Hanna-Liis Lao

has a deep mission to help women feel safe in their bodies, lives, and relationships, so they can live an authentic, sustainable, and self-supportive life. Under her guidance, thousands of women have learned how, through presence and body-awareness practices, to regulate their nervous systems – to be kinder to themselves, feel safe in their bodies again, shine through adversity, remain centred in chaos, make self-supportive choices, and shift from survival to a sense of aliveness.

Between 2016–2020, she completed life-changing Alexander Technique Teacher Training in Estonia and London. Today, she brings with her international teaching and training experience in universities, companies, group training programmes, and individual work. The impulse to study the Alexander Technique over a decade ago came partly from a practical need to help herself with anxiety, body tension, chronic pain, fatigue, and emotional rollercoasters, but also from deep curiosity about what becomes possible when one learns to lead oneself better.

Recently, Hanna-Liis has been most inspired by this thought:

“Sometimes responsibility for changing something falls to you not because it’s your fault, but simply because you are the only one who can change it.” – Dr Lisa Feldman, Professor of Psychology

“For me, body awareness is linked to authentic self-expression and optimal performance in any activity. It also includes the ability to understand one’s own and other people’s thoughts, feelings, motivations, longings, and needs. Body awareness is very multidimensional for me – there is the physical ‘frame’ and everything inside and around it. I think through my body. I listen through my body. I see through my body. I can’t really explain it in any other way, because words fall short.” – Hanna-Liis Lao

About the lecture

This lecture focuses on how to reduce nervous system overload and release muscle tension in the neck, shoulders, and back caused by chronic stress, a sedentary lifestyle, and trauma stored in the body. We approach the body not as a “broken thing that needs fixing,” but as a sensitive and intelligent system seeking balance and harmony.

Topics covered:

Nervous system regulation – What is nervous system regulation? What are the most common myths about it? How to recognise different states of your autonomic nervous system? How to distinguish between a regulated and dysregulated nervous system? How to restore flexibility of response?
Awareness and release of chronic tension – What causes muscle tension to develop? What are the most common areas where tension accumulates, and how can we balance it? Where does the natural body use that children are born with go?
Everyday activities as presence practice – It is said that how you do one thing is how you do everything. Yet the simplest daily activities – sitting, standing, walking, breathing, lifting, and speaking – which make up most of our lives, often go unnoticed. How can these be turned into nervous system regulation practices? How to bring more presence, body awareness, and regulation into them?

What you will gain from the lecture:

A basic understanding of the functioning of the autonomic nervous system
Practical tools to bring presence, body awareness, and nervous system regulation into simple daily activities
Techniques to reduce overstimulation and release muscle tension

This workshop is for you if you long for deeper presence, connection with your body, and to cultivate these qualities in your everyday life.