Somatic Yoga For Trauma Release, Triggers and Anniversaries | Ep 21

What if trauma recovery wasn’t a checklist, but a conversation with your body?  Host, Liz Albanis opens season two by reflecting on the first two anniversaries of the house fire which inspired this very podcast. The unexpected ways recovery unfolded. She shares the tools that helped, while naming what still lingers. As a way to create awareness and help others.

Moving to a quieter city eased the baseline hum. Fewer sirens, softer pace, better sleep. That shift didn’t erase trauma; it lowered the volume so she could hear her own cues. 

She shares what changed between year one and year two.

It’s a raw, practical look at what helps when triggers surge, why group classes aren’t always the answer, and how small rituals can outmuscle big fears.

Key Takeaways:

• Yoga needs to be somatic to release trauma.
• Yoga by itself is not enough.
• Yoga ideally meets you where you are. Not the other way around.
• Trauma recovery can be messy and embodied.
• Mantras for trauma recovery.
• Yoga can sometimes be more powerful in a particular location after experiencing a traumatic event.
• Myo-fascial release can help release stored trauma. And it's possible to do it yourself, if you know what you're doing and have the right tools.
• Liz believes the 'Yoga Tune Up Balls' are the best on the market for effective myo-fascial release. From her experience.
• It's normal to not feel ready to go back to a yoga class. Even if you're a yoga teacher.
• Anniversaries alone, can be a trigger in relation to trauma, like with grief.
• Grounding through flashbacks and sensory anchors.
• Trauma recovery and sleep.
• Trauma recovery, like grief is not linear.
• Managing triggers, apps, and hypervigilance with action. 
• The power of journaling to reveal quiet progress that anxiety hides. A practice that can help adapt, pause, listen, and let the body lead.

If you’re navigating recovery or supporting someone who is, expect clear tools, no perfectionism, and a lot of permission to do less. Tune in, share it with a friend who needs steady ground, and leave a quick review so others can find the show. Your story matters. Your pace is right. Subscribe for more trauma-aware yoga conversations and practical nervous system care.

* Content warning for trauma and natural disasters 

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Transcript

Trail And Content Warning

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Could feel the way my body changed when I went to that area of the suburb. Yoga has made me more intuitive to feeling those physical changes in my body, the mind-body connection. I discovered that it was really powerful there. It was more cathartic, somatic. Hi, I'm Liz Albanis, and welcome to season two of Yoga for Trauma, the Inner Fire of Yoga, where we explore how yoga can help release trauma, calm the mind, and reconnect you with your body. Before you start listening, this episode could be distressing for some listeners, including but not limited to survivors of natural disasters or other distressing events. If you're struggling, please see a licensed health care professional, or if in Australia to call Lifeline on 133114.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

