Meet Sandy Krzyzanowski, Trauma-informed Yoga teacher. In the soon-available book, The Wellness Universe Guide to Complete Self-Care: 25 Tools for Transformation, Sandy shares how learning about war trauma/PTSD through her trauma-informed yoga training changed how she viewed her childhood experience.
The Wellness Universe (WU): Hello, Sandy Krzyzanowski, please tell us about yourself and what inspired you to write your chapter in the book The Wellness Universe Guide to Complete Self-Care: 25 Tools For Transformation.
Sandy Krzyzanowski (SK): Hello! Thank you! I am so excited to be a part of your sixth book and to share my personal story!
I am the owner of Better Day Yoga LLC. I’ve practiced Yoga for over 30 years and have taught yoga, health, and wellness in studios, corporate offices, and high school settings since 2008. My specialization is in trauma-informed yoga. I’m also a certified Yoga Therapist, Registered Yoga Teacher, Certified Personal Trainer, Ayurveda Practitioner, and Reiki practitioner.
My inspiration for the chapter, and the reason I teach trauma-informed yoga, came from my childhood. My parents were prisoners of war on German farms (forced labor) during WWII and came to the U.S. in 1950 after having spent five years in a displaced person’s camp after the war. The resulting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) they experienced left my younger self with many unanswered questions regarding my childhood. I knew our household wasn’t as peaceful as some of my friends’ households. You don’t ask questions when you’re younger.
As a child growing up in a household filled with PTSD, I was always on guard, walls up, closed in, walking on eggshells. I joke now that I always knew when “she’s going to blow!” (Star Trek reference). So my radar was always up, looking for the next explosion, and I didn’t want to be the cause of it!
I didn’t know why my parents always fought or had short tempers. They just did. And that meant I found ways to cope. This coping was a reflex, much of which I learned later was exactly what my nervous system needed, like humming, rocking, singing, and creating a hiding place for solace.
WU: What tool do you share in this book, and what can we expect to experience as a result of using this tool?
SK: I’ll be sharing a brief exercise in humming, giving personal examples of songs that bring calm and songs that bring to mind loved ones and ancestors. I invite you to consider your unique songs to do the same. We can all be sound healers using our vocal cords! This sounds simple because it is! But we don’t always take the time to use this healing tool and don’t realize the huge benefits that can be gained.
Per The Humming Effect by Jonathan Goldman and Andi Goldman, humming enhances health and wellness by:
- Increasing oxygen in the cells
- Lowering your blood pressure and heart rate
- Clearing toxins from your body by increasing your lymphatic circulation
- Increasing melatonin (the sleep hormone)
- Reducing stress hormones
- Releasing oxytocin (the love/trust hormone)
- Releasing feel-good endorphins, promoting natural pain relief
- Increasing nitric oxide levels (a molecule that promotes healing)
People with PTSD have used humming to feel better—as my mom did.
Humming transforms us.
WU: How did learning about war trauma/PTSD change how you viewed your childhood experience?
SK: The title of my chapter is “The Whys Matter” because they do. I grew up not understanding why my parents had angry outbursts, short tempers, panic attacks, feelings of helplessness, and moved through the shadows of depression. My trauma-informed yoga training explained war trauma/PTSD and changed my life, healing my childhood experience. I now knew why! Understanding my parents’ PTSD symptoms were perfectly normal reactions to perfectly abnormal events, and that they had no control over their reactions, healed how I viewed my childhood experience. I now have more compassion, respect, and understanding. I could now reconcile with it, healing my memories.
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What a powerful and heartfelt story, Sandy! Your journey from childhood confusion to deep healing and understanding through trauma-informed yoga is truly inspiring. The way you turned pain into purpose is a beautiful example of true transformation. Thank you for sharing such a vulnerable part of your life and reminding us of the simple, beautiful power of humming to restore peace and connection.