Ep. #174: Stored Stress, Trauma Healing, & Yoga Therapy with Liz Albanis
Sometimes the tension you feel isn’t “just stress.”
It’s your body holding onto experiences it never fully got to process.
In this episode of The Energy Fix, Tansy sits down with Liz Albanis to explore how stress and trauma become stored in the body—and why healing often requires more than just “thinking positively” or pushing through.
Together, they unpack the relationship between the nervous system, movement, emotional release, and gut health, while also discussing the important differences between traditional yoga practices and trauma-informed yoga.
Liz shares how certain movement practices can feel deeply regulating for one person and completely overwhelming for another, and why reconnecting with the body safely is such an important part of healing.
This conversation also explores somatic work, unexpected emotional triggers, and how everyday experiences can reveal what the body has been carrying underneath the surface.
If you’ve ever left a workout, yoga class, or wellness practice feeling more dysregulated instead of better—this episode may explain why.
Listen & Watch
🎙
Listen & Watch 🎙
What We Cover
In this episode, we talk about:
What stored stress actually is
How trauma can live throughout the body
Signs your nervous system may be dysregulated
Why some movement practices soothe while others agitate
The differences between standard yoga and trauma-informed yoga
Emotional release through movement and daily experiences
Gut health and its relationship to stress
Somatic work and body-based healing
Rebuilding trust and connection with your body
Practical tools for nervous system regulation
Key Takeaways
Stress and trauma often manifest physically in the body
Healing requires listening to the nervous system, not overriding it
Not all restorative practices are regulating for every person
Gut health and emotional health are deeply connected
Trauma-informed yoga offers a more individualized approach
Somatic work focuses on the body’s role in emotional healing
Movement should help you feel safer, not more overwhelmed
Emotional release can happen through ordinary experiences
Reconnection with the body is part of the healing process
Favorite Quotes & Sound Bites
A few moments you’ll want to remember:
“Stored stress lives in our shoulders and jaws.”
“Not all yoga is actually regulating.”
“Trauma is stored all over the body.”
“Gut health impacts mood and energy.”
“Some yoga classes feel like medicine.”
“Somatic work supports emotional release.”
“You’re not too sensitive if practices don’t feel right.”
Chapters
04:15 – Understanding Stored Stress and Trauma
11:05 – Signs of Stored Stress
16:12 – Personal Stories and Emotional Release
22:17 – Gut Health and Its Connection to Stress
37:09 – Movement and Its Impact on Stress
49:20 – Reconnecting with the Body
01:00:56 – Trauma-Informed Yoga vs. Standard Yoga
01:06:29 – Somatic Work and Emotional Release
01:10:21 – Practical Tips for Nervous System Regulation
01:14:10 – Rapid Fire Questions and Final Thoughts
Why This Episode Matters
Because a lot of people are trying really hard to “manage stress” while disconnected from the body that’s actually carrying it.
It can show up as:
jaw tension, shoulder tightness, or chronic pain
feeling emotionally reactive without understanding why
digestive issues tied to stress and overwhelm
feeling worse after certain wellness practices
exhaustion that doesn’t improve with rest
struggling to feel fully present in your body
And the difficult part?
Not all healing practices are supportive for every nervous system.
This episode matters because it normalizes the reality that some bodies need gentler, more individualized approaches to movement and regulation.
Liz brings a compassionate perspective to trauma-informed healing—one that focuses less on performance and more on helping people feel safe enough to reconnect with themselves.
You’re not “too sensitive” if something doesn’t feel right for your body.
That awareness matters.
About Liz Albanis
Liz Albanis is a senior registered yoga teacher with Yoga Australia and a yoga therapist with the BioMedical Institute of Yoga and Meditation (BIYOME), recognized in Australia and internationally. She completed her first 200-hour training with Byron Yoga Centre in 2012, her 500-hour training in 2013, and an additional 200-hour Power Vinyasa training with Power Living in 2020. Liz has trained with renowned teachers including Bernie Clark, Dr Timothy McCall, Judith Hanson Lasater, and Sarah Powers. She teaches a wide range of styles and is also a certified Roll Model Instructor, personal trainer, Pilates, and Barre instructor.
Links Mentioned In The Show
Website: https://www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au/ **Use code TANSY20 to get 20% off 2 offerings!
Liz's Freebies! https://www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au/freebies
Liz's YouTube Channel! @lizalbaniswellnessau
Just Thrive Probiotics- Use code TANSY15 to get 15% your order!
Podcast review promo...Get 15% off a distance energy healing session or a piece of jewelry with a positive review of the show. Email photo of review (after submitted on podcast platform) to info@tansyrodgers.com
Support Beyond The Episode
If this conversation hit home, and you’re craving deeper support (not just ideas, but real integration):
Join the newsletter →
If this episode resonated, follow or subscribe to The Energy Fix for more conversations that connect emotional health, nervous system healing, and practical holistic support.
And if you’ve been struggling to find wellness practices that actually feel supportive, let this be your reminder:
Your body’s response matters.
You’re allowed to approach healing differently!
Transcript
-
Liz Albanis (00:00.206)
My understanding is when someone experiences trauma, and we we all do to a certain extent, but when it's not processed, it stays stored in the physical body. Because if you think about it, it enters through the physical body. Because when someone is panicked, it their body changes. Your breath starts quicker, you breathe through the secondary respiratory muscles.
You often hyperventilate, breathe in too much, and we start to brace. And often we do what animals, mammals do. We go into the fetal position. As to protect, it's a natural thing we do to protect our organs. And that creates all this tightening, not just through the so as the trauma muscle, but it changes our posture psychosomatically into a sympathetic nervous system dominant posture.
Tansy Rodgers (01:08.226)
Welcome back to the Energy Fix, a podcast dedicated to help you balance your energetic body by diving deep into the sweet world of all things health and spirituality. My name's Tansy, and I'm an intuitive Crystal Reiki energy healer, energetic nutrition and holistic health practitioner, and a crystal jewelry designer. It's time to talk all things energy. Let's dive in.
Today we're talking about something I see constantly, especially in people who I would call high capacity individuals, and that is stored stress. This stress doesn't just live in our thoughts, it lives in our shoulders and our jaws, our gut, our sleep, startle responses, even maybe the fatigue that you're feeling. It can be all consuming. So often people think that.
If I just do something more restorative like stretching or yoga, I can just I can regulate myself. But today we're going to talk about something that typically isn't addressed and that not all yoga is actually regulating. Some movement practices can help the nervous system feel safe. And some can just accidentally push a body that's already in survival mode into more stress, especially when that
Person is dealing with trauma, grief, burnout, or hypervigilance is all thrown into the mix. Now, before I introduce today's guest, I want to remind you that over here at BEU Complete, BEU Crystals, and the Energy Fix Podcast, there is so much going on right now. There's expos and live events, new jewelry product drops, new releases. So make sure you jump on over to tansyrogers.com or BEU.
Crystals.com to get all of the latest of what's happening. But if you don't want to miss out on any of the new things that are happening, make sure that you sign up for the Nourished Roots and Crystal Circle email group. It's one of my favorite places to hang out, and you're going to get tons of cool stuff, cool information, deep diving, and exclusives that only my email subscribers get. Okay.
