Shake it off!

An introduction to tension /trauma release exercises (TRE)

Have you ever felt your body get shaky or jittery? Maybe before a big presentation you had to give, or after a car accident (even if it was just a fender bender!). Or after surgery where you put under? Maybe you or someone you know gave birth and were really shaky after? Or if not iin your own body, maybe you’ve seen your dog run under the bed and shakeduring a thunderstorm?

Pretty much all mammals (humans included!) will shake before, during, or after big or scary experiences. It can be freaky if you don’t understand, but it’s actually one way our wise beautiful bodies proacess these evets. TRE (tension/trauma release exercises) helps people re-learn how to shake-which many people find to be useful for releasing tension and being in communication with their nervous system! Although no one “invented” shakeing as a way to process trauma, Dr. David Berceli is one of the people who has done a lot of thinking and work and reasearch around shaking and how it affects our nervous system (alos important to acknowledge different cultures have cultivated wisdom around shaking and trauma orior to Dr, Berceli too). Dr. Berceli is a social worker, body worker, and field trauma-tologist, meaning he would go to places and study peoples trauma. During one of his trips he ended up n a bomb shelter.

As an analogy, imagine a severe snow storm. Cities respond by sending out the snow plows. They spread salt on the roads and folks throw salt on the side walks. That gives people some traction to get around as safely as possible. But salt is a corrosive substance. Now imagine if it snowed for an indefinite amount of time. The trucks keep laying down salt on roads and bridges. Over time that salt begins to eat away at the roads and bridges eventually making them unsafe and in need of repair. What started out as a short term response to a bad situation now contributes to another long term problem that is in many ways worse than the snow; infrastructure collapse. That is what happens to the human body over time due to chronic stress. Our neurological integrity is compromised. What started out as an effective response to a short term crisis, now causes systemic damage to the mind and body.

Why do job rejections hurt? Biology!