Glory Johnson believes the teachings in her breathwork classes can help with chronic pain, illness, disease, anxiety, depression and mental health issues that are the result of how we were taught to process emotions as children.

This weekend, the certified life coach and breathwork facilitator will host a donation-based transformational breathwork class at Harmony Yoga & Wellness Studio as part of the Love Your Scars Movement. The program will run from 4-6 p.m. and include a 60-minute breathwork class, donations from the 60-minute class, a Love Your Scars Movement meditation and a community circle. The donations will be given to the Submit-A-Friend Scholarship fund helping those who cannot afford a yoga membership.

“We are taught by our parents, peers, elders and the people that are taking care of us in our lives, when we’re experiencing a big emotion, whether we’re throwing a tantrum or really excited, they tell us to stop, go to our room, knock it off, stop crying, settle down,” Johnson said. “When we’re younger we’re like, ‘I can’t feel this way anymore — I must pause this reaction and this emotion coming up with this energy. Then we don’t end up processing through that whole nervous system loop, but that energy and emotion must go somewhere. It can’t just disappear.”

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She said there is a lot of research that shows that we carry those emotions inside us, and that can lead to health problems down the road.

She added that our nervous system works in a loop where we must deal with the emotion, then react to it and essentially process through it and let it go. This process continues throughout our lives, and if we don’t complete the loop, Johnson said, those feelings are buried inside and can manifest in different ways — including health issues.

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“So all this energy, all these unprocessed emotions that we have not really learned how to process — and that loop keeps going our whole lives — we suppress emotions,” Johnson said. “When these emotions come up we distract ourselves with our phone, social media, TV, reading, work and you name it. We are we as human beings, especially in this country, and I would even go to say this world. We are not taught how to process our emotions healthily.”

During her part of Saturday’s session, Johnson will offer a guided breathwork utilizing a cathartic two-part breathing technique that she said helps release anxiety, stress and worry.

“Breathwork offers a path toward healing the emotional scars caused by trauma,” said Audrey Dwyer, who started the Love Your Scars Movement. “It allows us to reconnect with our bodies, regulate our nervous system and release stored trauma.”

Johnson will start with a brief instruction followed by 26 minutes of breathwork set to an intentional playlist followed by a short release. The session will end with a 15-minute meditation.

“The breath that’s conducted in this class is a two-part cathartic breath, and the session is all breathing in and out of your mouth,” Johnson said. “Your mouth is open the whole time and it’s sort of like, and I tread lightly with this word, a hyperventilation breath, but it’s also not at the same time. The pace is slower, and what this breath does scientifically and spiritually is, it triggers our parasympathetic nervous system.”

Johnson said her class brings out a lot of different emotions, and different reactions from those taking the class.

“Emotionally, you can start to cry, you can get angry and you start really feeling a bunch of different emotions,” Johnson said. “Scientifically, emotions are supposed to only last 90 seconds, but most people would call b——- on that because we all feel bad, or mad, or angry or happy for extended periods. That’s because we don’t process it, so it lingers.”

Johnson offers private lessons in Steamboat Springs that focus on turning self-awareness into self-acceptance through the power of the breath and reconnecting to the true self, and Johnson helps teach a monthly Yin & Breathwork Immersion class with fellow teacher Natalie Mara at Out Here Yoga. She also teaches her own breathwork class at 6 p.m. on Sundays at Out Here Yoga.

She said there are all kinds of breathwork classes, but the transformational breathwork is her most regular class. She also teaches puppy belly breath and somatic respiratory integration.