Tansy Rodgers (03:34.226)
Let's get into the guest. Today's guest is Liz Albanis. She is a senior registered yoga teacher with Yoga Australia, and she is a certified yoga therapist. She teaches somatic and trauma-informed approaches that support emotional release and long-term nervous system healing. And she brings a deep lived understanding of what it means to really come back home into your body.
All right, Liz. Let's dive into this conversation. Welcome to the show.
Liz Albanis (04:09.986)
Hi, Tansy. Thanks for having me. I'm really looking forward to this conversation. It's great to be here.
Tansy Rodgers (04:15.926)
It is so great to have you here. I'm actually really, really excited about this conversation because I love yoga and I have a lot of experiences just based off of the little bit that I already introed in and I can't wait to hear your take on it. So we're gonna dive right into the whole concept of stored stress. Now, Liz, when you say stored stress, what do you
actually mean if we're using real life terms.
Liz Albanis (04:49.28)
My understanding is when someone experiences trauma, and we we all do to a certain extent, but when it's not processed, it stays stored in the physical body. Because if you think about it, it enters through the physical body, because when someone is panicked, it
Their body changes. Your breath starts to, your breath starts to be quicker. You breathe through the secondary respiratory muscles. You often hyperventilate, breathe in too much. And we start to brace. And often we do what animals, mammals do. We go into the fetal position. As to protect, it's a natural thing we do to protect our organs. And that
creates all this tightening, not just through the s the trauma muscle, but it it changes our posture psychosomatically into a sympathetic nervous system dominant posture, so tension in the body, but it changes our posture. So we're blocked, even even I think you work with chakras, right? We're blocked through a lot of the chakras, for instance.
And even we've also got fascia down the back, posterior, posterior lumbar fascia. I might have got that wrong because I've had a mental blank. There's it's a diamond-shaped fascia at the back. But often people think it's just in certain parts of the body. But the thing about fascia is it's continuous. It holds your body together. There's different layers of it.
And it's like a spider web man suit, a smart suit that's very got a lot of nerve receptors in it. And if you pull one area, you're tugging on another area because it's all connected. So it's all over the body. I I've seen stuff on social media where it's saying, this is where you store trauma. And I used to think that too. I thought it was just the SOAS, the deep hip flexor that
Liz Albanis (07:13.216)
affects our primary respiratory muscle, the the diaphragm, and that tightens it, but it's all over the body. And I can go into more in that later about how I experienced this after surviving my second fire. It was quite fascinating. Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (07:30.69)
When you talk about the fetal position, is that why child's pose or even rabbit pose feels so darn soothing and so good because you're just really kind of pulling into yourself?
Liz Albanis (07:47.342)
I think for some for many of us, that's an interesting question because it brings something interesting up. Child's pose can be nurturing for many of us, but I think the misconception about it is I mean it is for me that it is nurturing for everyone. For starters, some people find it uncomfortable on their knees, but there's often exceptions to the rule.
Paul Grilly in the United States likes to say, always is always wrong, never is never right. The famous yoga teacher in the US, who I really respect. Anyway, earthquake victims. Child's pose is often not soothing because it reminds them of going right down into the to protect themselves. So there's been people triggered by child's pose.
And I don't want yoga teachers to hear this and get overwhelmed because I can there is no guarantee, even if you do everything you can, that you're not going to trigger a student in a yoga class. What we don't want to do is re-traumatize them. And just don't think that if you've triggered someone, it's not the end of the world and it's it's gonna happen. You yeah. So yeah, it's it's soothing for a lot of people, and that could be why.
and because naturally people yes, natur the other thing I wanna say is yes, it can be calming on the nervous system for a lot of people because it's comfortable and we're not we're not opening up the front of the body. But when we do the opposite, like a heart opening back bend.
like camel pose, kneeling and looking behind you, for instance, or that famous wheel pose that some people may know when your hands are down and you lift yourself up into like a wheel with your face, you know, facing up, that is opening the anterior body. So opening up the front side of the body and releasing a lot of that stored stress, that unprocessed stress is
Liz Albanis (10:03.704)
Peter Levine likes to call trauma unprocessed stress. And it can open up the floodgates. And also because your head is back, your heart rate elevates. So it is more sympath sympath. It can activate the sympathetic nervous system. You get up and go. But the sympathetic nervous system's not the bad guy. We do need it. It's often got that reputation, but we do need it.
We just need it to work properly. Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (10:36.946)
that's so interesting. So interesting. Okay, so you also talked about the concept that trauma, stored trauma is, you know, many people think, where in the body is trauma stored? But you said in reality, it's, you know, is stored all over the body. I would love to know what are the signs that people really miss when they're hitting a wall with the stored stress.
Sorry, I miss stored stress, not trauma, the stored stress. What what are signs that people are really missing that they're hitting a wall in stored stress?
Liz Albanis (11:16.426)
Yeah, and you don't have to have a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder for this, because not everyone gets that diagnosis, but a lot of us have little T trauma, like people pleasing as a child or whatever. So one of the symptoms is spasming in the diaphragm, which I experienced for the first time. you know, because it was so tight and
Hip when I first started yoga, I have sexual abuse from a ch from the age of eleven and I had a PTSD diagnosis since age eleven and I had a lot of hip pain. When and I used to ride horses and I competed nationally and I I was my hips cramped a lot. I had a lower l lot of lower back pain because I was so tight through the SOAS.
That it tightened up my lower back as well. And when I started practicing yoga, my hips released and I felt more open there. On top of that, there's tremoring. It's like body shaking. And I've experienced this in multiple ways. So there's a trauma release exercises. David Bacelli develops these.
And fatigues the psoas, that trauma muscle, the hip flexor, and then it releases that we're shaking. Often we're told to sprace ourselves to not shake and that it's a weakness, but that is a sign of release. And the other sign, another sign, there's a few signs obviously, another sign, and next was in relation to tremors, I practice a lot of myofascia release.
Because I've been fortunate to study that here in Australia. And it goes well with my yoga background, and I've also got f a fitness background too, in that I would get the balls. I use the tune-up yoga tune-up balls developed in the US, tune-up fitness, fantastic, best ones I've used. And I would roll the side of my head and the temporalis. And I never did this before the fire.
Liz Albanis (13:42.594)
But because there was so much spasming in the muscles from stress, teeth more teeth grinding, I would start tremoring. maceters as well, chewing muscles, SCM side of the neck, back of the neck, levator scap sort of area, occipitals in the back back of the skull. and
And also when I'd go into cobra pose, well it was more of a gentle sphinx, but it's like cobra, I would start to nod up and down, side to side. And my husband was like, What the hell is wrong with you? And I'm like, it's just it's releasing. I had but the other thing, a lot of people have more pain because of that sympathetic nervous system dominance, the psychosomatic tension.
Like I've talked to people who they were more tight in the upper traps from doing this. And a lot 'cause a lot of people with a actual PTS diagnosis, even maybe not that, get diagnosed later on with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and it's that's stored stress. So they're often signs, j even subtler signs like not handling pain well.
