Permission to Heal

Permission to Heal Episode #36 - A Conversation with Anne-Laure Peaucelle - Healing Trauma with Yoga

July 14, 2021 Marci Brockmann Season 1 Episode 36
Permission to Heal
Permission to Heal Episode #36 - A Conversation with Anne-Laure Peaucelle - Healing Trauma with Yoga
Show Notes Transcript

Anne-Laure is a trauma-informed yoga teacher and yoga therapist helping people find emotional freedom through creating deep trust in themselves. Her heart's desire is to see all of us accept and embrace our emotions so that we can experience more ease, peace, and freedom in our lives. She believes that our ability to be at peace with the highs and the lows is at the root of our wellness.

Yoga embraces all the different parts of who we are and she helps her clients use a holistic approach to balance body, mind, and soul. 

 Born in France, shaped by yoga and sandy beaches on the east coast of Australia, Anne-Laure followed her heart and crossed another ocean to call Oregon home. After 6 months on the road, she fell in love with Arizona and decided to put some roots down in Flagstaff! She is forever grateful to have found yoga, which keeps her grounded whether she is overwhelmed, heartbroken, or angry or any other emotion. Why? Because no matter what’s going on in her life, yoga is here to meet her wherever she is. 

We talked about

  • introspection and rich internal dialogue
  • reflection, intentional thought process
  • feeling safe in our bodies - emotional health - fear/ anxiety - feeling our feelings
  • biology and mental health are integral in one another
  • biochemical connections of emotions - Yoga regulates and ’normalizes’ and regulates this - bringing awareness to what you are doing.
  • letting go of the belief that there is something is wrong with us

Connect with Anne-Laure Peaucelle
Her website, Facebook, Instagram

Connect with Marci
Marci's Website, Patreon, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Facebook Group, YouTube Channel - What's up, Marci?

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Welcome to remission to heal. I am Marci Brockman. I am thrilled that you're here today. I have an LOR pushy.

I think I got the name, right. She's just fabulous. So welcome. Welcome, welcome. Well, hi. Thank you. Thank you for having me. You're welcome. How are you doing today? Pretty good. Pretty good. Yep. We've been having some really hot weather here in Arizona. So yeah, it's Arizona. Isn't Arizona, always hot. I have a feeling my conception of Arizona is that it is always warm.

I live in Flagstaff, so we do get some pretty cold winters with some snows. The summer is a hot, but apparently we having a heat wave right now. It's the first summer that I'm having in, in flex step. So I have no idea what to expect. I used to live in Oregon before this. Okay. Yeah. Weren't you originally?

No, I'm confused. You're not originally. No. So I grew up in France. And then I, moved to Australia where I lived for almost 10 years. And then I moved to the U S  about three, four years ago. Really? Yes. Where in France did you live? So I lived in account called , which is where I grew up. Like on the west side of France, near Baldo where the wine region is, if you know, that's just north of there.

My son used to date a girl whose family lives outside of Marsay. Yeah, not that I know where anything is, but the long distance was a little too much for them. Yeah. That's difficult. Especially with COVID, you know, no one could go anywhere. It was a big mass. Yeah. And I have friends in Australia.

Where in Australia did you live? I lived in Newcastle, which is a couple hours north of Sydney on the east coast. Okay. All right. Nice. You've just been everywhere. I like traveling. I mean, I've moved a lot of times in my life, but I think the largest distance between two places where I've lived is about an eight hour drive.

Get I didn't. How do you get. The, the gumption, the, the courage, the wanderlust, I guess, to just decide I'm done with this country, I'm going to go live well. They first moved to Australia, and I had been wanting to go to Australia since then. I don't know for as long as I can remember, I've always had this kind of like fascination for Australia.

And when I was at university, I got the opportunity to go there on an exchange program for six months. And, I just stayed really, dad, I'm not coming here. Pretty much. I came back to France a little bit for two months to finish my degree and then I've finished my degree and I was like, all right, I'm going.

So I packed up and yeah, moved over there with. No job or anything, but obviously it worked out, so obviously you did not starve to death on the side of the road. So clearly that worked. Wow. Okay. And then you were  in Australia for awhile and then decided let's try the United States.

