TRE AND THE ANCIENT HEALING MODALITY OF SHAKING
Integration of our whole being and a state of inner peace through movement.
The Bushman of the Kalahari, are the original custodians of shaking medicine. Rediscovering the oldest and newest Healing Modality on Earth, which Bradford Keeney describes in his book, Shaking Medicine, has been used in many different cultures. Shaking has been very familiar historically, mainly in cultures that either lack written language or for whom texts have not been a priority. Not long ago our society feared meditation but through western physicians traveling to our eastern neighbours, it has been established that relaxation and calm can bring about healing and is now more commonly accepted in western medical professions.
The other side of the spectrum is shaking and movement. Maybe it is now time to become familiar with this, as I understand and have experienced that after shaking the body the mind is able to fall into a deeper state of calm and peace.
Dr Peter Levine discovered that wild animals recover after tremoring or shaking which happens in the body after the fight flight or freeze mechanism is activated. A revolutionary discovery further developed by David Berceli into TRE (Tension Trauma release exercises), after doing trauma work in war torn countries like the Sudan where he had to hide in the bunkers away from the bombs. The adults and children alike, as you can imagine, were highly activated in the fear response. What was curious to David however, was that the children were shaking but the adults were not.
Sabine’s radio interview with Connect In Harmony – Ancient, Present and Future Healing with Shaking
Dr Peter Levine discovered that wild animals recover after tremoring or shaking which happens in the body after the fight flight or freeze mechanism is activated. A revolutionary discovery further developed by David Berceli into TRE (Tension Trauma release exercises), after doing trauma work in war torn countries like the Sudan where he had to hide in the bunkers away from the bombs. The adults and children alike, as you can imagine, were highly activated in the fear response. What was curious to David however, was that the children were shaking but the adults were not.
Today TRE is used globally by thousands of people. The safety and calm experienced by the nervous system has a positive effect on PTSD anxiety and all the clutter of what stress produces in our heads and behavioural tendencies and state of safety within. The beauty of this self-help tool, once learned, is that we don’t have to retell our difficult stories, instead we learn to trust and be safe again in ourselves. This produces confidence, resilience and is accessible really anytime, for the rest of people’s lives.
Our society and medical institutions have pathologized all forms of shaking and starting from a young age, this natural mechanism is switched off and conditioned out of us. Just imagine shaking when you are giving a speech, it just doesn’t look good! Logically speaking it doesn’t somehow make sense right!? But it is not the logical brain that is accessed through the tremoring, it is our sensory, emotional right brain instead. The body has served us so well and helps us survive every day and has done a magnificent job. I am awed by its intelligence. We experience the stress in the world daily and the pressures seem to be on the increase. Unless we allow ourselves to come back into the safety of our own bodies and learn to listen when it gives us the subtle messages to change course or take a break, our mental and physical health will continue to be on the decline.
I have been left with a deeper respect for the body’s intelligence in particular its ability to complete trauma responses and allowing involuntary and instinctual portions of our being to do their job, instead of retelling our stories over and over again.
TRE is a set of seven exercises which are simple and can be adjusted to the specific needs of a person when necessary. David Berceli discovered that the psoas muscle is key to the body core tremoring and by tiring the leg and other muscles that normally inhibit the psoas, it gets re activated to access this vital survival instinct.
The interesting thing is that most of us are not aware of the activation that is carried in the body. Small triggers from our sensory and emotional being are continuously present and without realizing what is happening, the body reacts as though it is still trying to protect itself from stressful situations that have long passed. Peter Levine describes this as the turbulence inside the body in the form of opposing forces, the revving engine on the one end while applying the brake as indicated by the lack of movement in the body. It is for this reason we have adjusted our ways of coping with amazing management tools, however the baseline where an integrated body can heal has been elevated much higher to where deep healing can occur naturally on all levels. Managing on these higher levels of activation will produce behaviours and thinking patterns that may not be serving us anymore. No wonder the impact on our health.
TRE down regulates our bodies, brings us back to a sense of safety and peace, and allows the balanced healing energy flow of our being to be directed to nourish our vital organs rather than our muscles ready for a defensive attack, fleeing or shutting down and dissociating all together.