Living a Life in Balance
How Grief Yoga Can Heal: And Where Trauma Lives in the Body
With Paul Denniston
Paul Denniston discusses grief yoga and the connections between loss, trauma, and the body.
Listen to the conversation
How Grief Yoga Can Heal: And Where Trauma Lives in the Body
Paul Denniston
Inside this conversation
Introduction to Paul Denniston
Childhood, Religion, and Emotional Suppression
Coping Mechanisms: Food, Substances, and Anxiety
More themes
- Yoga as a Gateway for Emotional Release
- Addiction and Rock Bottom
- Losing Sister and Anticipatory Grief
- The Wake-Up Call and Beginning Recovery
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The guest
Paul Denniston
Paul Denniston is a yoga teacher, founder of Grief Yoga and author of Healing Through Yoga: Transform Loss into Empowerment. His teaching combines movement, breath and sound in an approach to exploring grief and loss. He has taught bereavement groups and trained yoga teachers and healthcare professionals. The practices discussed here are supportive approaches, not substitutes for individual clinical care. Official biography.
From the host
Reflections on the conversation
Conversation notes
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Paul Denniston describes the experiences of grief, anxiety and recovery that led him to develop Grief Yoga. He explains how he uses movement, breath and voice, and demonstrates a laughter practice during the conversation. He also discusses grief beyond bereavement, including changes in identity and losses that other people may not recognize.
Episode summary
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Paul reflects on how his path began in places of anxiety, emotional suppression, and coping mechanisms that numbed rather than healed. He speaks openly about his childhood, his relationship with his sister, and the anticipatory grief that shaped so much of his inner world. From hitting rock bottom to entering recovery, he shares the moments and the people, who helped him find steadiness again.
Paul Denniston is the founder of Grief Yoga, a therapeutic movement method that helps people express and process emotional pain through the body. With experience in yoga, breathwork, dance, and movement therapy, he has trained thousands of mental health professionals, hospice workers, and grief counselors worldwide.
The full transcript
Original-language transcript · EN