So I met my husband and he is from Oregon. So we spent some time together in Australia and then. He was going to college at the time. And so you had to be back in Oregon. And so we moved back to Oregon. Wow. And then Arizona, we went on the road trip for about six months and we just kind of ended up here and decided that we liked it.

And so that's kind of how we ended up here. That's so cool. So yeah. Okay. So I normally begin, but I want to go into your childhood and figure out who Ann lore is and all that. But I like to do the six quick questions first, so we'll see how that goes. So what six words would you use to describe yourself?

Yeah. So the first word that came to mind when I was thinking about this was determined. Okay. And then I consider myself to be like calm and grounded as well. And then I had to think about this for a little while.  But I think curiosity is also a word that comes to mind and like, you know, the fact that I love learning things.

So lifelong learner is another one and The last word that came to mind was introspective important. Do you, are you introspective regularly, often ongoing tend to look inward and analyze things? Yeah. Yeah, I think, I mean, it's not really something that I. Think about, it's just something that happens. I feel like I just, just reflected a lot on, you know, what's going on around me.

What's going on within me. And, yeah, just kind of reflect some things a lot. Yeah. I do that a lot too, yeah, I'm quite introspective too, but it's, it's something that's sort of integral to my personality. It's not like I decide at 5 0 2 on Tuesday. I'm going to think about things, you know, no, same for me. Just get in the little brain spiral and that's the end of that.

Yeah. And it's interesting because I just thought that's what everyone did. But when I sold to my husband, for example, Wow. Yeah. You really like to think, you know, in a lot of depths about like very specific things and that's when I realized, oh, okay. I guess it's not an issue. No, like I like you. I was under the impression that everybody had a very rich internal dialogue going on all the time.

For me, even if I'm sitting calm and I'm doing something meditative, like drawing or, you know, whatever it is, I always have a very fast, loud talking dialogue going on. And that's not true about many people. I've actually, I'm a high school English teacher. And so I have been for the last couple of years asking my students.

Okay. So what, what do you, what kinds of things do you say to yourself in your internal dialogue? And, and the kids look at me like I'm crazy. Some of them, some of them are like us and they D they do that and others are just like, no, Just quiet up there. What do you mean? I don't understand that. Yeah. And I think for me, like with being a yoga teacher, I've like cultivated a lot of awareness around what goes on in my mind.

So I think that internal dialogue has shifted a little bit from like, you know, kind of like thoughts that were just on repeat to just more I don't know more like intentional, I guess. Sure. Thoughts and just like reflection, but without necessarily just like having the same thoughts. Yeah.

Ruminating. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so that's much healthier. You've grown. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Just drives us crazy. Who needs a hands-on you know, you're not a hamster. Okay. Let's get to question number two. What is your favorite way to spend the day?  I'm someone who needs a lot of time for myself. So that's how I like to start my day is to just spend a little bit of time just on my own.

So. Going through like my personal practices that, you know, include some yoga meditation, some breathing, some journaling, I'd like to do some tarot cards as well. Like yeah, I set up my day and kind of like set an intention for the day.  And just like, kind of have like a slow song start to my day is, is, is something that I really value.

And that's, you know, I guess I'd try to like integrate that into my every day. It doesn't always happen, but it's something that I try to integrate. Otherwise, I mean, I just really enjoy like being outdoors and like, so either like going hiking or rock climbing or swimming or whatever, you know, outdoor activity, we can do, but I also really enjoy spending time reading.

And just, I guess, reflecting, I guess. Sure. I can bend words.  I don't know. Like, I like some variety, I guess, in how I spend my day. So I don't think I could just like spend my whole day, like doing the same thing and just of course not to just do like different things and just have different you know, different things going on and gears, different projects and things like that.

So, yeah. You sound like an interesting woman. What is your favorite childhood memory? Hmm, I think it has to be. All the times that I spent playing with my sister and my, my husband. So my sister's three years younger than me and our cousin, where was, she's like right in between us. And we just had like so many summers, I guess, all summers together.

Playing outside and inventing all sorts of stories, you know? Yeah. So that's, I think that's probably my, my favorites childhood memory. That's lovely. Yeah. I have a cousin who's about,  seven months younger than me and our moms were like best friends and we hung out all the time and we used to. Play all sorts of imaginative games and climb this tree that was in my backyard.