Because pain is linked to the nervous system and the h respiration rate and to the way we breathe with the blood gases. So it can have that can be signs of trauma in the body and releasing. And yeah, so pain is another one and a lot of tension. you can see, yeah, and so when you often release it, it it can be that.
Crying is a release. In Ayurveda, Yoga Sister Science, which originally wasn't separated from yoga, they actually use onions, because you know how they make you cry a little, to therapeutically encourage someone to cry to release stuff. So you'll find people do cry in yoga. That is quite normal. So anyone listening to this, it's happened to me.
Liz Albanis (16:01.228)
Happen to people I know, students, yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (16:04.162)
Happen to me. That's me, yeah.
Liz Albanis (16:07.106)
Perfectly normal, it can be a good release. Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (16:12.13)
Liz, you brought up so many things that really hit home to me too. First off, I have to say, I actually did not know about the onion being used in a therapeutic tool to release emotions. I can't even count the number of times that I've been cooking a meal with onions. I start to cry. You know, the tears start to form because of the onion.
And all of a sudden I have this flood of memories coming out. I'm not like I never even thought about it. And all of a sudden I'm crying for real. And then I feel better afterwards.
Liz Albanis (16:47.702)
Yeah.
Liz Albanis (16:57.314)
that's amazing. What I do wanna add in there though, to protect my own self, it's not something a yoga therapist does unless they've got Ayurvedic qualifications. But it I just know that they do it in Ayurveda. It's outside my scope of practice, but I just know they do it and that's one of the reasons. And in also an Ayurveda, they an Ayurvedic
Doctor or practitioner will look at even a yoga therapist will look at this. They'll look if someone cries, they'll look at where the tears are coming. Are they coming from the inner eye middle or where are they coming? Are they hot and stingy? Or what sort of quality are the tears? And that will that will tell them more about how the person is im imbalanced.
Tansy Rodgers (17:48.206)
I love this stuff. That's so interesting. All right, Liz. Let's get into your story. I want to know about you. What was happening in your life when you realized your healing had to become body-based, not just mind-based? Take us on your journey.
Liz Albanis (18:09.888)
Yeah, I think because in the old days trauma was treated with just talk therapy or play therapy for kids and medication. And I never I didn't get over the n I still had the nightmares and things like that. I actually found this out during my first yoga teacher training when my roommate moved out and told everyone on the course, I can't stay with Leah's because she's got these nightmares, violent nightmares.
didn't tell me this and I was so horrified when I found this out. I'm like, great. Everyone knows but me. I'm like, I didn't realize I was still getting those nightmares, but they were violent. And that's trauma. I'd started my yoga practice, so I'd already had realized the potential of yoga because I quit smoking less than three months after.
my started a regular practice. So that was amazing because I'd smoked for half my life almost that time. I was quit at 29 and I'd started at either 14 or 15. And there became more research out there. I mean, I was diagnosed in the 90s. There started to become more research out that you needed to get into the body. And
I I started to learn about I I did a course in twenty thirteen. It was a yoga therapy course, but it didn't quali me qualify me to become a yoga therapist. they're very strict on that here in Australia. And I don't know much about the US though. But anyway, and that they brought up yoga specifically for mental health.
And I did some more training with Life Force Yoga who are based in the United States. And I learned about therapeutic long holds, like in bridge, to release and and learn how, you know, learn how some poses can make you cry and started to learn about the somatics. And then I moved to Melbourne and I actually started EMDR.
Liz Albanis (20:24.712)
eye movement, desensitization and reprocessing, which is both a body-up approach, gets into the body first and then the brain, and a top-down brain to body. And so it's great for trauma. It doesn't involve having to go back into memories necessary. And that that had a huge effect. And my therapist also did TRE with me, which I've been too scared to try by myself. And that
Some and I knew because it it can be quite strong and it could open the floodgates. And that's David Bicelli's trauma release exercises. And then I started studying. I did some more training. I also did more training with actually I'd done the life force yoga over in the US. And then I started to become
I'm a yoga therapist and I just kept learning. But it was the EMDR that stopped the nightmares finally. Because even when I got married, my husband was like, You woke me up kicking me saying there was an elephant chasing you. I'm like and screamed. I'm like, I don't even remember that. And so the EMDR was one of the first and the TREs. And then I learned more about how yoga can help all.
Tansy Rodgers (21:49.614)
A quick pause for a gut check because gut health is not just about digestion. When your gut is supported, it can impact so many big picture things like immunity and brain support, mood and energy, and even how steady your nervous system feels day to day. And when your gut is struggling, it can show up as more than bloating or bathroom drama.
Liz Albanis (21:50.392)
Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (22:17.174)
It can look like feeling run down and more reactive or foggy or anxious or like you're just not bouncing back the way that you used to. And that's why I'm a big believer in supporting the microbiome as part of a real life wellness foundation, especially if you're under stress, if you're in a busy season of your life, or your system is already sensitive. One of my consistent staples is just thrive probiotics.
I love it because it's simple, it's consistent, and it helps me feel like I'm supporting my body's baseline without turning my routine upside down. Because here's the reality. When you're supporting your gut, you're often supporting everything downstream, like your immune functioning, your nervous system resilience, and how well your body and your brain can actually do their jobs.
If you want to try it out, you can use code TANSY15 for 15% off your entire order. Jump down to the show notes, click the link, and make sure to use Tansy15 for that 15% off. Alright, let's get back into this episode.
Well, now you also brought up something about fires. So do you want to talk about that and what how that of impacted your journey as well?
Liz Albanis (23:31.019)
Yeah.
Liz Albanis (23:38.538)
Yeah. It was more the second fire. The first fire w burnt me. It was a combination of being very drunk, smoking, and arguing with my father who was disappointed that I'd quit my job. And, you know, he's a he was a tough father. He was, you know, he set a high standard. He was like, I'm so disappointed that you've resigned and I was being bullied at work. Ended up that manager ended up
I get ended up getting my job back and she got disciplined. But anyway, and there was an accident. So I got burnt. And see here. And but my addiction to smoking was so strong. I still smoked, even though it might involved, you know, winding up.
It didn't seem to affect me much then. Maybe it did, that but that was t twenty years ago or twenty-two years ago. And the second fire happened, it was very different. I can go into that in a moment. The second fire what freaks me out, and I'm not the only one here. The second fire happened twenty years later, almost to the day. It was twelve hours difference, roughly. It was at night.
And the other one was in the morning, but I was like, and one of my yoga friends said to me, be careful in 20 years. And I'm like, yeah. because I I find that interesting. So the second fire was different though. The second fire, it it started in the house next door from a massage chair. our neighbors could have died because if they hadn't had smoke alarms, they were lucky to escape because their smoke alarms didn't go off until the f half the floor.
bottom floor was on fire. So they could have died according to the news and the firefighters. But it was more that it happened at eleven o'clock at night. My then four year old was in the back room, fast asleep. I had my silk nighty on. It was summer here in Australia. And, you know, I was upstairs even though next door was on fire, I was completely oblivious to it. The other neighbors saw it before us.
