Locked in Lockdown Limbo? Find Refuge in Routine With Tension Release Rituals
During the 2020 Coronavirus lockdown many of us felt that being isolated in our homes would be detrimental to our mental and physical health. Human beings are designed to move and to interact with our environments. Long periods of isolation and a lack of stimulation can lead to boredom and a build up of internal stress. Animals and human beings have an innate ability to release stress and tension that is stored in the body but it seems that we human beings have forgotten how to do it. Fortunately there is a simple and effective way to release that is accessible to everyone - Tension and Trauma Release Exercise.
What is Stress?
Technically speaking, stress is an external factor that affects us in a certain way. It can be mental, physical or emotional. How we deal with stress will dictate how it affects us. Ultimately stress will cause varying degrees of internal tension in the body and mind.
Where do we hold stress in the body?
Although stress is fairly intangible as it's a name given to broad range of external factors, once we feel the tension in the body and mind it can become a very tangible thing. We are energetic beings and when we aren't able to release our tension it will crystalize or solidify in the body and become stuck. Different people will hold tension in different places in the body; for example some will hold tension in their jaw, others in their neck or lower back and others in their pelvis. This tension could be felt physically as "knots" in the muscle. If you've ever had a deep tissue massage, you'll know what I mean when I say that having some knots released feels wonderful. Well, now imagine having strong emotional energy embedded within those knot.
The Psoas Muscle
One of the most common places that we store tension and emotional trauma is in the psoas muscle. The psoas runs from the lower back to the bottom of the pelvis. Also known as the "trauma muscle" because when the body or mind moves to a state of high stress, the psoas muscle will tighten and become shorter in a physiological response of self protection. This shortening of the psoas can become chronic and unless it's stretched and released on a regular basis can cause long term emotional and psychological issues. Tension and Trauma Release Exercise targets the psoas muscle primarily.
What is Tension and Trauma Release Exercise?
Tension and Trauma Release Exercise is a series of stretches and movements that trigger an involuntary shaking response from the pelvic area. This tremorring will gently release the stress that is stored in the body and help to release the trauma stored in the psoas muscle. By stretching and tensioning certain muscles we can tap into our body's natural stress relief mechanism
Trauma Release in Nature
Animals use shaking instinctively to shake off their trauma. An example would be a gazelle or impala being chased by a lion in the wild. If the prey animal survives the chase it will drop to the ground and shake violently for a period of time and then get up and run off as if nothing's happened. This animal has done it's own Tension and Trauma Release Exercise.
Here's a link to a video showing an example of this with an impala. Here's another video with an example of a polar bear shaking off it's "survival activation".