Let’s talk about something that many yoga teachers tiptoe around but that so many students experience: triggers in a yoga class.

A trigger is anything — a sensation, a sound, a word, a posture — that activates a person’s nervous system into a survival response.

It’s not about being “too sensitive.” It’s your body remembering something. Trauma lives in the body, and when something feels too close to a past experience of harm, the nervous system lights up as if it’s happening again.

If you’ve ever been in a posture and felt your body tense, your breath catch, or even a wave of panic rising, you know what I mean. Maybe it was a seemingly “innocent” pose like Child’s Pose, or an adjustment from a teacher that caught you off guard. Maybe it was a comment in class that felt dismissive, or the pressure to stay in a shape that felt too exposing.

These moments are what we call triggers. They’re not just about the posture or the words, they’re about how our nervous system responds to something that feels unsafe, even if no real danger is present. And here’s the thing: avoiding triggers altogether doesn’t actually help us heal.

I know this may sound counterintuitive. We live in a world that’s very focused on avoiding discomfort. “Don’t go there. Don’t think about that. Don’t put yourself in that situation.” But avoidance only reinforces the idea that the trigger is too big, too scary, too much for us to handle. Healing comes when we learn to meet these moments with tools, awareness, and support, not when we deny their existence.

Common Triggers in a Yoga Class

Here’s what I’ve seen again and again in my years of teaching: the triggers that come up are often subtle.

For example, Child’s Pose. On paper, it looks like the most nurturing, grounding posture, right? But for some people, having their forehead to the floor, their body curled in, their breath restricted, unable to orient to their surroundings can feel suffocating or disempowering.

Or Happy Baby pose. It’s meant to be playful and freeing, but for someone with a history of sexual trauma, lying on their back with legs open can feel incredibly exposing and vulnerable.

Even Puppy Pose: heart pressing toward the floor, hips high can trigger feelings of helplessness or being “on display.”

Now, does that mean we never teach these poses? No. But it does mean we offer choice. We normalize modifications. We remind students that they can come out of a pose anytime. And we, as teachers, don’t take it personally if they do.

And these are just postures. There are also verbal triggers: when a teacher says something like “just relax,” or “let it go,” or - my least favorite - “leave your challenges at the door.” That’s spiritual bypassing in action. It’s not only dismissive, but also shaming, and it creates more harm than it ever could healing.

Hands-on adjustments. Touch can be beautiful and supportive, but for someone with trauma, unexpected or uninvited touch can feel threatening.

Silence and stillness. For many, being left alone in stillness can feel unsafe, because when they were younger stillness wasn’t safe.

Breath practices. Holding the breath or being instructed to breathe in a certain way can bring up physical and emotional discomfort for some students.

So, What Do We Do Instead?

First, we acknowledge that triggers are real. They’re not made up. They’re not overreactions. They are the body’s way of signalling that something feels unsafe.

Second, we recognize that creating a safe space in yoga is not about avoiding every possible trigger, that would be impossible. Instead, it’s about creating an environment where triggers can be met with compassion, choice, and agency.

As teachers, that means offering clear invitations rather than instructions. Saying things like: “If this pose fell right for you at this moment, here’s another option.” It means teaching variations that honor different needs without making anyone feel like they’re “doing it wrong.”

It also means not assuming safety just because we are in a yoga class setting. Safety is something students feel in their own bodies, and it can shift moment to moment.

Why This Matters for Teachers and Practitioners

If you’re a yoga teacher, this is about your responsibility to the people who step into your class. Your words, your choices, your presence all matter. You have the power to create a space that is deeply supportive or unintentionally retraumatizing.

And if you’re a practitioner, this is about recognizing that your responses in class are valid. If a pose feels overwhelming, if your body says no, that’s important information. You don’t have to push through or override your nervous system. You get to choose how you participate in your own experience.

Why Avoidance Doesn’t Work

Here’s a story I often share in my trainings. I once had a student who could not be in Child’s Pose. Every time she tried, she would start to panic. For years, she simply skipped it. Which is fine, skipping a pose is always okay. But every time she skipped it, she reinforced the belief: Child’s Pose is unsafe for me.

In my training, with support, she explored alternatives: wide-knee Child’s Pose, using bolsters, keeping her head lifted. Slowly, she began to re-pattern her relationship with the shape. Not by forcing herself into it, but by creating safety around it. And that’s what trauma-informed practice is all about.

Why I Teach This in My Courses

This is exactly why in my 100HR Trauma-Informed Yin Yoga TTC and my 30HR Trauma Awareness Training, we go deep into this topic. Because teaching yoga is not just about sequencing and anatomy. It’s about understanding how trauma shows up in the body, how triggers arise, and how to skilfully respond when they do.

We explore:

• Why certain poses can be triggering and how to offer safe, empowering alternatives.
  
• How to avoid spiritual bypassing and language that causes harm.
  
• How to hold space so students feel seen, respected, and in control of their experience.
  

Whether you’re a teacher who wants to guide others more safely, or a practitioner who simply wants to understand your own nervous system better, these tools change the way you approach yoga.

Because yoga is not meant to retraumatize us. Yoga, at its heart, is a practice of coming home to ourselves. And that home must be built on safety, choice, and compassion.

So let’s stop avoiding the conversation about triggers in yoga.
Let’s start holding space that honor the reality of trauma while empowering real healing.

If you’re ready to dive deeper into how this actually looks in practice - from understanding triggers, to teaching with safety, to transforming your own relationship with yoga - I’d love to welcome you into one of my trainings.

Because the more we as teachers and practitioners learn to meet triggers with awareness and compassion, the more yoga can truly become the healing practice it was always meant to be.



If this resonates and you feel called to this work, I invite you take the first gentle steps:

Download my free eBook: Meridians & Emotions and Yin Yoga

Try the free Emotional & Nervous System Yin Reset, designed for you to experience how my integrated signature approach The Meridian-Emotion-Nervous System Yoga Method works

Watch my free Trauma Awareness Webinar - Trauma Informed Yoga Foundations

Join my next live 100HR Trauma Informed Yin Yoga & Chinese Meridians Teacher Training in Thailand:

14-23 Dec 2025
20-29 Jan 2026
2-11 Mar 2026

Join the waitlist of my online self-paced 100HR Trauma Informed Yin Yoga & Chinese Meridians Teacher Training launching December 2025

Join the live 30HR The Art of Trauma-Informed Space Holding course in Thailand:

4-8 Oct 2025

Join the waitlist of the online self-paced 30HR The Art of Trauma-Informed Space Holding course launching in early 2026

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