Liz Albanis (25:52.342)
I was literally about to turn my phone onto aeroplanes so I could do my meditation. And the cameras went off, the security cameras. And the crime in Melbourne, second biggest city in Australia, was really bad. So we had cameras up and alarm system. And the camera that never goes off went off. And I'm like, my God, it's a burglar. And then I looked at the I didn't.
have the sound on. Otherwise I would have heard the noise of the house crashing next door. Crashing down. And it was ching. We looked at it later. It was like crashing down. And yeah, I'm glad I didn't have the sound on. Anyway, I saw the video and it was like
Tansy Rodgers (26:38.626)
The ghost
Liz Albanis (26:40.276)
It was smoke coming over the fence. And then five, ten seconds later, I hear my husband tearing up the stairs, because he was still downstairs while I did my meditation, tearing up the stairs, screaming out, call triple zero, it's R911. Next door's on fire, I'm getting Audrey. And I'm like And I I had my phone in my hands. Luckily it was charged. And I started calling triple zero.
He hands me our four year old and I've got the video of me going out the door because we had a front door camera and my daughter's screaming. We forgot to get her a toy. And I'm on the phone to Triple Zero. And it's just it was like a he was like, is this really happening? Is this really happening? And I was just a different person after. I mean, initially I think I was still in shock. I c I managed to get to sleep at the hotel. And
I never thought actually when I saw it I never when I went out the door I thought, it they'll put the fire out. Well house is gonna be all right. And then I saw saw then I turned around and saw it starting to catch fire and I thought, it'll be all right. They'll put it out soon. And the firefighters got there really quickly, but we had fifty firefighters to put it out in fourteen trucks. And it took hours to get it out. And the front of the house looks fine, but
when we went in there the next day I was like, It's not fine. It's not fine and then I started to feel the repercussions of feeling very hyper vigilant at night. I was a different person. I was on edge. And we're in this dodgy Airbnb while we tried to get a rental and the crime was bad. And then there was a house not a house, a car that was set on fire down the road and that didn't help either. Melbourne's
got a lot of arson, legal tobacco in Melbourne. because we tax cigarettes really high here in Australia, so illegal ones get smuggled in. But anyway, I was just a different person. I had to go on Valium for the first time in my life because I was just so shaky. I had it and I thought I was doing all right because I was clearing out the house with contents that I could salvage, getting the soot off, washing it multiple times with clothes, doing what I can.
Liz Albanis (29:07.662)
to salvage it. But my therapist said to me later, that's a trauma response because you weren't ready to sit with your feelings and go through what was happening and process it. And that's normal. That's just that's how we do cope. But it's changed me. I you know, I mean I'm a lot better now. I think I'll always be a bit wary. Like I notice when people don't have smoke alarms in their house.
And I'm like, okay. And I just think, your insurance company's not gonna be happy and what if something happens? But yeah, I'm I it's it definitely changed me, but I think overall eventually it's given me more resilience.
Tansy Rodgers (29:51.691)
I have
Liz Albanis (29:52.852)
But yeah, it re traumatized me. It wasn't a trigger, it literally re traumatized me and the shaking, the nervous system response, insomnia, yeah. The darkness of I mean the darkness of the deep depression. I hadn't experienced that for years. So
Tansy Rodgers (30:15.674)
Wow. Wow. Thank you for sharing that with us. I mean, how how incredible of a story to really paint the picture about how trauma, stress, this dysregulation can get stored so tightly and intensely in our body. And when something happens, it can just be triggered right back up again. Wow.
Liz Albanis (30:41.898)
Yeah, but people don't understand that. That's a problem. They're like, Your husband's fine. Why aren't you? And my mother in law was like, Why is she so different? And my husband was trying to explain, look, this has really affected her. And people just don't get it. And they're like, Well, you didn't lose your house, you got insurance, what's the big deal? It's like, do you know the stress of battling an insurance company and having to go to your p a politician in your area to get demand a payout? It's just like
You know, having a child who's traumatized and not sleeping, people just don't get it. Or they say things like, I wish my house had burned down, then I'd get a new house. That's what one of my husband's colleagues said. I'm like, my God. People just don't get it. so anyone who's been through something like this or lost a child and had someone say to you, Surely you're over it by now. It's like, No, it's not like that. So
Yeah, trauma affects people differently, you know.
Tansy Rodgers (31:43.758)
Well Liz, I'm curious. A lot of people call things anxiety when in actuality it's dysregulation. How do you know the difference when somebody's or yourself is just anxious versus your nervous system is literally stuck on alert and your nervous system is dysregulated? Like, how do you know that difference?
Liz Albanis (31:47.128)
What a
Liz Albanis (32:08.98)
You mean if they've got trauma or not?
Tansy Rodgers (32:11.436)
Yeah. I mean I think I think most people have trauma. But but I'm t I'm just talking about I'm talking about like when it kind of flips the switch and moves into a dysregulated state versus I'm at I'm just feeling anxious about this or, you know.
Liz Albanis (32:30.646)
Well, it's not my place to diagnose someone with like general anxiety disorder. But yoga teachers and more so yoga therapists can see when a person's nervous system's dysregulated. And things that we do we don't so we don't diagnose people with anxiety, but we can see if their nervous system like is dysregulated. So we don't diagnose, but
We help therapeutically as an adjunct to what other people are doing. So when a yoga therapist does an assessment on someone, they look at their breath, for instance. How many breaths per minute are they doing? So is it 18 breaths, or is it ideally one wants six to eight breaths at rest, or mm, six is great.
That's one thing we look at. We look at is the inhale longer than the exhale? Are they using their diaphragm or are they using secondary respiratory muscles like their chest, you know, upper traps? We see tightness psychosomatically. You can see blockages when you
tr you train, you can see the blockages there. You can see like tightness in the c in the bodies, that sympathetic posturing psychosomatically. heel gripping, like digging your heels in is what we see is repressed anger. So we can look at the nervous system, but we don't
Diagnose, that's because she's got PTS. We're gonna diagnose her with PTSD or trauma. But we can see the nervous system dysregulation.
Liz Albanis (34:26.966)
I just want to make it sh clear to the audience. I I don't diagnose, it's out of my scope. But we do things like that. And there's something called the Bolt Score. a a breath expert. He's not a yogi, but he's a brex breath expert called Patrick McCowan. I think he's Irish or Scottish. I can't I never I can I have trouble deciphering the accent like people do with
Aussies versus New Zeal people from New Zealand. Anyway, and he tests if people with people who have got anxiety, they over breathe. People think they don't breathe enough and they take a deep breath. But people over breathe. So they breathe too fast and too shallowly. And so he tests people.
by a if they don't have any contraindications like high blood pressure or pregnant, asthmatic and things like that, by whole asking them that to hold their breath after an exhale. And how long that can they comfortably hold it before they need to breathe. And not holding it till you're like blue in the face, just comfortable pause as
Robin Rothenberg calls it a comfortable boss. I think that's what she calls it. As she's done similar training to him, but she's also a yoga therapist in the United States. And that can give that can give an indicator of the chemistry of, you know, how they're breathing, if they're breathing well. And that's a very good indicator of mental health.
