Audrey Dwyer’s scars are not obvious or in plain sight for all to see, but these days the young woman who has spent a decade living in Steamboat Spring doesn’t try to hide from them — she embraces them.

It was her own scars from an ALC surgery and open-heart surgery that inspired Dwyer to create the Love Your Scars Movement in Steamboat Springs.

The movement will launch its first event, a candlelit yoga class at 6 p.m. Friday. The class will be followed by a community circle where attendees have an opportunity to share their scar story and find connection through yoga or storytelling.

Both events — people are welcome to come to either one or both — will be at Out Here Yoga, 685 Marketplace, suite C2. Participants can sign up at Momence.com. The event will be donation-based with proceeds going to the Out Here Yoga Scholarship Fund.

These days Dwyer speaks openly about the scar on her chest, the result of open-heart surgery that she went through after being hospitalized two years ago. She has also started to talk about the scars that hide under her skin, the result of addiction issues that date back to her college days and her own experiences living in Steamboat Springs since moving here.

“I was partying a lot and I had COVID pneumonia, and that’s originally what got me into the hospital,” Dwyer said of the events leading up to her surgery. “I also had an infection in my bloodstream in addition to the COVID pneumonia, and then a week later, they found out that I had a mass on my heart and a blood clot in my left lung.”

Dwyer spent two weeks at UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center while doctors pumped antibiotics into her body before being flown to Loveland for the surgery where she spent another three weeks.

“One of my valves on my heart wasn’t working, and they figured that out because they were pumping antibiotics into my body and it wasn’t getting the infection out,” Dwyer said. “I still remember the day when I was getting wheeled back to surgery with my mom, and the look on her face … there was a chance I wouldn’t survive the surgery and that’s when it became real.”

After the surgery, Dwyer was left with a scar she now confronts every day and the knowledge that she faced a long road to recovery if she wanted to get back to the things she loved. Her recovery took more than a year.

“I had a really hard time after my heart surgery with my scar, loving my body and my own image,” Dwyer said. “(It was hard) not being able to do the things that I loved like hiking and skiing. I had to start over from ground zero with everything that I knew.”

In the months that followed, Dwyer needed to take medications to fight the infection. She also struggled with her own physical limitations after the surgery and continued to battle with her lifestyle choices.

“So many people see their scars as a negative thing whether they’re seen or unseen,” Dwyer said. “Scars are this ailment that they have to live with.”

It was during the recovery that Dwyer started working on her own vision to collaborate with other studios, practitioners, nutritionists, physical therapists and massage therapists to host monthly events for people who are coming back from injury or are in recovery. She wanted a resource for people through yoga, community and connection of our shared human-ness. She was inspired by one of her former teachers, who had created the Love Your Belly Movement, and wanted to start a similar body image concept built around scars.

“I don’t think scars are something that you have to live with,” Dwyer said. “I think it’s something that can empower people.”

Dwyer said yoga played a key role in her recovery after surgery and her most recent life choices. She is certified with the Yoga Alliance as well as SUP yoga certified through BIG Power. She would also like to create her own podcast to share scar stories on LoveYourScarsMovement.com and is also sharing stories through social media.

“When we give voice to trauma, not as victim nor villain, we choose to be the author of our life,” Dwyer said. “We choose love. We discover we are whole, worthy and enough. We know in our bones, our core, that we are beautifully flawed, perfectly imperfect, healing beings.”

Dwyer said she finds beauty in scars. She sees the strength, the resilience between what hurts and what heals.

“When I see the scar across my chest, I’m reminded daily of that difficult time in my life. I’m reminded of the mass, the addiction, the blood clot, the infection that almost killed me. I’m also reminded of the physical pain I endured and the emotional wounds that I still carry,” Dwyer said. “There’s a reason I was given another shot. It’s my personal mission to make a difference. … By sharing what I’ve been through and what I am currently going through, it allows others to do the same and know they too are not alone.”