Nervous System Regulation
What if the path to healing was not about pushing harder, doing more, or thinking your way through pain but about finally slowing down long enough to let your body lead the way? That is exactly what Annie Au discovered after years of professional dance, panic attacks, and a heartbreak that brought her to the mat not for the postures, but for the sacred sound of Om.
Annie Au is a trauma-informed somatic Yin yoga educator, nervous system guide, and creator of the 50-Hour Trauma-Informed Somatic Yin Yoga Online Teacher Training. Her 13-year journey of deep study into neuroscience, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Qigong, and somatic healing has shaped her into one of the most thoughtful and grounded voices in the yoga and wellness space today. Now based in Sri Lanka, she trains coaches, therapists, and yoga teachers to hold truly safe space helping their students feel at home in their own bodies.
In this episode, Annie and I sit down for a rich and deeply human conversation about what it actually means to heal through the body, why so many of us are walking around disconnected from ourselves without even realizing it, and how somatic Yin yoga can be a powerful doorway back home.
Meet Annie Au
Connect with Annie
Topics
Annie's origin story
- Her decade as a professional dancer and how that shaped her relationship with her body
- The panic attacks, physical burnout, and heartbreak that led her to yoga
- Why it was the sound of Om and not the postures that first called her in
The shift from Ashtanga to Yin yoga
- How years of Ashtanga practice kept her pushing through emotions rather than feeling them
- The moment Yin yoga cracked her open and what that actually means
- How her studies in neuroscience, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Qigong all came together
Understanding somatic Yin yoga
- What separates somatic Yin yoga from a standard Yin class
- How the slow, long-held nature of Yin poses creates access to the deeper layers of the body
- Why this practice is particularly powerful for people who feel stuck, numb, or disconnected
Trauma healing and the nervous system
- How trauma gets stored in the body and why talking about it is often not enough
- What nervous system regulation actually means in plain language
- The signs that someone may be carrying unprocessed trauma without realizing it
- What happens in the body during a somatic Yin practice on a physiological level
What it means to hold truly trauma-informed space
- The difference between a genuinely trauma-informed class and one that simply uses the label
- Common mistakes well-meaning teachers make with students who carry trauma
- Why safety is the foundation of any real healing environment
Annie's 50-Hour Trauma-Informed Somatic Yin Yoga Teacher Training
- Who the training is designed for including yoga teachers, coaches, and therapists
- What students walk away with and how it transforms their teaching
- Why Annie created the training and what she hopes it brings to the world
Practical takeaways for listeners
- The first small step someone can take today if they feel burned out or disconnected from their body
- What Annie wishes more people understood about somatic healing and Yin yoga
- Where to find Annie and how to explore her work further
Listen to the Podcast Episode
Weekly Challenge
Felt Sense Experience- Anytime of the day, scan the body and notice any body sensations like heat in the palms, tension in the neck and name your body sensation.
In my body I sense____ and I feel_____.
