Watch an animal after a life-threatening encounter. A gazelle that has just escaped a lion does not go to therapy. It does not journal about the experience. It does not call its mother and process its feelings. I have seen it happen.It shakes. Its entire body trembles violently for thirty to sixty seconds - legs, torso, neck, everything vibrating with an intensity that looks like it might shake the animal apart. And then it stops. The gazelle stands up, shakes its head, and walks away. The event is complete. The trauma is discharged. The nervous system returns to baseline.
You are an animal. You have the same tremoring mechanism built into your biology. But unlike the gazelle, you have been trained to suppress it. You have been taught that shaking is a sign of weakness. That trembling means you are afraid. That visible signs of nervous system activation are embarrassing, inappropriate, something to be controlled. So when your body wants to shake after an argument, after a near-miss in traffic, after a confrontation that activates your survival circuits - you clench. You tighten. You hold the tremor inside. And the charge that the tremor was designed to discharge stays locked in your tissues.
That locked charge is what we call stored trauma. It is not a memory. It is not a narrative. It is unexpended survival energy that got trapped in the body because the discharge mechanism was suppressed. And it stays there - sometimes for decades - manifesting as chronic tension, anxiety, startle responses, sleep disruption, and a baseline state of activation that you have normalized because you have never experienced its absence.
Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score is essential reading for anyone on a healing journey. *(paid link)* This book changed how I understood trauma storage in the body. Completely shifted my perspective. Van der Kolk gets it ~ he knows that talking therapy alone isn't enough when your nervous system is stuck in fight-or-flight mode from decades of stored stress. The guy spent years watching how trauma literally rewires our brains and bodies, and he doesn't sugarcoat the reality that healing requires more than just mental work. You need to get into the body itself. I remember reading his research on how trauma survivors could talk endlessly about their experiences yet still jump at unexpected sounds, still feel unsafe in their own skin. Know what I mean? The body remembers what the mind tries to forget, and until you address that cellular memory ~ that deep nervous system activation ~ you're only working with half the equation. Van der Kolk proved what many of us felt intuitively: real healing happens when you honor both the story and the soma.
The Science Behind the Shake
Peter Levine, the founder of Somatic Experiencing, was the first to formally articulate what indigenous healers had known for millennia: trauma lives in the body, not in the story. His observation of animals in the wild led him to understand that the human nervous system has the same built-in mechanism for discharging activation - and that the suppression of that mechanism is the primary reason trauma becomes chronic rather than self-resolving. Think about that. A gazelle escapes a lion and immediately starts shaking it off. Literally shaking. Then it goes back to grazing like nothing happened. But we humans? We hold that shit in our shoulders, our jaw, our belly for decades. We convince ourselves we're "fine" while our nervous system is still running from that predator. Levine realized we've been trying to think our way out of what is basically a physical problem. You can't cognitive-behavior-therapy your way out of stored survival energy, no matter how many times you tell yourself the danger is over.
The tremoring mechanism is controlled by the psoas muscle - the deepest core muscle in the body, connecting the lumbar spine to the femur. The psoas is the muscle of fight or flight. It contracts when you are in danger, preparing you to run or to curl into a protective ball. When the danger passes, the psoas is designed to release its contraction through involuntary tremoring. If the tremor is allowed to complete, the contraction releases and the nervous system returns to its pre-threat state. If the tremor is suppressed, the psoas stays contracted. And a chronically contracted psoas produces lower back pain, hip tension, shallow breathing, digestive issues, and a persistent feeling of being braced for impact. Explore more in our healing hub guide.
David Berceli developed Trauma Release Exercises - TRE - specifically to activate this tremoring mechanism in a controlled, therapeutic context. The exercises fatigue the psoas and surrounding muscles until the neurogenic tremor activates spontaneously. The body begins to shake - often starting in the legs and spreading through the torso. The shaking is not voluntary. It is not performed. It is the body's own intelligence completing a discharge cycle that may have been interrupted years or decades ago. You can't force it or fake it. Your nervous system either trusts enough to let go, or it doesn't. When it does happen, there's this weird sense of watching your body do something completely without your permission ~ yet feeling safer than you have in months. The tremoring has its own rhythm, its own wisdom. Sometimes it's gentle waves. Sometimes it's wild shaking that looks almost seizure-like but feels like the most natural thing in the world. Think about that. Your body remembering how to complete what it started during that car accident in 2019, or that panic attack last spring, or whatever got frozen in your system when you were too overwhelmed to process it fully.
Most people are deficient in magnesium, a good magnesium supplement can transform your sleep and nervous system. *(paid link)* I'm talking about real transformation here, not some bullshit placebo effect. Your muscles need magnesium to relax properly, and when you're deficient, your body stays locked in this low-grade tension that makes tremoring and natural release damn near impossible. Think about it ~ if your nervous system is running on empty because it can't manufacture the basic building blocks for calm, how the hell is it supposed to let go when you need it to? I've seen people try tremoring for months with minimal results, only to add proper magnesium and suddenly their body starts releasing like it's supposed to. It's like trying to drive a car without oil. Sure, you can push the engine harder, but you're missing something fundamental that makes everything else actually work. When your cellular machinery has what it needs, the shaking becomes effortless instead of forced.
What Happens When You Let It Move
The first time your body tremors, it may feel strange. Unsettling. Even frightening. Your legs shake and your mind says stop this. This is weird. Something is wrong. Nothing is wrong. Something is finally right. Your body is doing what it has been trying to do since the original activation occurred - and you kept stopping it. Now you are letting it happen. And what moves through you is not just muscular release. It is emotional. It is energetic. You may cry without knowing why. You may feel rage without an object. You may laugh. You may feel a wave of heat or cold move through your body. You may feel nothing at all except a deep sense of settling afterward - as if a low hum that has been playing in the background of your life for years has suddenly gone silent. Paul explores this deeply in Forensic Forgiveness.