Yeah. So there's a score that you get depending on how so the longer you can hold it comfortably, the healthier. And so like elite athletes that he's trained, they can breathe through their nose the whole time. They don't have to breathe through their mouth. So someone with trauma, they may not even or general or anxiety, they may only be able to hold their breath for like two seconds or something before they go.
Liz Albanis (36:44.942)
You know, it just depends if they've been hyperventilating. So that's the sort of thing yoga teachers can do. yoga not yoga teachers, 'cause that's outside their scope. Yoga therapists do to look at the n s nervous system, things like that. Mm.
Tansy Rodgers (37:02.934)
That's fascinating. Fascinating. So okay.
This shift, this transition of where you were versus where you're at now, this healing, this journey that you've been on. Where you're at right now, is there a word or a phrase that you're really feeling like you are stepping into either where you're at now or where you are allowing your energy to flow to take you into that next iter iteration of who you are?
Liz Albanis (37:15.437)
Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (37:38.72)
Is there a one afraid that you're in?
Liz Albanis (37:40.27)
I think a sanscript word or an orange.
Tansy Rodgers (37:42.914)
Yes. It can be whatever you resonate with.
Liz Albanis (37:46.486)
Yeah, so the Sanskrit word that comes to mind is tapas, internal heat, that inner fire that burns inside of you to grow, create resilience, to burn away what's no longer serving you. And when I had a mentoring session with my mentor who I studied yoga therapy with.
She did a bit of self inquiry with me and she said, You burnt down with the house. I'm like, No. no. First she said, You burnt the house down. I'm like, no, the massage chair did. And she said, Your house burnt down. I'm like, No, some of it's well, a lot of it's still there. It's just damaged and it ended up getting demolished. And and then and then she said, Half your house burnt down. I said, no, then she said
you burnt down with the fire and I'm like, No, I'm still here And then she said, Half of you burnt down with the fire. And I was like, Yes, I my physically I'm here, but my soul deeper layers of me have been really damaged and I need to get trying to w get that back. 'Cause initially I thought losing physical items like a lot of my daughter's stuff and my wedding dress and a painting that'd been in the family for fifty years
would be really hard to let go of, you know, to go, it's never gonna be back. But it was more the fact that I was a different person, that I no longer felt as resilient. So that tapas is asking me to burn away what's not longer serving me, to build that resilience, determination. So yeah, that's what comes to mind.
Tansy Rodgers (39:37.934)
Well, let's let's take that and bridge it into this next area of thought. And that's all about movement. I love this. Let's let's burn away what's not working for somebody and allow them to step into this newer version who of who they are. I want to talk about movement. Why is it that some yoga classes feel like medicine while others really can create this?
increase in agitation or emotionality or dizziness or shutdown afterwards. What's going on there?
Liz Albanis (40:16.054)
Yeah, great question, Tansy. there's a couple of reasons. a lot of the y most of the yoga that's practiced in the West is not is it's it's become more like a fitness class, you know, we've lost the spirituality, we've lost the mindfulness, the breath awareness, and we've got some some crazy styles of yoga out there where we have some really
Drawing Kriyas, we call them in kriyas in yoga in yoga. Cleansing breath would be one way to describe them. Like, and we see this with all these huffy puffy breath experts. And even on on Instagram, you see them doing these crazy things on YouTube. And they say it's safe for everyone. It's not. And they're doing these belly pumping things and really hyperventilating breathing a lot. And that
really can put the system in nervous system into overdrive. For instance, I trained with someone who did a lot of capilabati, which is a kriya. People call it a breath worker pranayama. In yoga, it's a kriya, it's very strong. It's cleansing. So you breathe really you pump your belly and you breathe really fast through your nose. They do it in bikram yoga, but they do it through the mouth so it's not as strong.
And they don't do as many. So this person did heaps of it because this person in the start of their yoga journey was trying to achieve enlightenment and was told if you keep doing this, you know, it's gonna solve your worlds problem. He this person ended up in the cycle.
Hallucinating. A friend of mine went to a class, did something similar, she passed out because she went into shutdown. And she was told by the yoga teacher, that's great, do it again. Your kundalini's rising. Blah blah blah. So we've got things like that going on.
Tansy Rodgers (42:18.466)
Liz, can I just add to that? I that kind of style.
Liz Albanis (42:21.61)
Tansy Rodgers (42:25.57)
I'm so glad you're saying this. good. I have tried that and it literally sends me into panic. I cannot, I cannot do that like pranayama, but it's it's like the I I yeah, like the like the the like fire like fire breather. Yeah, breath of fire. That's what I was trying to think of. Yes, yeah, yes. The breath of fire sends me into panic.
Liz Albanis (42:42.734)
Puffy.
Liz Albanis (42:48.962)
Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (42:55.328)
It I hate it. I hate it. But I've been in classes where they're like, this is so good for you.
Liz Albanis (43:02.356)
No. It's good for some people. Always is always wrong. Never is never right. Yeah. Some people who have a really high bolt score, as I was talking about, they they they breathe really well.
Tansy Rodgers (43:04.429)
Yes.
Liz Albanis (43:19.4)
might be able to do it. But a lot most of us people sh shouldn't be doing it. So I invite people to consider that because it's going to have that effect. It might look impressive. You might have people on Instagram saying, it's good for you. Don't please I invite you to pr have a think about their qu their qualifications. How much a lot of these people have done twenty hours training.
And good luck to them if someone has a problem, their insurance company won't probably cover them. But be cautious. I encourage people to be cautious and yeah, work with someone one on one. But that's one reason. And some people do well out of that. I know some yogis who yoga teachers and stuff who've done well, fine. There's a practice called Siddhashankriya, sky meditation, and there's a bit of fast
rhythmical breathing in that copyrighted career. And people do well out of that. But, you know, not everyone can. And the other reason, the other, it's also, it was about the nervous system, you said. I'm just trying to, you said why it's not good for people's nervous system where it's not medicine. That's what you said. Yeah. So I like to say that my my teacher Joe Fee used to say that yoga poses are like.
penicillin. One might be medicine to you, might may be poison to your neighbor. I like to say yoga practices because there are meditations that can send people into suicidal tendencies. It's pretty rare, but like silent retreats where people don't talk for like a week and they've already got major depression. It's happened.
try I'm not trying to scare people here, but that's just an example. Although I don't say yoga is medicine technically, because in Australia the consumer law gets a bit consumer watchdog gets a bit annoyed about that. they're pretty strict here. but yeah, and you know, you might go into a a class and be forced into a yoga pose, even though it's not
Liz Albanis (45:39.084)
You got an injury and the just teacher went, You need to do it. Or they push you into something and you injure yourself. Like I got pushed into a pose in Bikram, said, Get your head to the floor, get your head to the floor. I pulled, I pulled, I irritated my sciatic nerve. And because we're all different. And then there's just classes like that Kundalini one, or they're not trauma-informed and
They laugh at people like if they say, Well, where are the emergency exits? I've s heard of that and this person went suffer has survived an earthquake. And of course she's gonna think of emergency exits. So we've got and w we've got t yoga teachers here in in Australia and other parts of the world that think all yoga is trauma involved, all yoga is therapeutic. Even when a therapist there like
Therapist, their psychologist has come with them to the class and said and rolled their eyes and were like, Don't listen. I'm not going to listen to that psychologist. All yoga's good for you. So it can be that sort of thing. Even opening back bends, pushing people into opening up the front side of the body can dysregulate the nervous system too much, and not giving that student the opt-out option of like, I'm feeling a bit funny. That sort of thing. Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (47:03.214)
Are there certain red flags that somebody needs to pay attention to if a class, like either during or after a class that may indicate that it's not supportive for them?