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

Framing Recovery After Trauma

First Anniversary And COVID Detour

Place, Energy, And Not Moving Back

Mantras, Somatic Practices, And Tears

Personal Yoga Practice For Trauma Recovery Over Group Classes

Second Anniversary And Fire Triggers

Hypervigilance And Yard Rituals

Somatic Yoga And Myofascial Release

Grounding Through Flashbacks

SPEAKER_01 1:23

I'm honoured you're here with me as we step into a new chapter of this journey, this podcast together. In season one, we touched on the scariest night, the night that changed everything, the inspiration behind this podcast. Hence the name. Today I'm reflecting on the first and the second anniversaries of that fateful night. It was a defining moment in my life, one of the most defining moments of my life. So this episode is about recovery after trauma. Not a quick fix, not perfection, but real, human, messy, embodied, recovering. This is not a tragic retelling of that night. It's not me feeling sorry about myself. I don't feel sorry for myself. This is about what came after the fear, the celebrations, a bit more about the tears and the recovery and the body work, nervous system regulation, the self-care. But I'll dive into more specifics of how it was right after the fire in another episode. And if you're listening and you're still recovering, I want you to know that your experience is yours. No one is exactly like you. It's valid and you're not alone. So on the first anniversary, I planned that day as a day of pure self-care. Like many things in life, it didn't go as planned. I tested positive to COVID the week before I was released because I explained why I had such a horrible migraine. I actually found this COVID diagnosis a blessing. I practiced a lot of gratitude because it was a welcome distraction for me. And it was probably another reminder, Liz, slow down, take it easy, honor yourself, you're doing enough. And giving yourself permission to do less is sometimes one of the most powerful forms of self-care and a way to show yourself, I believe, self-compassion. I really planned ahead for this as a day of kind of mourning, getting ready for my house to get demolished. Yes, I know I'm privileged. The house did not evaporate like many in fires. There was much of it left, though damaged. My daughter, who's now six, was devastated that the Bob, the builder, couldn't come in and fix it. I felt sad for the house. I felt sad for the trees. I know that sounds strange. The house is not a living thing, but I felt we'd let it down, you know. I I pleaded with my husband. I said, I do not want to go through the stress of building another house in a location I don't think I can live in anymore. There was some negative energy in that area of the suburb. Not just because of our fire, because of the fire on our very own street, less than six months before that, when we thought, oh, what are the odds of us having a fire? And the fact that then been another fire about 18 months before that, or a year before that other fire, three blocks roughly away, there'd also been an arson case where two people had died in our suburb about four or five years ago. I'd never lived in a place that had had so many house fires. I could feel the changes in my body when I went to the house, like sickness in my stomach, a lump in my throat, the mind-body connection. My nervous system changed. Leoger has made me more intuitive to feeling those physical changes in my body. I was told by some wise friends you could use sage to cleanse the area, you could get someone in to cleanse the energy. And I did look into that. I know some people think she's that's a bit out there. I didn't want to burn sage. For one, that's a trigger burning sage. No, thanks. I don't want to light her. I don't want to start another fire. I don't want to light a match, even if it's one of those long trigger ones which can't go near my fingers. I don't want the neighbors to think that I'm trying to burn the rest of the house down to get more money out of my insurance company, because that's the last thing I wanted to do as well. But I started chanting the Gayatri mantra. Not in the house, in the on the patio where it was secure, in the backyard, and I also did other practices there, like Sudashankriya, sky meditation, life force yoga, chakra clearing meditation, somatic yoga, other chants, sitting in meditation, visionary of positive things in the future, of the block blooming a beautiful new house for the new owners, and also just journaling there, taking some video because I knew the house was gonna go for my daughter for later on, for the outside of it, and I had tears come out, and tears are a form of relief, so that was great. Crying mainly for my daughter, because she was just so sad about the house, and she didn't go in there ever, she was too young. She saw the front of it because the front of it didn't look too bad, and she has not seen the bad photos, she won't see them until she's older. But I wanted to have more to show her as I felt I owed her that. So I discovered that it was really powerful there. It was more cathartic, somatic, more came out of my body. Yoga classes just didn't feel right. I thought, no, I'm gonna get triggered. I'm too acute. I had some mentoring sessions, I knew I would go back to a yoga class. Eventually, it just wasn't the right thing for me. I would use private sessions instead at that time. But no amount of chanting the Gayatri mantra was gonna change the way I felt about moving