And it was like the headquarters and we were spies and you know, crazy things and we'd go as high as we could on the tree, just to, on her. Mom's like freak out and. Yeah, my grandparents had a farm. And so we that's where we were spending a lot of our summers. And so it was just always, you know, something to explore in some places that we weren't not supposed to go, but we would anyways, of course, of course, you've got to push the boundaries.

Childhood goes, yes. Okay. What's your favorite meal? I'm going to be really French on that one, but I just love cheese. I could just eat that all day long. Do I have a specific kinds of cheese that you like? No. Just any, any French cheese really? Do you put it on bread? Do you put it on crackers? Breads? Yeah, breads and you know, sort of fruits to go with it and, yeah, it's heavenly.

I love that. So what do you do if you're a French cheese lover, but you're lactose intolerant. I don't know,

cry, I guess. Yes. I guess there's gotta be like vegan cheese or something, but I don't know if they are, I don't know if they taste as good. How could that. Yes. I had some goat cheese on a salad today and it was so yummy. Okay. Number five, what's one piece of advice you would like to give your younger self?

Hmm. I think just telling myself that it's all going to be okay. And to just keep going and trust, I guess, keep going and trust.  trust yourself. Yeah, I trust myself. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess, trust that things aren't going to work  in the best way possible heaven. Yeah. I would like to know that too. I think when we're younger, especially we do a T a ton of worrying about how things are gonna work out, right?

Yeah. Yeah. And, but I think that that's really what our early twenties is all about. You know, I see my, my step son is 26 and my son is 23 and my daughter is 20. And I see them all trying to figure out their own path and what gives them meaning and what brings them joy and who their friends are and who they are and how to figure out, like everything's a question and that much Liberty is beautiful, but also daunting.

Know too much freedom. It's a little overwhelming. So yeah. Gotta take things one at a time, I suppose. Okay. The last of the six quick, which what is one thing that you would most like to change about the world? Hmm, Mmm.

I think too. I guess for people to truly accept and embrace who they are without.

And just to let go of that belief that there's something wrong with them. Huge. Yeah, huge. I think we all think that to a degree, if we're not like the person sitting next to us or our friend or our sister or whoever we do too much of that negative comparison thing, and we're all wonderful and beautiful and worthy, and there is no such thing as normal.

Exactly. We all need to get all of that stuff. And it's definitely something that I need to remind myself all the time as well. Yeah. I think that society programs us to think that stuff about ourselves so they can sell us things. Yes. You know, you're not pretty enough. Look at her. If you want to look at her, look like her, you need this lipstick.

You know, you want to get the girls like that. Like that guy, did you need this sports car? You know, like this is stupid examples, but. The deficit mentality just sells products. No, one's happy with who they are. We don't need to buy anything. We're good. Like not coming from a place of like needing something else.

So needing to be different than I just think there's so much like, you know, messaging around that. Like you need to change yourself in this way and that way. And I think I've noticed that especially like, since becoming an entrepreneur is like, There's just always like, you know, your business needs this and you need to do this differently and you need to be this different person in order to succeed or whatever the messages.

And, I feel like it just makes us feel like this, you know, ultimately something wrong with us if we, if we're not there yet. So if we don't have that thing or if we don't know how to do this, but, Yeah, that's just confuses me because I'm Mo a lot of the time, not sure what it is. They're exactly selling.

What is it? They're trying to convince me that I need, why would I need it? How is it going to help me help others? Like, I there's a lot of it that I don't know where the truth is, and I feel like. I feel like there's an endless stream of things in my inbox that are lying to me, just makes me so angry and aggravated and anxious that if I haven't solicited your message in my inbox and I don't recognize your name, I delete yet.

I don't even bother reading them. Yeah, which may or may not be the right way to do it. I don't know. I mean, maybe I'll miss the next great opportunity. I don't know, but it's just overwhelming. It's too much, too much stuff. Okay. So you grew up in France, you have a younger sister. What was your childhood like?

It was great. Honestly, I also have a younger brother, so it was three of us. Do they still own France? Yes, they do. Yeah. You're the only one I did. I am. Yes. I just have really like great, I guess, memories of my childhood and of like growing up, you know, with family and I guess just, I don't know.