Liz Albanis (47:16.8)
Yeah. well to to add an extreme situation, a panic attack. But that I haven't seen I haven't had that. But I think the best indication is to think, do I feel better after this yoga class or do I feel worse? Would be one simple solution. Has the the yoga practice met me where I am? Like if I'm
feeling anxious, had to have they demanded that I lie still when I'm really fidgety. Like and that's a sign. If you're fidgety, you're restless, maybe it's gonna make you feel worse. like you pass out. That's pretty rare, as I said. you feel like the teachers humiliated you. Like you you I had a teacher, I went to a class years ago and she told people, you're overweight.
you know, humiliated people or you can't do this pose. I had one of my clients said had a teacher say, you're too fat to do this pose, you need to lose weight. And she obviously didn't go back to that class or any class actually. So there are examples of knowing you should feel better after a yoga class. I mean, maybe occasionally you don't, but you wanna get into that state of yoga, that union, out of your practice. It's
Yoga's not a state of doing, it's a state of being. And we want to get into that that oneness, that peaceful state in our practice. Yeah. So does that help?
Tansy Rodgers (48:55.306)
It does. I'm I'm curious though, and I I say this because I think of so many clients that have come to me in the work that I do, where they're very disconnected from their body and they're not really understanding or feeling or connected in. And so therefore they're not as aware because that disconnection is there. So
If somebody is feeling disconnected from their body for years, maybe through stress or trauma or grief or addiction, whatever it is, what does reconnection actually look like? And what are some first tiny signs that they're starting to actually come back into their body and come back home to it?
Liz Albanis (49:40.606)
They can start well, it can be different for different people, obviously. I think something people often do, yoga therapists and in some classes, like you I mean, you could feel the difference between one sign would be you make a fist, you can feel the tension, you release it, you can feel the difference. That would be one side. You can start to feel
this this pose is hurting my back. And I mean, in Yoga Nidra, certain protocols like the IRS protocol, which is technically n it's a a Western variation of Yoga Nidra, they they make you aware of opposites, you know, where do you feel tension in your body versus lightness? And they you start to become aware of the difference where you feel different things.
That would be one side. But yeah, that's very common with trauma. You get disconnected from your body. You don't feel that your your breath has become shallower. But that would be a sign that you're starting to feel the difference. Like you feel your heart rate's gone up. You feel your pulse is stronger. You feel you're breathing differently. You're breathing through your mouth instead of your nose. You've you're
you feel your diaphragm spasming when you or something when you get anxious. Just little things like that. Does that help?
Tansy Rodgers (51:16.758)
Yeah, that helps a lot. Because sometimes even just the little, little tiniest things can be big indicators. And I think a lot of people don't realize that even if they're feeling their breath going deeper, that that's a huge sign for them.
Liz Albanis (51:35.886)
Very helpful, yeah. And if they're not sure, sorry, they could get a timer out. Time it for one minute and see, my where my respiration's dropped now that I'm lying. And maybe if they're not sure they're may or anxious they can go, it's time again, it's gone up that sort of thing. Or they could see, my my inhales become longer.
Than my exhale, which is stimulating for the sympathetic get up and go nervous side of things. And my exhales become a lot short shorter. Things like that, they could start to notice more. But if they're not noticing it, that's normal. But they could start to try to time it and notice their breath ratio as well.
Tansy Rodgers (52:32.384)
If you're listening to this podcast episode, there is a really good chance that you're the person who holds a lot. And sometimes the issue isn't that you need more information. Sometimes you need your system to feel safe enough to actually integrate what you already know. That's what my Soul Stream and Enlightened Sessions are for. They're intuitive, energy-based sessions designed to help you recalibrate.
Emotionally, energetically, physically, and in your nervous system so you can move through life with more clarity and less internal noise. People book these when they're feeling stuck, overloaded, anxious, emotionally heavy, or like their energy isn't fully theirs anymore. And we work with that. We work with what's present, clear what's been lingering, and help you come back to center in a way that feels grounded and real.
If you want to book a session or you want to simply know more, you can head on over to tansyrogers.com or jump down into the show notes and click the link that will take you directly to those services. And if you're not sure which session is the right fit, send me a message. I'll help you choose. I'll help to guide you in the right direction. All right, let's jump back into this episode. Now you've mentioned, you've said the words.
Yoga, I'm sorry, trauma informed yoga. You said that many times so far. And so let's let's talk about what the difference is. What's the difference between trauma-informed yoga versus quote unquote standard regular yoga? I know that there's many types, but just to keep it simple. And what actually changes? What changes in the language or the pacing or the touch or whatever is involved?
Liz Albanis (54:29.514)
Yeah, that's a great question too. a lot of yoga is n standard like that. The the first I hate to break it down more, but the first step is trauma aware. The instructor acknowledges it's a thing, it's a reality of life. We live in a very crazy world and there's a lot of trauma, even if someone doesn't have PTSD, and they have some compassion there.
Trauma informed, they're starting to make adjustments to their class. They're giving students opt-outs. Like if you need to go and lie down and not do the vinyasa, please feel free to. They're using more invitational language, not dogmatic dictatorship language, which which they use in Bikram and Ayenga. Like your heels need to be together.
Breathe in, breathe out. And lock the knee, lock the knee. That's Bikram. Lock the knee, lock the knee. There's no options to op well, they do give an opt-out in Bikram, but they're very dogmatic. There's no it's it's not invitational. There's not options. The other thing is a trauma informed class will will take care of things like the instructor before the class will.
Ma sh make the students feel welcome, be approachable. Maybe if it's if they've got the right setting, they'll tell them where the emergency exits are. Unfortunately, not all locations have that option. So l some locations can't really be trauma and completely trauma informed. They'll adjust the lighting. Like darkness can be a real trigger for a lot of people.
but then you don't want bright lights on like gym lighting, so they might consider leaving some light on. As often teachers they may not avoid physical adjustments in tr because it's not a class specifically for PTSD, but they might use consent tokens so people can turn the token upwards if they want to be adjusted.
