Reducing stress through shaking

I'm excited to introduce you to Gemma Price, our resident nutritional therapist, who is also a TRE Practitioner - helping people to release trauma, tension and stress through shaking.

Over to you, Gemma!

When animals in the wild experience stressful events that either activate their fight and flight response or trigger them to freeze they have a remarkable ability to reset their nervous systems afterwards. How? One way seems to be through activating an innate shaking reflex that can help them to discharge any unspent fight and flight energy or mobilise them out of freeze.

As human animals, we can also access this ability of our body to move itself, using the movements to change patterns of held tension, reconnecting us with our bodies and rebalancing our nervous system. It takes a little intention, some guidance and a fair bit of curiosity, but it is an amazing resource that most of us didn’t even know we had.

How we are holding our body can impact our ability to cope with external stressors. If you are rushing around with a clenched jaw, forward head posture and tight shoulders, for example, the signals from your body to your brain are suggesting that you are poised to  fight or flee – and this information will be used by your brain, along with the information about your surroundings, your internal chemistry, your state of mind, your memories, to assess whether or not to launch a stress response.

You can get a sense of how this works by feeling into your body in different positions. I invite you to try it now – stand with your weight forward on your toes, screw up your fists , furrow your brow… How do you feel? How different is it when you relax your shoulders, open your chest, bring your weight more centrally over your feet, soften your knees and your gaze, open up your fingers? What do you notice?

Beginning to notice habitual postural patterns, and softening some rigidity can start to change your nervous system state. Some tension is harder to consciously release though – we can put tension patterns in place when we are accommodating physical limitations, when we brace against expressing emotions, or when we feel threatened. We might be so used to holding ourselves in a certain way, that we are unaware that the tension even exists (until it changes). Invoking the body’s natural ‘tremoring mechanism’ through Tension and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE®) can be a gentle but powerful approach to shifting these patterns.

With TRE we initially use gentle activation of muscles to connect with the tremors. These may feel like small micromovements, like bouncing, swaying or stretching, or you might notice your tummy gurgling or yawns erupting. Any movement that is not consciously controlled counts! It might feel odd at first, new things do, and  it is important to go at your own pace. There is much to be gained from working within your comfort zone, so you can take regular breaks, and start the process again if and when it feels right. Little by little you will start to unwind, to reconnect parts of your body that have been disconnected from each other, to enable more fluidity in your fascia. And the new way of holding yourself will send different signals to your brain – helping you to tolerate more of what life throws at you.

If you would like to find out more visit www.intunenutrition.co.uk or contact me to book in a discovery call…

Gemma Price DipION mBANT mCNHC

IN TUNE NUTRITION

T: 07899 891256

W: www.intunenutrition.co.uk