I have experienced this personally and watched it in hundreds of clients. The tremoring is not a technique you perform. It is a process you allow. Your body knows how to do this. It has always known. You just have to stop preventing it. Stop gripping. Stop controlling. Stop telling your body that its natural discharge mechanism is inappropriate or embarrassing. Let the animal in you do what the animal knows how to do. Seriously. We've been taught to be so damn civilized that we've forgotten we're mammals with mammalian nervous systems. Watch a dog after a traumatic event ~ they shake it off, literally, then go back to being a dog. We? We hold that shit for decades. We squeeze our shoulders up to our ears and wonder why we're anxious all the time. The moment you stop being the nervous system police and start being curious about what wants to move through you, everything changes. Think about that. Your body has been trying to complete these incomplete stress cycles for years, maybe decades, and you keep shutting it down because it feels weird or looks stupid.
After a tremoring session - which can last five to twenty minutes - most people report a depth of relaxation they have not felt in years. Not the relaxation of lying on a beach. The relaxation of a body that has finally completed an incomplete survival response. The muscles soften not because you told them to but because the charge they were holding has been released. The breath deepens not because you are doing a breathing exercise but because the diaphragm, freed from the grip of the psoas, can finally descend fully. The anxiety lifts not because you thought your way out of it but because the autonomic activation that was producing the anxiety has been discharged at its source.
A weighted blanket can feel like a hug from the universe, especially on nights when the mind will not stop. *(paid link)* There's something primal about that gentle pressure. Like being held down just enough to remember you have a body. Your nervous system doesn't know the difference between a weighted blanket and safe human touch. It just knows: pressure equals safety. The racing thoughts slow down. That jittery energy that's been bouncing around your chest finally has somewhere to go. I've watched people literally melt under 15-20 pounds of gentle weight, their breathing shifting from shallow panic gulps to deep belly draws in maybe three minutes. Seriously. It's like watching someone remember they're not actually in danger ~ they're just stuck in an overcharged state that thinks everything is urgent. The blanket doesn't solve anything, but it gives your system permission to downshift. Know what I mean? Sometimes your body just needs to feel contained before it can let go.
How to Practice Safely
Somatic tremoring is powerful. Like any powerful tool, it requires respect and discernment. If you have a history of severe trauma, dissociation, or complex PTSD, do not start this practice alone. Seriously. Start with a certified TRE provider or a somatic therapist who understands trauma physiology. The tremoring can release stored material rapidly, and without adequate support, the release can be overwhelming rather than healing. Think about it this way: your nervous system has been holding onto stuff for years, maybe decades. When you finally give it permission to let go, it doesn't always do so gently. I've seen people get flooded with emotions, memories, or sensations they weren't prepared to handle. That's not healing ~ that's retraumatization. A skilled practitioner knows how to help you titrate the release, how to keep you grounded and present while your body does its work. They understand the difference between therapeutic discharge and nervous system overwhelm.
If your trauma history is moderate and you have a stable foundation of self-regulation, you can begin with basic TRE exercises at home. The standard protocol involves a series of standing exercises that fatigue the leg muscles - wall sits, forward folds, pelvic lifts - until the tremor activates on its own. This isn't about forcing anything. Your body knows exactly what it needs to do. Then you lie down and let it move. You do not direct it. You do not intensify it. You simply allow whatever wants to happen to happen, for as long as your system wants to do it. Sometimes that's three minutes. Sometimes twenty. The tremoring might be subtle vibrations in your legs or full-body waves that feel like electricity. It might make you emotional or sleepy or weirdly energized. All normal. Your nervous system has been holding patterns for years, maybe decades. Give it space to unwind at its own pace. You might also find insight in Emotional Release: How to Release Emotions and Find True ....
Start with five to ten minutes of tremoring per session. Not more. Your system has been holding this charge for a reason - it was protecting you from feeling something it judged to be too much. Releasing too much too fast can flood your system. Think of it as opening a pressure valve gradually rather than blowing the cap off. More is not better. Hang on, it gets better.Consistent, moderate practice is better. Twice a week for ten minutes will produce more sustainable results than one ninety-minute session that leaves you destabilized for days. You might also find insight in Breathwork for Trauma Release: Techniques That Work.
An Epsom salt bath is one of the simplest rituals for releasing what no longer serves you. *(paid link)* Look, I'm not talking about some mystical crystal bullshit here. The magnesium literally pulls tension from your muscles while the warm water signals your nervous system to downshift. Your body knows what to do. It's been waiting for permission to let go of all that crap you've been carrying around. Twenty minutes in hot water with a cup of salts, and suddenly that knot between your shoulder blades starts melting. The stress from three weeks ago? Gone. Here's what gets me though - we make this harder than it needs to be. You don't need a fancy ritual or perfect timing. Just hot water, salt, and the willingness to sit still long enough for your nervous system to remember it's safe to relax. I've watched people argue they don't have time for a bath while simultaneously scrolling their phones for an hour. Your body is literally screaming for this kind of basic care.
And notice what comes up after. The hours following a tremoring session are an integration window. Memories may surface. Emotions may emerge that seem unconnected to anything in your current life. Dreams may become vivid. These are not problems. They are the contents of the charge that was released, now moving through consciousness on their way out. Let them pass through. Do not grab onto them and analyze them. Do not suppress them either. Let your body complete its own process. It knows what it is doing. It has known all along. You just had to get out of the way. If this lands, consider an working with Paul directly.