I felt a lot of like support from my parents and always cared for, I guess. Beautiful. So I don't know. I think my, I had a really great childhood on the side. That's awesome. Yeah, you're lucky. That's great. Are you and your siblings close? Yeah, I'm pretty close with my sister. There's a pretty big age difference between my brother and I, and so.

I don't know. I guess like we, we talk, I just think there's just the less like common interests because of the age difference at this point, but yeah. Yeah, we still, we still close my catch up in later decades when you have more he's in his mid twenties at the moment. And so yeah, I think later in life, I think we'll definitely.

Yeah. Get back on the same , wavelength for sure. Yeah. Cool. Cool. Yeah. So what did you major in, in college and university?  So I went to university to study electrical engineering and your yoga teacher. I got to hear this story. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So so then. University experience led me to go to Australia to do an extension program. And I started practicing yoga while I was in Australia.  And I guess it's been probably eight, nine years since I started practicing yoga. And at the time I was just looking for like a. Different way to exercise and a different way to move my body. And it just ended up opening the door to it's just so much more that I just had no idea or would even, you know, happen.

 Just like that, like with spirituality aspect, just, it's just like the reflection, you know, like self-inquiry aspects as well.  It just kind of. Opens my mind to a different way of looking at things. And I think like at the time, you know, I kind of just had been like going with the flow and doing, you know, following, I guess the expectations of society. 

 , that's what we do. And, so I guess yoga made me realize that, oh, it doesn't have to be that way. Like, Other ways to live, you know, and you to break free. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's. Kind of starting that self questioning, is what led me to do my first yoga teacher training. And at the time when I signed up, I, I didn't really know whether I wanted to actually be a yoga teacher.

For me. It was more of a way to learn more about yoga because I just loved learning new things. But by the end of it, I was just sure that that's what I want. I wanted to teach. And so. I quit my job. And, I started teaching yoga. Yeah. So it kind of just, it happened pretty quickly. Like after I did my teacher training, I just realized that the job I was doing just was not really aligned with what I wanted, who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do with my life.

That's important to figure out, luckily you figured it out pretty quickly. Yeah. Yeah. And so. Yeah. So I was just, I mean, I had really no idea how I was going to what I was going to do or how was I going to do it, but I just knew that I just couldn't keep doing what I was doing. So yeah.  So I started teaching full time and at this kind of around the same time , started a business still kind of in the engineering world, but like I wasn't the one actually doing the engineering work.

 But, yeah, mostly, mostly teaching yoga. And from that point, like I realized that I wanted to focus on yoga for mental health. And so I continued my studies with a yoga therapy training, which, yoga therapy is, I guess, all about using all the tools of yoga to work with people. I guess in a more like holistic way, like work with people one-on-one or work with people who have like the same, I guess, therapeutic goal.

And yeah, so. I guess looking at the whole person, you know, and all the different layers of who someone is and all the different parts of, you know, what makes up they live and who they are and how they got here and using the tools of yoga, you know, movement, breasts, meditation. All of this yoga philosophy to I guess, address whatever they, they wanted to address.

 But my, I guess interest and focus was really with mental health and working with trauma, anxiety, depression. And so that's what the yoga therapy training really helped me go deeper with, to like really learn like, you know, Well, you know, what's, what is it about like trauma and mental health and all of these things and how yoga can help with all of that?

Well, I've taken yoga classes and at various intervals in my life have been regular, a regular yoga practitioner. And then I don't really have any explanation why, but suddenly I stop and then years later I pick it up again and. I don't know what motivates the stopping and the starting necessarily. And, and I've been in therapy for most of my adult life.

So how do you combine the two? I'm not, I don't know what that looks like to me. So, so you're standing and you're doing yoga poses. And are you talking through things or, or, or is the yoga clients for lack of a better word? Just thinking about what does that look like? Yeah, so typically like for a yoga therapy session, it's.

A bit like a, like a regular therapy session, I guess, like asking a lot of questions about, you know, why they came, what day. What'd they hoping to get out of the session. And then I guess what they, life looks like taking a holistic picture of what their life is like at the moment. So really looking at all the different things and kind of like connecting the dots between what they're experiencing.

