Lauren Rudick is globally celebrated Yoga Instructor, the Founder of Yoga Academy International and the creator of the Yoga For Better Sex program. Her program allows women to come together in a safe place that's open, vulnerable and without judgment where they can share their stories, support each other and feel supported. Lauren uses yoga and mindfulness tools intertwined with yogic philosophy and history to teach her students how they can have sex in a way that feels empowering and nourishing rather than a way that makes them feel depleted or taken advantage of.
Read Lauren’s story to find out how she was able to use the pain of a bad break-up and a traumatic sex injury as a launching pad for an international career in yoga training.
It started off with a workshop about eight years ago that stemmed entirely from a really bad break up and also a traumatic hip injury. I had put the man I was with and everything I thought that relationship represented on a pedestal, he was my “Happily ever after.” During our relationship I actually got injured while I was having sex with him. We weren't doing anything crazy or kinky, it was just a stupid accident. He leaned forward in a strange way and I strained the muscles in my hip area. It was almost like people who sprain their neck because they sleep the wrong way.
I attached my dream life to this person and every time my hip would hurt I thought of him and every time I thought of him my hip would hurt. I had created this automatic physical pain response.
We had graduated university and broke up in the same week. I didn't know what I wanted to do with myself or what kind of job I wanted to have. I eventually wanted to do my Masters but I wasn't ready to go back to school for another couple years. I had been practicing yoga for a while and decided to take a yoga teacher training course abroad.
I didn't really know anything about the philosophies of yoga or the history or the anatomy. I only went because we’d be living in tents on the beach with no wi-fi, no electricity, no phone and I knew I couldn't stalk him on Facebook or call him.
I got there and I was introduced to the world of yoga, the food, the philosophies, the mindset and the tools for happiness. It changed my life. I travelled for two years around the world by myself and said yes to any international job I could find that would pay for my plane ticket and accommodation.
But I was still stuck with this limiting belief system, when I would meet people during my travels and they’d ask me about my story I’d say “Oh my boyfriend broke up with me and I became a yoga teacher.” Plus I had this hip injury that left me limping for two years and when people would ask why, I was embarrassed to tell them it was due to a sex injury, I was also too embarrassed to tell a doctor so I didn't do anything about it and it didn't heal.
I let myself be defined as this heartbroken woman and I still just wanted this guy to come back into my life. I would imagine our life together and I would imagine him moving back into my apartment where he used to sleep over all the time.
After two years of travel I came back to Montreal and started teaching yoga full time. My injury was still very problematic and I started physiotherapy, they told me I had so much scar tissue in my hip that I might never be normal and should stop doing yoga and that I’d never be able to ride a bicycle or run.
One morning I was about to go walk my dog, I had the flu and looked like shit in my pajamas and I see my ex boyfriend in the lobby of my building. I was totally shocked, he goes “We live here now.” I was like “We?” He says, “Yes, this is my girlfriend.” She’s standing there beside him this gorgeous 5'9 model looking woman. I was devastated. I had manifested him back into my life, but not in the way I had meant too.
He moved into my building in January, and in April I attended a yoga conference in New York City. Seane Corn, who is a big inspiration of mine was doing a workshop called, “Yoga for a Broken Heart.” Seane Corn started talking about this idea of letting go. When you are in a relationship with a person and it ends that person is not yours. “You have to let them go and give them back to God,” that was her expression. Whether it's because of a death or divorce or breakup that person is not yours to keep. While saying all this she had us in a pigeon pose for 5 minutes. It was pretty intense, especially with a hip injury. I was in pain, I was crying hysterically and when she said that I knew I was done with this story that I had held onto for the past three and half years of telling myself that I’m a broken woman and not good enough. And it was magical, in that moment my hips spasmed and released.
I had been so angry with myself for so long. I was angry at my body for not healing. I was angry at my soul for not getting over this guy. I was angry at him for moving into my building and for breaking my heart and hurting me physically. I was so angry, I had so much emotion in this breakup and in this injury.The energy and stress of my feelings had made my injury so much more intense then it needed to be. As soon as I let go mentally and spiritually, my body literally let go physically. It felt like a spontaneous miraculous healing.
After that workshop I went home and I thought to myself, I cannot be the only woman in the world that has had a sexual injury or traumatic breakup and let it affect my sex life and all of my other relationships. So that's how the idea for Yoga for Better Sex came about.
I started teaching Yoga for Better Sex with this idea that we should use our yoga practice to empower ourselves and make mindful choices to feel great in our bodies and in our spirit about our sex life. This became my most popular workshop, and I’ve taught it to thousands of women around the world.
The first time I taught Yoga For Better Sex was at a WanderLust festival, it was so successful and so beautiful and we all cried. It put me on the map as a yoga teacher. I was elated and glowing, and on the biggest high ever. I just had the best experience of my career and I was tapping into a message that I felt so passionately about. I had taken something that was really hard and dark and turned it into light.
The funniest thing happened on the way home, my mom called me and invited me to attend an event with her that evening, so I went home took a shower and left home feeling really amazing. As I walk out I bump into my ex boyfriend and his girlfriend, and he says “You look great, it's really good to see you.” I told him, “You know what it's really good to see you too.” I really meant it, and that was the last time I ever saw him, even though he continued to live in my building for another six months. When it popped up on my news feed he had become engaged I thought that's so nice for them and I realized this is so nice for me too because I am genuinely happy for them.
Lauren has studied, taught and practiced yoga across 6 continents and in over 30 countries for over a decade. Her yoga retreats and teacher trainings have received international praise and she’s been featured in numerous publications including The Daily Mail and Women’s Health.
Learn about the Yoga Academy International founded by Lauren Rudick
Learn more about Lauren at LaurenRudick.com
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