Shake off stress - literally!

Hey everyone! Hope you had a lovely Turkey Day, I sure did ☺️Lots of food and fun with my sis, BIL and nephews...and little Theo earned his off-leash privileges in their backyard back...apparently he has a lot more people FOMO and a lot less desire to escape now, thank goodness! My sister thinks its because he knows the two babies will provide him with way more food than he could get sprinting through the woods, I think she is onto something 😂

After sharing a bunch of calming practices, I thought I might shift gears to share a simple practice that has been so helpful for me for stress release in the moment. It's deceptively simple, and something our nervous systems are innately wired to do anyways...shaking!! That's right, the simple act of intentionally shaking - a few shakes of the hands, a few wiggles of the whole torso - can be a wonderful way to discharge that stress energy. Metabolize what's been mobilized, if you will!

The mammalian impulse to shake

It's there y'all, and I bet you have seen it recently. Perhaps you've seen your dog shake after getting excited seeing a bird or cat through a window, or after encountering a dog they think is suss on a walk (maybe it's just Theo? you tell me 🤣). If you have a kid in your house, perhaps you've seen them shake as part of a tantrum, like, five minutes ago! Mammals in the wild, once they have reached safety outrunning a predator, will tremble to burn off the remaining adrenaline and other stress-activated chemicals. And that same innate impulse is right there for us to take advantage of and use ourselves!!

The key to this practice is really catching yourself in the activation in the first place. Well really that is the key for all self-regulation practices to actually be able to apply your skills you've been practicing, but this one it's extra imperative because it works best in the moment - when those stress-activated processes are coursing strong through your body. Because the whole point of this is to help move that stress through and out of your body.

Common example for me: reading a disturbing news article or social media post - so much awful stuff going on around the world, it's hard to not see something across your screen each day (or multiple times a day) that kicks your nervous system into WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F*** mode. When that happens, I put the phone down, or lean back from my computer, and just shake my hands and arms several times, like I'm trying to dry my hands in a public restroom with no towels or dryer. Often, without thinking I'll make some kind of noise - a sigh of frustration, a grumbly noise. That automatic vocalization is another sign of the body metabolizing what's been mobilized.

Stress discharge points in the body

In addition to the hands and the mouth (with vocalization), the feet are also a great discharge point. So you can try stamping your feet a few times too!! You can try shadow boxing, or pillow punching and see if that works for you. You can try flopping yourself face down on the couch or bed and yelling into a pillow (very cathartic 🤣). For me, an upper body/torso shake out while letting myself make whatever noise comes out, is my favorite way to shake off stress activation.

Common example: Sitting at the front of the line in my car at a red light. Light turns green and I lift my foot off the brake pedal. Suddenly, some jerk super duper runs THEIR red light and I'm slamming my brake. UGH. Once I'm moving at speed, I keep my hands on the wheel and just shimmy my shoulders and torso and make a noise. Man that feels good!! That frozen shock and tension of OH SHIT! unfreezes and things are moving again. Whew. Whewwww!

You can feel free to experiment yourself with these different ways to move that stress activation through your body. It feels much better than passively waiting for everything to burn off. These are also great options if you are stuck somewhere, and don't have the option to just go for a little walk, or do some air squats or jumping jacks. Any physical activity will burn up those stress-activated chemicals as well!! Sometimes, it's just not an option to go for a run or hit the gym at that moment in time, so I offer you these practices to try instead.

And for the record, if you have a highly stress-activating day, consider giving yourself permission to take off from your more active workout that evening, and instead do some relaxing yoga, or take a nice stroll outside, or just lay on your couch- basically anything that is restorative as opposed to putting more stress load on your system. Give your body and nervous system a break since they were already put through the wringer for the day!

It's not just the stress chemicals

It's called muscle memory for a reason, y'all. The other reason to do some shaking is that our muscles can start to take shapes and tense up- this then becomes habitual holding....and that tension can lead to all kinds of different soreness. When we shake, we are releasing that holding of tensed muscles...maybe in your legs, ready to run...maybe in your shoulders, hunched up to your ears from a shock. And that increased muscle tension sends a signal of THREAT THREAT THREAT to the brain, which can get your sympathetic nervous system firing up, and put a threat-oriented lens on your mental state. That is not a super helpful lens to have on all the time 😑 (a little bit of the time, yes). This is why my very first post and video was for neck and shoulder tension release...a common culprit in our tech era of hunching over phones and laptops...hold please while I adjust my posture as I type this 🙃

The practice

Without further ado, here it is...hope you give it a shake- I mean shot 😉 and it proves as helpful for you as it does for me! Also for the record it was delightful typing in "dog shaking" in the photo library for this post and seeing the results- dogs shaking (water off their bodies) and dogs shaking (the trick - as in "paw") 🐾 But hey - those dogs shaking water off = great models for you for this practice ☺️

Thanks for taking some of your precious holiday-season time to read this ❄️

In deep gratitude,

💕Carly

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter!! If you know anyone who would benefit, I would be delighted if you shared the love and passed it along 🙏

You can find me on YouTube and Instagram with my Military Yogini handle, I'd love to connect with you there!

I greatly appreciate any feedback, comments, or requests for practices/info. I've got a lot of knowledge and skills to share with people, so tell me what ya need and we'll see what I can do!! Simply respond to this email to send me your thoughts 😊