W, you know, why, what they want to move towards. You know, whether it's like a physical thing, whether it's like a mental health thing and I guess the yoga therapy. Part is kind of making that connection between mind, body, spirit, or soul, whatever you want to call it. Kind of connecting all of this. So I guess the session goes like that, like a lot of questions to start with so I can get an idea of where they are , you know, what they want.

 And then it's about trying different things. So it could be movements, it can be breathing practices. It can be , Meditation relaxation. It can even be something like reading or just whatever really combination of all of it. A combination of all of these things to put together into like a short practice that they can do on their own.

And I really believe that like part of why this is important to be like a daily thing. Because we, I guess, cultivate that, committing to ourselves and committing to doing something for ourselves.  And I think that's a big part of mental health and emotional health because you know, it, it gets us to trust ourselves again.

And I think that's a big thing about, yeah. Why like we are constantly sold things too is because we don't trust ourselves. And so we put our trust into something else, hoping that it's going to give us the answer that we're looking for. And so I think that daily practice of yoga and, you know, that's my modality, but I don't think it has to be yoga necessarily, but just more, a daily practice of something.

 Mindfulness, something to allow you to turn inward, something that allows you to be quiet. Still and, and, and allow you the, the downtime, the quiet time to hear the heart, to hear the inner knowing or whatever you call it. You know, everybody calls it something else. But I think the modality chooses kind of secondary to the intentionality of actually doing it day.

Yeah, exactly. And I mean, younger encompasses a lot of different things, but really at the end of the day, which is why I think it's. Reach a lot of people in different ways, because there's just so many like entry points to yoga and you know, it doesn't have to be movemental breath or whatever. It can just be either of these things to whatever really resonates with the person that's in front of me.

 I, me truthfully laying on your back with your eyes closed and your hands at your sides, it's a yoga pose. So, you know yeah, exactly. There's just a lot of different ways. , so. Yeah. So that's usually like how the session goes. Like we would just try to feed it, some things, see what works, see what doesn't see, what resonates, what doesn't and then like, it's really, like, I'm only here to guide them towards what works for them.

You know, I'm not going to be like, this is your prescription of yoga poses for, for the week. Like it's more collaborative thing to like come up with a practice that is really good as a called them and nourish them.  And then as they come back, you know, we can do this weekly or whatever works really and refine what resonated fine, I guess, their bodies.

Right, right. Yeah. And I mean, with the younger therapy aspect is definitely like a little pot of like counseling to it as well.  And it's something I learned through my training, you know, Listening, reflecting back to like what is going on and helping making the connection between different things that maybe happening in their lives and kind of connecting it all together and connecting the dots so that they, I guess, have their own, you know, knowing and their own, I guess, realizations about, you know, what, what they need and, and how to move forward.

Yeah. A lot of times what I realize when I'm doing yoga is that my body isn't as young as it I've discovered that I am hyper flexible. Oh my, they do massage therapy and acupuncture every Tuesday. And they're always remarking on how.  My, my joints and my limbs are very bendy, but at the same time, I find like my hips are tight.

My psoas muscles, both ways like inflamed and makes everything. Yeah. Unhappy, of course, you know, I also broke my ankle, so I'm walking around in an air cast. So everything is just right at all at odd angles with everything else. It's driving me insane. Yeah. That's hard. Yeah. It's not so good. It'll heal.

I'll get back. It'll be fine. And. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So do you have a specific, I know this is a strange, maybe a strange question based on what you just said, but a yoga philosophy. I've heard people talk about that before and I about yoga philosophy. Yeah. Yeah. So yoga philosophy. So yoga is based on like an entrant text.

About a couple of thousand years old and that's kind of like the basis of yoga. And it's that, I guess that's what yoga philosophy is. It's like the, the, you know, where yoga, I guess I could, I guess, a description of what yoga is and how to practice yoga. And so in that text that are eight, what's called the eight limbs of yoga.

 And so it's just different aspects of what yoga is.  And so, you know, I guess, ethical,  living principles that are part of that movement is another part of that breathing is another pods. Meditation is not the cause. So that just kind of goes into yeah, what describes, I guess, yoga, but like at the end of the day, yoga is described as like a process of Like self actualization and self understanding.