back there and going through the stress of building. The second anniversary was different. I booked a playdate for this date. I hadn't even realized when I booked this group play date that it was on the anniversary. I did eventually realize I booked the play date for the anniversary, and I wasn't worried. I knew I could have my yoga practice first. I thought, oh well, that's a good sign. I'd prepared the day before and practiced enough self-care. But I'd had to be careful because the week leading up, there's a heat wave in the country the day before of the plate eight, the the fire danger scale was extreme, not catastrophic, which was good. When we had the 2003 bushfires, what they call wildfires in some parts of the world, the the danger warning was catastrophic. So I thought, okay, it's not catastrophic. But I had those bushfires in the back of my head. And then the day before the play date, there was a grass fire. Ugh! Six, seven kilometers away. Luckily, I didn't know about it at the time. That was another lesson I learned the year of the fire. Don't have the Vic emergency app on your phone and keep getting alerts about structure fires. It's just gonna make you feel more scared about when the next fire is gonna happen. I had to just turn it off. The awful Los Angeles fires triggered me a lot. So I've limit how much I look at now. It's not that you don't care, but you've got to look after yourself first. So it was in the back of my head, oh, we're living near two gum trees. They're really good at exploding. That's why they're drought tolerant. Not all the neighbors are picking up their dry leaves, which was irritating me, and I'm still letting go of, I'll be honest. Still trying to let that go. But I even actually went outside at one point because I was triggered and watered backyard and sprayed the water over the fence onto the dry grass near those firebomb gum trees that I actually now hate. And my husband came out and said, What the hell are you doing? And I'm like, Well, it's an extreme fire danger today. He said, Liz, given the temperature, that water is going to evaporate in seconds. Maybe not seconds, but very quickly. I thought, yeah, yeah, he's right. I settled, grounded myself back and continued on. But I have my moments like that. So if that's you, know that you're not the only one. I don't care if my neighbors are going, God, what is wrong with it? That's fine. My history is unique, but my experience is different to yours. We all show things differently. So my form of hypervigilance that week had been doing extra work cleaning up our yard. And even over the fence onto the golf course, there were some sticks, gum leaves that had dropped, some leaves that I cleaned up. I I ordered an extra garden bin. At least it wasn't expensive. But that is, I know now a form of hypervigilance, a subconscious sign of, you know, trauma. I woke up at dawn as the sun rose before anyone else in the household. And I took myself out to the carpet so I didn't disturb anyone. And I spontaneously came into some somatic yoga. Nomad rolled out. Somatic yoga is a term I was not familiar with two years ago either, by the way. It's become a bit of a buzz term these days, you might have noticed. And then I got my trusty yoga tune-up balls out. I've got them upstairs and downstairs in the house because I just use them all the time. Best my fascia release balls available on the market, in my opinion. And I started to release those areas of the body that I had noticed changes, tension, a lot of spasming that I've never felt before. Trauma held. Like my temporalis in the side of my head, maceters, the chewing muscles, the SCM, levatus gap, occipitals, head-neck area. We can hold a lot of tension there. So it wasn't just that notorious trauma muscle of the psoas. And it wasn't just the diaphragm. There's a big connection between the psoas and the diaphragm, the diaphragm being a primary respiratory muscle. So these weren't your technical yoga poses on the mat. They were practices that I needed to meet myself where I was to regulate my nervous system. Later on that day, I did have a few gentle flashbacks. I was standing in the garden shed, squatting down, looking for something, and then I started having some flashbacks, seeing some visions of the photos I took of the garden shed that melted in our on our block. I remember the day I went there with my father to look at the damage, because he was quite horrified when he went into the house. I closed my eyes because I felt comfortable doing that and just went with those visions, flashbacks in a low squat because I've got the anatomy for it, and felt myself ground down into the earth. I brought myself back to the present moment by grounding, feeling the connection to the earth, which may not work for everyone, especially people who've survived things like earthquakes. After the first anniversary, I was still not regulated enough at night to tape my mouth to ensure nasal breathing overnight. I just didn't feel settled enough at night. I could wear an eye mask to help the vagus nerve switch on and use AirPods, but I wasn't ready to tape my mouth. Even though I knew that taping my mouth at night was really important for my physical, mental, and emotional bodies, I just couldn't do it. Nowadays I can tape my mouth. I said, Oh yeah, in a heartbeat. He'd actually asked me this around 2022, and I said, Absolutely not. I've got a studio here I love working at, and other studios I really enjoy working at. There's more work for me