Healing Your Emotional Wounds Through Conscious Movement
by Lorrel Elian

Do you ever dislike how it feels when you do physical activity like a gym workout or yoga? Occasionally one of my yoga students will say they feel nauseous. Occasionally newbies quit because they just couldn’t get past the sensations in their body. Not until I was forty-eight did I find a style of yoga that I didn’t absolutely hate. 

Only after consistent classes did my body start to reveal to me a whole new world of pain-free pleasure I would never have expected to find on a yoga mat. Most impressive to me was how my attitude about my body started to change. I fell deeply into a love affair with this method that was teaching me to be consciously in my body.  Each class left me craving more, and I never looked back. 

But this isn’t about yoga. 

If you’ve not yet found some form of movement practice, you might be one of 31% of North Americans, who PuBMed says are at risk of health issues because 1 in 4 adults spend about 70% of their waking hours sitting, 30% in light activities, and little or no time in exercise. This staggering number is expected to reach over 41% of Canadians by 2030.

We’re often active in our youth, then life changes when we move into careers, and raising a family that disrupts our personal freedom and access to exercise, or social activities, that keep us flexible and vital. I succumbed to this with a young family and busy work life. The pounds turned into dysfunction and immobility over time, then into my forties the long list of ailments turned into meds and surgeries. I was forced to find a solution because doctors no longer had one for me. 

Maybe you can relate. I had no energy for exercise at the end of the day in a stressful career and dealing with young children at home, even though I tried really hard. I went to a hot yoga class which was kind of crazy for my large frame and sore knees. 

I felt like I had tried everything and no one was coming to save me, so this was maybe a final attempt to find a solution.  I committed to a week of unlimited hot classes! Desperation and anger turned into a deep connection to my body, my soul, and self respect. Our bodies are amazing servants that often suffer from our neglect or poor food choices. 

Today, when I ask someone if they practice yoga, I understand them when they recoil while explaining why they can’t stand yoga. It’s not the yoga they don’t like.

As I dove into understanding these new sensations in my body, I was also two years into the study of psychosomatic therapy (a body-intelligent method that teaches body–mind communication), and I realized I was also healing deeply buried trauma. The excess weight was really layers of emotional pain that easily released as I consciously moved in the new patterns of my yoga practice. 

Ever had anyone tell you, “It’s easy, just lose some weight,” or “It’s easy, just do more exercise.” Take one of the statements that really fires you up and observe what happens in your body, where do you feel it? I call that a red flag. Red flags are indicators of old traumas that you often don’t know are there. Unconsciously, you’ve become a prisoner to your emotions. At a cellular level, you look like how you feel. 

When you are no longer triggered by statements, events, or other people, you’ll be free. The quickest way to achieve this is through conscious movement.

I had been teaching yoga and psychosomatic therapy for a few years when I took a Yamuna Body Rolling (YBR) class.  It felt like a combination of massage and chiropractic with the benefits of physio and yoga. I knew right away this was more than rolling on a ball.

People love how YBR feels in their body, especially if they have been carrying pain for a while. There are often immediate releases and the long term side effects have been surprising. 

I call it Emotional release on a ball. YBR isn’t like a gym workout. This appeals to those who have challenges with movement, or haven’t been active for a long time. They learn how to literally roll the pain out of their body without a sweaty workout.

After years of teaching YBR, it’s amazing to observe what pain teaches people about their body. Conscious movement like YBR* and yoga physically guide you to connect with yourself on an emotional level. When the good feeling in your body replaces the pain, it shifts the cellular memory and changes the story in your mind that’s connected to the trauma. It’s an intricate relationship between the body, the mind, and memory.

Pain-filled newbies who come to my intro workshops leave with renewed inspiration around their body’s capabilities. They even walk differently.

I’m passionate about people experiencing a new level of health and personal freedom. That’s the vision I hold for myself, too.  I have condensed years teaching body-mind modalities into my signature workshops, using yoga and YBR as a gateway.

Using conscious movement renews your body’s ability to live with health and vitality as partners that ensure you have greater say in how your life and your body look and feel.

Lorrel Elian has been teaching body–mind awareness strategies for over a decade. 5X International Bestselling Author, she’s working on #6: a deep dive into Mother–Daughter relationships and how we’re one step closer to world unity when we can heal this sacred relationship. Her mission is to educate women how to consciously use their body for releasing generational trauma, and the pain associated with it. She lives in Bruno, SK, with her husband Larry, and offers women-focused workshops and health spa services through her home-based location, Conscious Body Studio. This is how you find her on instagram and Facebook.