So it's really all about cultivating self-awareness about understanding yourself better and I guess, living in the best way that you can for yourself. Sure, sure. I mean, that would be the goal. Absolutely. Absolutely.  Something that you, you wrote I, you know, I take notes from the guest surveys that I give all of the guests and, and I have this little box next to it that says our mission is parallel.

Cause there's something you wrote about the things that you're passionate about. You said most of all, I'm passionate about changing the way our society holds space for people who are struggling to change. I want to teach and empower as many people as possible to heal themselves, trust themselves and know that experiencing the ups and downs of life is human and there's nothing wrong with them.

And I think that although the wording might be slightly different, you and I have exactly, exactly the same goal. Yeah, exactly. The same goal. I want to give people the inspiration to know that. They only need their own permission to forgive themselves, to heal themselves, to trust themselves, to create a life that brings them meaning and joy.

And it's up to them. No one else can do it for them. And the same thing you're doing really, you're just doing it with a little. You know, friendship, companionship someone's listening and oh, by the way, let's do a little downward dog while we're there. You know?

I think that would be great. So you do this as a one-on-one and in small groups. How have you been handling this through COVID that must be a pain in the Keester. It kind of happened that you're COVID we were traveling, so my business was going to be on pause. Anyways, so that worked out. Did you get stuck someplace?

You didn't expect if you were traveling in the middle of a corner?  We will traveling within the us. We moved into a camper and just kind of drove around the country for six months. So luckily we didn't really get stuck anywhere. I mean, there was definitely less things that we could do, but we were mostly.

Our intention was to go to as many national parks as we could fund. So yeah, it was amazing. And will love, would love that trip. He wanted to retire, sell all our belongings except for a few things that we'd keep in storage, buy a big RV and just drive around the country. Yeah, it was amazing. So I mean, thankfully.

You know, all the national parks were open, it was all outdoors. And so there was no really much issues with that. There probably weren't crowds anywhere, so no, that was really wasn't that awesome. Yeah. But yeah, but since settling in Flagstaff, so we've been here for about six months. Yeah, so I work with people one-on-one,  I do some like small classes that are focused on yoga for emotional balance.

 I do some workshops online and in person.  So yeah, that's, that's the different ways in which I work with people. Do you have specific types of clientele in mind or. Or just pretty much open to anybody. Yeah. I don't really limit it to like specific people. I tend to work more with women. Typically I don't know if it's because yoga tends to attract more women than men.

I think they've always been far more women in my yoga classes than in, than men. Although there are always one or two. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So. But other than that, I mean, it really varies, in terms of Yahoo, who I work with. Yeah. What do you think of hot yoga? I tried this once. I thought I was going to die.

Yeah. Well, it's funny because like, that was my first yoga class that I ever went to was a hot yoga class and It was really hard. Oh my God. Hot. I don't know why I went back, but I did. It's not really the, the style that I practice today. Like I've kind of moved like for myself, you know, it's more way more like gentle, more like.

 Nourishing and restorative style of yoga that I've practiced for myself, but, I don't know. Some people really enjoy it and it just helps, like, I guess the, the intensity of the practice , Can really help people like get out of their heads and into their body which can be really useful. I spend an inordinate amount of time in my head and there are times where I feel like total disconnect between my head and my body almost as if my brain uses my body as a car.

You know, body's only purpose is to transport my brain around. Right. It's very hard to. Take care of my body. It's hard to respect my body. It's hard to have compassion for it to feel sexy in it. If I feel like it's a vehicle, you know, and I, I have a very hard time getting myself back into, into. Feeling.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's true for a lot of people. And I think especially like in the society that we live in, you know, we tend to have that disconnect because we always like thinking about, you know, the next thing and thinking about what we need to do and yeah, not, I guess not taking care of it. You know, cultivating this connection between body and mind.

 So much about mental health that is absolutely like one-to-one connected with the body biology and mental health art integral in one another, you know, and yeah. Work about the body is the brain's vehicle thing is that if you don't take care of the vehicle, it's going to break down and then you're.

Brain goes away too, you know? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I got to get better about that.

I think that's going to be one of the big goals as soon as I get my ankle healed and.

