We all have long and arduous days, but some of us are better equipped to deal with them than others. As a longtime stress-head of the finest variety, I have found the transition from busy and adrenaline-fuelled work days to rest and recovery at home a difficult one—my Oura ring often informs me that I am “adequate” at balancing my stress load, which is the AI version of telling me it’s “disappointed.” What to do about this sorry state of affairs?
Turns out, it’s as simple as shaking it out. “The main thing is to connect with the body and the sensations that have come up,” explains Dr Safia Debar, who runs the Harvard Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) at The Mayo Clinic. “Just like animals in the wild will shake (or tremor), which releases all the energy from the increased cortisol and adrenaline coursing through them, it’s a similar thing for humans. We make adrenaline and cortisol, which primes the body for fight, flight, or freeze, and if we don’t expend this energy, it gets stored.”
Since the majority of us are not fleeing danger on the Serengeti, but, slightly comically, experiencing our stress while sedentary in an office, much of our extra cortisol and adrenaline remains in the body, which in turn impacts how we feel and move. “Some form of shaking movement is a good way to release. I usually advise starting with a few minutes and then seeing how it impacts the body. Combined with breathwork, it can help restore us to baseline,” she says.
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard this. At an event to celebrate her new book, Soothe, Nahid de Belgeonne a somatic movement educator, breath and yoga teacher, who is also known as the “nervous system whisperer” demonstrated one easy way to help the body and mind switch off at the end of the day. It involves a kind of shaking-meets-rocking movement while lying on the floor—she calls it “jiggling.”
Designed to calm an overstimulated nervous system, this rocking movement “provides deep pressure and joint compression, which can help to modulate arousal levels, promoting a more balanced and calm state.” We get tense and tight trying to contain our many feelings, and rocking essentially releases a cascade of endorphins, helping to shift us into a more relaxed state.
