During traumatic events, our bodies protect us by ramping up a good deal of energy, preparing us to fight or flee. When we are not able to fight or flee, and instead freeze, our bodies can't release this surge of energy (usually adrenaline and cortisol).
What happens to all that energy? It remains stored in our bodies. This goes for fight/flee as well, if the energy isn't allowed to fully run its course.
In the animal kingdom, an impala undergoes immense stress when it’s being chased by a leopard. Watch this video and see how the impala comes to fully discharge all the energy it built up to protect itself.
When it finds safety, it lays down, breathes slowly and deeply into its belly, and then naturally begins to shake off all that stress and tension from its body. This takes a while, but when all that energy has been expelled, it gets up, and prances away. It doesn’t walk around continuing to carry the stress.
It moves onto the next moment in its life.
As humans, many of us who were not able to fight or flee, and instead froze, were never taught how to discharge this energy from our bodies. Children naturally shake, but adults who see this, wanting to comfort, hold them tight so that they stop shaking.
This is actually the opposite of what is naturally needed- for the body to expel this energy. This is how trauma and tension get stored in the body, molding a person that gets stuck in fight/flight, or freeze.
As we move on with our lives, we get used to living this way, so that it becomes our new norm. We eventually don’t know that we can feel any different or better.
This is where the beauty of TRE and somatic yoga therapy comes in. These modalities help release stored trauma from our bodies, and reconnect to feeling the subtleties within our bodies. Somatic yoga therapy, with correct alignment in the postures, shows us that we can FEEL a whole different way.
By slowing down the movements, holding the postures for longer, you’ll be able to feel the changes, not only in your body, but in your mood as well.
The aim of these body-based therapies is to help clear out stored trauma from the body and then restore the body (and spirit) to feeling more vibrant and alive.