Liz Albanis (56:46.114)
They've given consent. Whereas in a lot of old school classes, they just come up and adjust you. I went to a Bikram class. Someone the teacher came behind me and yanked my head back. I've had teachers push me down in child's pose. And when you're in child's pose, you can't see them. So it's even more frightening. So they do think they avoid things like that. they're they're they're consider it with, you know, s lying on your back in
the final resting pose might not be comfortable for you. If you want lie on your side, you don't have to have a bolster under your knees. You don't have to have an eye pillow to cover your eyes. But I having an eye pillow is a great option for people who want complete darkness and hate the fact you've got a lamp on. So you have options like that if you've got props. That and you you don't scare people. just to put it into perspective though, obviously you can't guarantee
You're not gonna trigger someone. And people will say, you shouldn't use this word, you shouldn't that word. Depending on what the person's been through, certain words are gonna be a trigger. Like a soldier who's been told to take a long exhale and then fire the trigger. That could be a trigger. Fire, you know. So
Maybe they might avoid some words, like I try to avoid the word safe because there's no such thing as safe if you've got PTSD. But, you know, they do things like that, but you can't avoid every word, you know. but I just want to put this out there. Then there's a a something called a trauma sensitive class, and that's pretty much copyrighted, but that was developed for people with a diagnosis of PTSD.
And there's been scientific evidence to back that up. And there's it's even stricter than that. Like the pace is slower and there's the rhythm to it. so that's taking it to the next level, but that is specifically for PTSD. And I've had yoga teachers say to me, but they're gonna tell me if they've got PTSD or trauma. I'm like, just assume that.
Liz Albanis (59:05.454)
They've got something going in there. But yes, it's not a class specifically for people who only have PTSD. That's trauma sensitive. But we just take some steps to, you know, be a bit more compassionate and understanding, really, and not make it dictatorship. And I would like to think also that we make these sort of classes more somatic in that we cue a bit differently to
what you're feeling in the body, not why what the pose looks like aesthetically, 'cause it's not a gymnastics class. a lot of yoga classes, general, modern yoga classes are very aesthetic. It's all about universal alignment and re memorizing warrior two, it means this. You've got to have your f back foot out at night at ninety degrees and or one eighty degrees or whatever, you know, that back foot out. You've got to have your heels lined up and there's a lot of
districtness. You wouldn't have that in a drama informed glass. And you would also understand that people's anatomy is different and you there's more than one way to do a pose. Or that some poses are just bad for you and you might need a different pose. Yeah. There's a lot of misunderstanding with anatomy in yoga. They don't understand our skeletal differences either.
Tansy Rodgers (01:00:28.982)
Yeah. You I I wanna just note something that you said. You said that the that instructors will sometimes say, Well, won't they just tell me if they have PTSD or if they have trauma? The re the reality is and I've seen this with people that I know and and clients, some people don't even know they have trauma.
Liz Albanis (01:00:54.388)
Or what yeah, that's true.
Tansy Rodgers (01:00:56.632)
They don't even know if they have any kind of PTSD. They could be they could be suffering from symptoms and just think that it's normal living.
Liz Albanis (01:01:09.268)
Yes. And it's so it's good for the y trauma informed yoga teacher would be aware that they may trigger someone and that it's could it's inevitable that they're gonna do it at some point. But a trauma informed teacher, that's what I did forget, would be aware of what to do. Like to let i invite that not make a huge g song and dance and they would be settled enough in their own nervous system to calmly handle it and not freak out. But
they would know how to maybe bring that person out of that practice or bring everyone out of that practice and ground them back to now. And then that's the other thing I did forget, but a lot of trauma informed classes will avoid things like we talked about, or any trauma informed would avoid caplabadi, like that breath of fi you know, the breath of fire and things like that, because they know that
You gotta know a student well to to do s such practices with them. And you know, here in Australia, now as a yoga therapist talking to people, colleagues, one of the who's on the board of Yoga Australia as the vice president, in our rethinking the scope that it'd be better if yoga teachers avoided capilabati.
Or only do them with a small class with students they really know well, or just leave it to yoga therapists to do that one on one. so a trauma informed class would be then teacher would be aware of more of nervous system regulation too. A lot of teachers aren't. I wasn't aware of it when I started. So no judgment there, I was not aware of things like this at all.
And o as much about trauma at all. So and we're all allowed to make mistakes and none of us are perfect. We're it's just great to have a beginner's mind. Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (01:03:14.56)
And so I wanna I wanna ask a question because I this is a word that I think is getting more and more popularized. And I think a lot of people don't know what it is, but it is, and it goes beautifully with trauma-informed yoga, and that's somatic work. So can we talk about what somatic yoga actually is and what it's doing differently that supports emotional release and nervous system rewiring?
Liz Albanis (01:03:31.224)
Yeah.
Liz Albanis (01:03:44.426)
Yeah, so somatic yoga is taught differently. For starters, non-somatic yoga class is taught by aesthetics. The teacher cues differently. The teacher cues by feet parallel, feet turned out, but it's all about cueing the physical body. Sometimes there's breath awareness in there too. well, I'd hope there would be mindfulness.
But in a somatic style class, the first of all, the teacher cues more about what is the stud notice if you feel anything
in this arm or notice what you feel in this foes. Do you feel tingling? Do you feel that? So they cue bottom up, body first. And you might do a f you'd move more somatically in that you wouldn't go into downward facing dog. Like in a typical even especially in our younger class, they cue it like hands, shoulder width apart, thumbs here. They'd
you'd stay static more, you're like you wouldn't in a somatic sort of practice, you'd be moving around and letting your body move with you'd notice what you feel and what your body intuitively wants. So you'd start to tune into
proprioception where your body is in space and things like that, which we lose with trauma. And you would let voluntary movements happen, because that somatic nervous system is voluntary. Like that, for instance, when I've been in Yoga Nidra, I've I've had this arm go bang. Just voluntary. That's the somatic nervous system, involuntary. So you would move, it's a intuitive, it's moving f from within.
Liz Albanis (01:05:47.944)
And and sometimes they will do purposely shaking, like they might long hold of bridge pose to encourage some gentle tremors to get into that release. And it's just focusing more on what's happening inside and you know, that spontaneous movement, not the static.
from the outside aesthetics. It's more from what's having in to work that somatic nervous system and work on proprioception and all of that. Yeah, does that help?
Tansy Rodgers (01:06:29.654)
It does, yeah. And so I'm curious, let's make it really practical. If somebody only has maybe five minutes or so, whatever, what would your go to somatic reset or movements be to help calm the nervous system? I should say help soften the nervous system a bit.
Liz Albanis (01:06:48.174)
that's a good question, isn't it? Mm. Because it can differ a lot for people. Like I I can't say child's post because that may be you know, earthquake victim there. Yeah. Mm. Yeah. I don't you know, I don't know if I could because we're all so different. And what feels good for one person? Like, if even if I said lie down on your back to have five minutes out, well for me
That wouldn't calm me down because it would hurt my lower back because I'd need to support it. So and if you're pregnant lying on your back, so I don't know if I could give you that. I mean, I could say I mean, I could give you some breath work to do. That would be more something to calm someone down. One of my go to practices that's suitable for most people. I don't want to say all. I don't want to be that black and white, but it's called bee breath.
And I've got a free resource on my freebie page with B breath in it. But you curl your tongue back towards your tonsils if you still have them, just a back throat, back of your throat. You tuck your chin. You might close your eyes if you want to, but again, invitationally keep them open if you want, what or soften them, whatever feels right. You take a breath in through your nose.
