Bouncing: The Practice of Letting Go

Shaking is one of the best ways to let go of irritations, aggravations, emotions, tensions, triggers, and traumas. Animals allow themselves to shake after they have experienced something intense. And even though we are animals, humans are always shutting down this natural experience of letting go. Some people, like Peter Levine and David Berceli, have built their work around this process of letting go.

It doesn’t have to be so complicated!

What if you shook off all the minor irritations when they happened? What if you cultivated a daily practice of letting go?

Our emotions/thoughts float around in our lymphatic fluid. After a time, hours to days, if those emotions/thoughts are not released, they get stored in the body. Where we store these emotions/thoughts is different for each person. If you have a place in the body where you tend to experience a lot of tension, it is a pretty good bet that you are storing your emotions/thoughts there.

Through this practice of bouncing, we are gently shaking things out. Think of shaking the dust off of a rug. All of the little things that have accumulated are being brushed off. I image that if you shook a rug out long enough, you might even be able to shake stains out (the very long held emotions).

This practice is excellent is yoga and clinical settings. Mental Health Professionals share that they use this practice in clinical settings as a way to help clients burn off excess energy. As a Yoga professional, I use this practice to meet an anxious mood AND if a client gets stuck in an emotion.

PLUS, 10 minutes of bouncing can get you up to 1,000 steps on your pedometer!

Resources on Shaking as a Form of Release

These books offer insight into the process of shaking and how it can release trauma. Make sure that you are working with a trained professional before attempting trauma release work.

David Berceli, PhD, Shake It Off Naturally: Reduce Stress, Anxiety, and Tension with TRE – this book walks you through a practice of releasing longer held tensions. You will also get more information about why and how Dr. Berceli’s technique works.

Peter Levine, PhD, Waking the Tiger, and Healing Trauma. Dr. Levine is the creator of Somatic Experiencing, an approach which releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). www.traumahealing.org


About the Author

Rose Kress

Rose Kress ERYT-500, C-IAYT, YACEP, Owner/Director of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, and author of Awakening Your Inner Radiance with LifeForce Yoga. She directs retreats and training programs on using LifeForce Yoga to manage your mood.

4 thoughts on “Bouncing: The Practice of Letting Go”

  1. Deb belanger says:

    I enjoyed that very much thank you!

  2. Matthew Douglas says:

    I found the exercises to be very good & interesting.
    I do have a person who I do yoga with. She is very
    good at it. She also gave me some beads to do
    meditation with. I find yoga to be very helpful &
    soothing.

  3. Christine says:

    YES! The universe is giving me YES’s. I listened to you just today with Ande Anderson. I needed to utilize this technique today while adding in EFT and some affirmations I have been working on, to move some trauma energy out of my body today tonight.
    Thank You Thank You Thank You. It is easy, fun and can be done anywhere. And, as an OT, I can utilize it for teaching somatosensory and self regulation patterning with patients . So, Awesome.

    1. Rose Kress says:

      Christine – thank you! I am so glad (literally smiling ear to ear) to hear and see how many yeses you are getting!! This is so beautiful.

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