a great day, thank you.