Shake It Out, Shake It Out

Shake it out, shake it out
Shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa
And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
So shake him off

Anxious, hypervigilant, unable to relax, hypersensitive, overprotective, fearful, avoidant. 

It can be embarrassing to admit how much we stuck in emotional chains, no matter how much we achieve, help others, or work on ourselves.

2012 was a year of leveling up for me and many people I know. The end of the world was really more like a significant spiritual shift that forced a lot of us to grow of old thinking patterns.

One of the most important things I learned was that you don't have to be shell shocked or have suffered severe abuse to have PTSD. Most people I know carry with them feelings from difficult childhood situations that they could not accept or release. That is trauma.

Today I'd like to share with you what I find to be very helpful passages about the psychology behind trauma, how it gets trapped in the body, and how it can be released physically.


from Conscious Medicine: Creating Health and Well-Being in a Conscious Universe 
by Gill Edwards

Peter Levine, a psychologist, medical biologist, and former stress consultant to NASA observed that wild animals that have been traumatized into the freeze response, yet survived the ordeal, will always shake violently afterwards. They literally shake the trauma out of their energy system. After this their physiology returns to normal, as if nothing ever happened. In fact, research suggests that trauma builds resilience - and that avoiding change and stress is not necessarily good for us. Both animals and humans become stronger after trauma, as long as it is discharged.

***

Neurologist Bob Scaer, building upon Peter Levine's work, believes that most disease results from undischarged trauma - in other words - going beyond fight or flight to the freeze response and getting stuck there. If it is not discharged, trauma remains locked in your energy system, and you cycle between the fight-flight and freeze responses. You might have emotional symptoms such as being anxious, hypervigilant unable to relax, hypersensitive, overprotective, fearful and avoidant, along with characteristic feelings of shame, guilt and inadequacy.

          ***

So next time you have a shock - whether emotional or physical - let your body shake! And if you have traumas from the past that need to be released, shaking medicine which taps into your innate healing wisdom is one way of removing trauma from your bodymind.

          ***

Put on some drumming or dancing music with a strong rhythmical beat, then let your body do its own thing. Focus your mind on a trauma from the past, then shake to the music.

For me, anxiety, inability to relax, hypersenstivity and avoidance have made it very difficult to fully enjoy the abundance of love, creativity, and freedom in my life. As a writer I am language-oriented and many of my truths come in the form of mental, discursive narratives. But you can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it.

So I have been learning EFT (tapping), writing and dancing to shamanic beats, and of the deep healing available through soul retrievals. I can't wait to tell you more about them in future posts.

What works for you?