here. Um, no, I'm not going back. But this time it was different. I thought yes, and I said, why? And he said, Well, I might have a job there. And I said, Yeah, I'd love to. And he got the job, and I another sign to me of Ishvari Pranidana. The divine has a plan. And I think my mother's spirit up there was doing her work, going, I want them to go back to Canberra to a quieter, much quieter city. I want my granddaughter to go to a school where three of the teachers knew me. My mother was a teacher and she was a principal, and she was awarded an Order of Australia medal by the Governor General before she died. And one lady, one of the teachers, came to me at the end of seeing the school, of having a tour, and said to me with tears down her eyes, I've worked out who your mother is. She was a wonderful teacher and a wonderful human being. That made me proud. It brought tears to my eyes as well. I thought, gee, that's a sign that this could be a good school for my daughter. And it has been a lovely school. We're very grateful we got her into this school. My father now has one of his daughters and one of his granddaughters in the same city as him. So this anniversary's been different. We're in a different city, quieter, calmer. My nervous system reacted positively to the move immediately. People commented on that. And when I went back to Melbourne for a family party, I could feel the change again in my nervous system. My husband loves Melbourne, my daughter loves Melbourne. It's just not the right city for me to live in at this moment. Am I going to say I'll never end up living there again? No. Because life is unexpected. I didn't think I'd end up back in Canberra, but here I am. But at the moment I feel Canberra is right for me and my family. So what's changed? I'm sleeping better. I'm breathing better. I'm still not breathing as well as I was before the fire. There's less vigilance with leaving a phone on charge without watching it all the time. I have a lot more resilience and purpose in life. What's still real to me? There's still trauma there. And they're always all there. Leaning up, preparing for bushfires. I still get triggered. That's still there. It still whispers. But it doesn't rule my life. I feel so much more grateful for this event. The lessons it's taught me. The resilience it's growing and for my Dharma life's purpose, having that change and more of a purpose. So I'm grateful for this experience. As harrowing as it was, this podcast has been one of the most meaningful parts of my life's work. And I've also been honored as a result of that to be a guest on other people's podcasts and be part of Yoga Australia Summit last year, too. What's still around is we still have fire blankets in the house and still have fire extinguishers in the house. That's something I like to have because I've had quite a few people tell me they saved their house with one. Something to point out to people to know that the anniversary, if it's from a big event like that, that itself can be a trigger. Like if you lose someone you love, the anniversary of their death or their birthday, and it may not be just the first one, and it may not be that the first one's the worst, because recovery is not linear, just like grief isn't. The first Mother's Day after I lost my mother, it was tough. If you think you're not improving, you journal and you reflect on it, you think, oh yeah, actually I have come a long way. So that would be Wanna takeaway from this episode that I get out of journaling. Whether you're on your own path of recovery or supporting someone in theirs. Recovery takes time, curiosity, and courage. And you don't have to rush it. And you don't have to compare your journey to anyone else's. Your experience is yours. Sacred and real. And if someone doesn't get why you're reacting a certain way, trauma is still so misunderstood in today's modern world. Hence why I'm trying to shed a bit more light on it, like many other people in the world today. Just know that trauma isn't just in the mind, it doesn't just change your brain, it changes your body too. The body doesn't lie, and it often starts saying no to, as Dr. Gabor Mate says. If some of these terms I mentioned today felt unfamiliar, don't worry. We're unpacking them myself and my guests this season. If you want to know more about that fire that inspired this podcast, check out episode 8. Here's a little snippet. Thought, oh no, that camera never goes off on that side of the house. There must be a burglar. And I looked at the video and it I thought it was a ghost. No, it was smoke. Within 10 seconds, I hear my husband running up the stairs, tearing up the stairs, yelling out to me, call triple zero. Next door's on fire. I didn't grab my handbag. I didn't put shoes on. I had my silk, pajamas on, no shoes. I walked out into the hallway of our two-story house. There's a fire. Your front door's deadlocked. Why is it deadlocked? Of course it was deadlocked. We were scared of getting burgled. And we fumbled to get the keys. The guilt was that my daughter was in the back bedroom. And she was right near the fire. And I thought to myself later on, why on earth did we put her in that bedroom? She was the furthest away from us. We got out of the house in less than two minutes. We didn't nearly die, but our neighbors did. Thanks again for tuning in. If you loved the show, my guests and I would really appreciate a five star review on Apple Podcasts Spotify wherever you listen to podcasts. Until next time, never forget the power of yoga.