Yeah. And I think there's also like part of this is that a lot of us, a lot of people don't feel safe in their bodies as well. And so there's an inclination to like, just want to avoid, you know, feeling whatever's going on in the body. Because like even like when you look at emotions and. I think like our emotional health is a big part of our mental health.

 And our emotions are experienced in our bodies. Like they show up in different ways. I mean, we've all had that experience of like, you know, tensing up when we stressed out or like feeling fear or anxiety in our body. So like, you know, it's definitely how it's, how it's going. It's always in my gut.

 Yeah. And so I think like if we're not used to experiencing like strong sensations in our bodies, or if we just don't feel comfortable experiencing those strong sun sensations in our bodies, then just not paying attention to it as a way to just not feel that, you know. So I think that's, that can be part of that too, for a lot of people just to not want to feel like.

Well, they don't want to feel their feelings. I see that with a lot of people they don't want to, for, for fear of what's going to happen. I suppose they're afraid that it's going to be too overwhelming. They ignore how they feel. I mean, feelings, the name meant to be felt, you know?  And I think that they, they avoid it.

And, and hide it in the corner until it becomes a biological. Now it's affecting my body and it takes a while I think, and, and an astute medical professional, or health care professional or something. To help the person realize, no, it's not something wrong with your digestive system or whatever. It's the fact that you're repressing or avoiding all of that stuff with your mom or, you know, the unhappy marriage or whatever it is, whatever it is, that's still bothering you, you know?

And when you address that emotional thing and feel the feelings, yes. Then suddenly. The skies part and the sun comes through and we realized that everything's fine, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And like, this is, you know, we store so much in our bodies and we have, I guess that like muscle memory of like experiences that we've been through in our lives and I until it's something that we either acknowledge or look at or release, then it just may be something that keeps, you know, showing up in different ways.

 And I just remembered, I created. About this study that they did a while ago. I don't remember the details of it, but essentially they were looking at people who were coming to see a doctor for a specific reason, and then that's cleared away. But then they came back with something different. And so there was like, you know, just different things showing up in different ways.

But like, until we are really addressing like the roots of it, Your body's just going to keep, you know, trying to get your attention. Exactly. That's exactly what it's doing until it's it's, you know, you're, you're addressing it. And so, yeah, it's, you know, that, I guess just comes back to that body mind connection.

And just knowing that, like, we, we're not, it's not two separate things. It's just really one, you know, system made up of different systems that work together. And, you know, even when you look at. When you had read this really interesting book called the molecules of emotions and she talks about, I guess the physiological.

Yeah. Effects of experiencing an emotion. And so says like that. Interesting. Yeah, it's really fascinating. So there is that link between the brain and the body. And so it goes both ways. And the brain is communicating with the body, both. I guess the electrical signals, but also the chemical things that are being released in our bodies.

And so like an obvious one is when we experience fear, then there's adrenaline. So I can't so like, um, So that's like a physiological reaction that's happening within all of us. Right. Get out before the lion eats you. Right? Yeah. And so, but what she was looking at is that like for every emotion, there's like another chemical that is being released and has an effects all of the systems in our bodies.

So the adrenaline, you know, like it puts us in that fight or flight. So that is fixing, like shutting down our digestive system, you know, just keeping like the essential functions, but you can see that, like, if we spend all of our time in that state, then a body is just not functioning optimally. So, Yeah.

And like, and the other way is also true that like, when there's a change, like in our body, that's also affecting the way that we feel it's affecting, like how we think about things or think about ourselves and yeah. So. Yeah, and it's, it's a big vicious cycle, you know, if I'm stressed and anxious and it's upsetting my stomach and I can't eat well and I'm not sleeping well, and I just am uncomfortable.

Then part of my brain is always thinking about that. So I'm less focused on the tasks that I have to accomplish, or I might be more snappish and short-tempered with my husband or my kid, you know, and it all sort of, and then I feel bad about that. So that it adds to the, so yeah. Yeah. That's where yoga for me has been really helpful is that because there's a strong focus on just bringing awareness to what you are doing.

And to me, what that really does is that when you, and like the first few times, you may just notice, you might just like be, you know, witnessing it happening without being really able to do anything. Yeah, that's part of it. And in time, like the more you see it, the more you witnessed yourself doing suspect going through the motions.