Mmm. And you just hum on the exhale. And when we sing or hum, it naturally lengthens our exhale. And we know if the exhale is longer than the inhale, it helps stimulate that parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and the digest. And also because of the throat and the vagus nerve connection, that can help too. And
Also with B breath, there's an optional mudra, a hand posture, hustamudra, to cover the eyes for people who feel comfortable doing that. And that helps the vagus nerve, the vagus nerve being that nerve that's tells the parasympathetic nervous system to switch on. It's like a a a plug for a light. You have to plug it in first to get it to work.
Liz Albanis (01:09:11.478)
The other reason for covering the eyes gently, unless you've got an eye problem, is it stimulates the ocular cardiac reflex, the pressure on the eyes, which lowers the heart rate down. It can lower the heart rate down. I'm going to say it will. It can, may. Got to be careful, consumer law here. And stimulates another way to help stimulate.
the vagus nerve. Because that's why often they do cupping in some yoga classes. They tell people to cup. Eye movement with EMDR, they're they're working on that ocular cardiac rig facts because they're moving their eyes back and forth. So we do something called eye yoga. but obviously covering the the eyes isn't gonna work for everyone or suitable. But that's something I I often give clients and also students in a yoga class. It's
to me a great breath work for most people. Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (01:10:14.328)
that. I love that. Well Liz, as we start to wrap up this
Liz Albanis (01:10:18.626)
Yeah, sure. I know, we've talked for a while.
Tansy Rodgers (01:10:21.4)
No, it's wonderful. Sorry. I have my goodness. Please don't apologize. This is amazing. I have so many more questions, but I I also want to respect your time too. Where are we going to the rapid fire questions? I I I'm curious for that person. We talked about trauma-informed yoga. We talked about somatic work. We've talked about a lot of the things that you're seeing and the things that you want people to be aware of and to know that not.
All yoga is suitable for everybody. If somebody is coming in and or somebody's listening to this and they are high functioning, but they're in survival mode, they know that they need something different. They know this is a very stimulating conversation for them and it's activated this motivation, but they don't know where to start and they don't want to be re-traumatized. What would you recommend that they do start with or where to even go?
So that they can get the resources or the help that they need.
Liz Albanis (01:11:27.199)
well other than the B breath, I would see if there's a trauma informed yoga class nearby. If there's not, I I wouldn't recommend YouTube to because you don't get feedback, you know, or options often, like if this doesn't feel right. If there's no trauma informed or trauma sensitive classes, maybe see if you've got a friend who can check the yoga studio out.
Or if you've got a th you pr people in this situation probably don't have a therapist. Or get a friend to ring the studio to get a bit of information. Because there are trauma informed yoga classes that aren't labelled that. it's also good to check the credentials of the teacher, because we even have brand new yoga teachers here in Australia running teacher trainings, much to my horror and many others. or
Working online with a yoga therapist.
Or privately with a yoga therapist as well. But the breath is a really good doorway into the nervous system regulation. And if you like to sing, I encourage singing because it it naturally can help you breathe better. And it it 'cause a lot and know that if you're really feeling like you're on a panic attack.
B breath can even feel difficult and sometimes we need to meet that mood with getting rid of the energy, especially if you're like me with ADHD. But does yeah, so that's what I would say. Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (01:13:11.662)
And you know, I I also just want to put because we have a lot of neurodivergent listeners here on this podcast. I just want to just put a little bit of a note in here too. If you do identify as neurodivergent, ADHD, Aud, autism. We as neurodivergent brains do have more susceptibility to PTSD and trauma.
Liz Albanis (01:13:20.887)
Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (01:13:41.984)
in our lives and so and depression and anxiety. And so if this resonated with you and you know you are neurodivergent, know that there are resources out there that can help you with some of these restorative practices in more of a safe way and a more of a safer setting for you. So just put that out there.
Liz Albanis (01:13:42.926)
Ready, yeah.
Liz Albanis (01:14:03.586)
Yeah. Yeah, even journaling and having apps set and apps help me. So
Tansy Rodgers (01:14:10.338)
Yeah for sure. my goodness. All right. Well, and Liz, I want people to get into your world because you will be able to help them on this journey as well. But before we do, let's do these rapid fire questions. Get to know you, but also get to know some tangibles from the expert herself of how she handles certain situations. So are you ready, Liz? All right.
Liz Albanis (01:14:24.16)
Okay.
Liz Albanis (01:14:37.859)
Mm-hmm.
Tansy Rodgers (01:14:39.32)
Question number one. What is your sign that you're carrying more stress than you realize that you are?
Liz Albanis (01:14:48.552)
tight muscles, rapid breath spasming.
Tansy Rodgers (01:14:52.46)
Yeah. Ooh, love it. Love it. Okay. Number two. What is one movement or pose that you personally avoid when your nervous system is feeling tender?
Liz Albanis (01:15:03.63)
Back anything back bendy like camel or you know, yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (01:15:08.61)
Me too. That's a good one. Yes. For sure. And last one. If your body could leave you a sticky note today, what would it say to you?
Liz Albanis (01:15:22.862)
Prioritize self-care. Make time for you 'cause you can't pour from an empty cup.
Tansy Rodgers (01:15:31.08)
Liz, this has been beautiful. Where can people find you? How can they get into your world?
Liz Albanis (01:15:37.506)
thanks. My website is Lizalbanus Wellness.com.au. My Instagram and YouTube handle is Liz Albanis Wellness AU. And I have a podcast too, which is Yoga for Trauma, the Inner Fire of Yoga. It's only been going for just over a year. so it's kind of new. But it was inspired by the fire. Yeah. So
Tansy Rodgers (01:16:03.32)
Those links will be down in the show notes so that you can start to listen to her podcast too.
Liz Albanis (01:16:07.884)
Yeah, and the freebies page and I I work one on one with people online and then I've got another program there that you can check out and book a discovery call if you want. Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (01:16:19.404)
Yes, I love that so much, Liz. Do you have any last words that you would like to lay on the hearts of the listeners for today?
Liz Albanis (01:16:28.234)
I just would say like to say that people are not alone in this. They might feel that way and just know that it's it's normal. But I understand if it's hard to have compassion for yourself. I I get that. I don't know exactly what people have been th through. I think don't know anyone who does, but
eventually developing self compassion can be great, but just know that it's normal what you're feeling and y you're not alone and it is possible to grow and we're all on a journey anyway. None of us are enlightened, I believe. No, I wouldn't say none of us, but most of us. Yeah. Yeah.
Tansy Rodgers (01:17:17.336)
Thank you so much, Liz, for being here, for sharing your heart and your passion and your expertise. I appreciate you.
Liz Albanis (01:17:24.704)
I appreciate you chan C two. Keep doing what you're doing, it's great.
Tansy Rodgers (01:17:30.552)
Sometimes the most healing thing isn't understanding more. It's actually just coming back into your body in a way that really feels safe and secure. If this episode reminded you of anything, let it be this that you're not too sensitive and you're not doing it wrong if certain practices don't feel regulating for you. The goal is to feel better after you move, not more spun up and out of control.
Here's one question that I want you to ask yourself this week. Do you feel better after the practice? And if not, what would feel more gentler, more grounded, or more ideally optional for you? And until next time, keep spreading that beautiful energy you are born to share.
