It wasn\u2019t until her first year of college that Liz Jordon felt she could truly breathe for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jordon is a freelance, trauma-informed yoga instructor who teaches Take Back Your Body Yoga and partners with Lehigh\u2019s Break the Silence for various events. She\u2019s also collaborated with the Gryphon Society and taught 5x10s, programming events that help connect first-year students to Lehigh.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Growing up the youngest of five in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, Jordon experienced sexual abuse at the hands of her alcoholic father. Throughout high school, she said she developed an exterior persona to appear \u201cnormal,\u201d while internally feeling \u201cdamaged, dirty and broken.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In her first year of college, Jordon took an elective yoga class \u2014 \u00a0not knowing it would open the door to her lifelong healing journey. In a breathwork class halfway through the semester, she said she became dizzy and unable to breathe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had been breathing short my whole life and didn\u2019t know it,\u201d she said. \u201cI was trauma-breathing and had no clue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That experience led Jordon to attend a yoga retreat, which she said was eye-opening. There, she said she was able to release the negativity that shaped her self-image and realized she\u2019s composed of love and meant to exist in the world \u201cvibrantly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mindfulness wasn\u2019t always central to her career, but it remained a healing practice on the sidelines while she worked as an EMT for 20 years, in a chiropractic office and as a ghostwriter for a coaching business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until her late 40s that Jordon transitioned to yoga full-time. The decision came after a conversation with her son, where she expressed her passion for the practice and he encouraged her to \u201cgo all in\u201d and quit her job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe switch was very scary,\u201d Jordon said. \u201cI made less money and there were business aspects I needed help with, but I love it. I\u2019ve been doing it for so long that I can\u2019t see doing it any other way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite initial uncertainty about teaching, she decided the teaching path was the best way for her to learn the practice \u201cdeeply.\u201d She completed more than 700 hours of training to become certified.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2017, Jordon was teaching at Broughal Middle School when she connected with an intern working with Brooke DeSipio \u2014 director of the Office of Survivor Support and Intimacy Education and adviser to Break the Silence.<\/p>\n
At the time, DeSipio was developing Take Back Your Body Yoga and asked Jordon to teach the weekly trauma-informed class.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DeSipio said Jordon\u2019s expertise on trauma, her understanding of the science behind it and her ability to interrupt a trauma response and help individuals support themselves were evident immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Jordon) is very open and transparent which shines through in everything she does,\u201d she said. \u201cShe deeply cares about other people and making the world a better place \u2014 she is an incredible human.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jordon said classes typically have eight to 10 students and aren\u2019t focused on athleticism, but on slowing down. Sessions begin with a guided \u201cshavasana,\u201d a resting and restorative pose, to find stillness and practice breathwork, followed by movement through yoga designed to release tension.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said participants often experience strong emotions such as sadness and anger, as the practice aims to access areas where traumatic experiences are stored.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing the strength of breath influences our bodies,\u201d Jordon said. \u201cYou are the best teacher in the room when you listen to your own body.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Caitlyn Kratzer, \u201826, has worked with Jordon through Break the Silence and attended multiple classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c(Jordon) is very free-spirited, nobody can tell her what to do,\u201d she said. \u201cBut at the same time, she is very calm and will always make you feel better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kratzer said she left classes feeling stress-relieved and rejuvenated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2015, after extensive training, Jordon auditioned and was selected to give a TEDx talk in the Lehigh Valley titled \u201cChaos to Cartwheels<\/a>,\u201d where she spoke about the obstacles in her healing journey and how she overcame them with love.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said she initially resisted speaking publicly about her sexual trauma, but ultimately felt called to do so, as if the universe was telling her to do it.<\/p>\n \u201cI follow my body, and my heart was telling me I needed to start talking about this publicly,\u201d Jordon said.<\/p>\n