There's a point where like this, just this tiny little bit of space between, you know, what is like triggering and like the action that you take. And I feel like with yoga and with meditation, you able to just, you know, make that space long enough so that you can choose. Something different if you want to, but then you're making the conscious choice, not just reacting, you know?

Right, right. Yeah. Okay. So this happens, and this is how I typically respond, but that doesn't work out well. And we always have a fight or I always feel bad afterwards or causes a ripple effect of something else. But if when that happens, next time I respond differently or don't respond at all, which could be the right answer.

Then I can circumvent all of that other fallout from that. Yeah. Yeah. And then obviously that can take, you know, it might be time. Why not, or yeah, exactly. Or it just may take longer if it's something that's been embedded, you know, that something that you've been doing for such a long time, It's it, you know, it's not like an overnight thing to change it.

Right. And yoga. So in yoga philosophy, they talk about samskaras, so samskaras are kind of like the equivalent of neuropathways in your brain. And so the image that's with that is like, you know, you, you kind of have this past. That you've been doing over and over and over again. And the more you do it, the like the, and so the translation of sense Garah is groove, which I really liked.

So groups, meaning like the more you do something that's for the group gets, right. And so the first time that you do something different and take a different pathway, then you just making this like tiny little groove. Right. But the more you do it gets, and then the other one kind of stops. Fade away. So, you know, that's, I guess the similar idea, like in neuroscience, when you think about neural pathways and you know, what you use more is easier.

So the path of least resistance, and when you start to create a new path, then it just takes habit, I guess, and takes practice to, to actually make that path the easier one to take. Right. Right. Yeah. And it's worth absolutely every bit of energy. To make a better choice and to take a better path. Yeah. Yeah.

And it's intentionality and it's knowing what your goals are and it's knowing what brings you peace and who you specifically consciously want in your life who feeds healthily into that balance?  For me I, as I was in first embarking on a lot of this when I was trying to figure out how to. Deal with the trauma of my mom who was a bipolar opiate drug addict.

I realized that a lot of the choices that I was making for people were the same types of relationship dynamics that I kept replaying with her. And. I think what the universe was trying to prepare me for was to get a handle on those relationships and figure out what to do with them, because that would be ultimately easier than figuring out eventually what I had to do with my mom.

And it was all meditation and mindfulness and some yoga and therapy and, you know, whatever other meditative type things with me, it's always like some sort of art and writing as well.  But, but some of it was. In being intentional about my own responses. And some of it was eliminating people from my world, from my inner sphere who were just disrupting everything in a negative way.

You know, every moment just was abrasive and horrible. So it's hard to do that too. And a lot of people resist that because they wonder what other people will think or how can they do that. They have a history, yada, yada, there's a bazillion reasons, but your own sanity and health has to be paramount to me.

Yeah. The first thing. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like your clients are lucky to have you. So, how do they find you? You have a website, you'll go with an lor.com so they can find you there. They can find you yoga with and lore at Instagram and on Facebook. You've made it very easy. It's all the same name.

It is. Yes. Yes. And one thing to add is that I started a Facebook group as well.  That's called yoga and emotional freedom. And so I guess that's where I share most of my contents.  You know, I guess around all of the things that we just talked about how does somebody become a part of the group?

So if they look up the group yoga and emotional freedom and request to join and yeah, I'll add them in, that's it. Okay. That's it. It's easy. That's awesome. Yes. Excellent. Excellent. So do you have any, any last minute advice or something inspirational to tell our listeners not to put you on the spot, but to put you on the spot?

I think all of what I teach really comes down to cultivating that trust in ourselves and. As I said before, like yoga is one way to do it and that's the way I teach. But it's not to say that it's the only way.  But yeah, I think, you know, recommitting to ourselves cultivating that connection with ourselves and yeah, trusting, like finding that safety and our body accepting and embracing all of who we are.

 All of those things that goes into cultivating that self-trust yeah. Beautiful. Well, thank you. And Laura, this was just lovely. I, I, now I wish that my ankle was broken because I'm now in the mood to do yoga. I miss moving. Yeah. Yeah. I guess moving. Yes. Okay, excellent. Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.