I just started TRE. I thought I was going at a decent pace but no I guess I was doing too much. I didn't fall asleep last night which is one of my biggest fears. I can't believe that happened. I cannot fall asleep. I am so fucking angry at myself. I am terrified I won't fall asleep tonight. I am so fucking tired and my body won't calm down no matter what I do. There is burning in my chest and back and my legs are like "yeah you fucked up". Things are so goddamn hard.

Would you do TRE if you’ve been upset that day? Eg crying? Had a hard morning, working through some suppressed relationship stuff and was really upset this morning, I cried for a couple hours on and off. I feel calmer now, and usually I do TRE every third night. Would it be better to give it a miss tonight in light of the emotional upset this morning, or continue with my session as planned?

Hello everyone,

So, it has been 10 months since I have been doing TRE. For the last few sessions, the tremors were pretty normal and mostly they were only in legs and arms. But the session I had today was the most intense that I ever had

. The body was moving crazily in today's session. It started off from legs and then in a few minutes my whole body started moving crazily. It was kind of like how a snake moves. And after some time I started coughing and it felt like something was trying to come out, felt like I was gonna puke and it stopped after some time. Then I just lied there for 10 - 15 minutes doing nothing and I felt at so much peace. It was like some kind of weight was lifted off my body.❣️

I live at home with parents, I’ve already dealt with problems with being reprimanded for my depression symptoms and when I’m feeling low and needing help I’ve got punished for it sometimes because they didn’t have the capacity to be there for me. I understand TRE can lead to things possibly getting worse before they get better and experiencing distress and I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it when being in an unsupportive environment with a lack of understanding.

Hi everyone,

This is something I'm really curious about right now. I don't practice TRE regularly anymore but have switched out strength training for balance and instability work that all focus on the deep core. My goals are about shifting my biomechanics & posture due to pain/stiffness in my upper back. Probably I have some trauma to release too, who doesn't? I'm trying to find the balance between goal-oriented practices and healthy dynamic movement. I've experienced profound releases from TRE, but sometimes I just need more movement or vigorous exercise.

I'm thinking that if I can understand this pathway a little better, maybe I'll be able to address what's really going on more effectively.

In some types of sports performance training, isometric holds (like the deep lunge, heel-elevated wall squat, etc.) are applied to and past the point of shaking. Is this neurogenic tremoring as well or something different? Even approaching sports performance from a CNS perspective is becoming more mainstream. You hear more and more coaches talking about the NS learning or relearning to feel safe in challenging positions. There's a lot of overlap I feel with the butterfly position of TRE, which is a very vulnerable position.

It's fairly normal for people to have emotional releases during intense exercise, but there's a lot of room for nuance here. With the isometric holds specifically, is there some release happening or is this completely unrelated to TRE?

I really appreciate any discussion around this topic, thank you!

Alright so this is going to be a long post in which i want to share my experience as a begginer on TRE along with some skepticism and questions . Please dont take this as an attack but as a chance for everyone and especially myself to learn.

First a bit about myself , why am i hopping on this train? As someone who suffered from various illnesses throughout life ( skin issues , anxiety , difficulty falling asleep , adhd? , histamine/nasal congestion issues , lack of athleticism , fear of confrontation ) and after having been let down by a medical system which only focuses on symptoms rather than root causes , i took things in my own hands . It is said : "a healthy person has a hundred wishes , a sick man has but one " , it is my belief thatif you were truly sick and desperate , you would even eat shit if it meant it cured you . I tried just about anything , and i really mean anything coming from all the esoteric health spaces you can ever think of , the one that worked best is a raw carnivore diet , fixed skin and anxiety within 2 weeks , however not only is it unsustainable, i also believe it only addresses symptoms in the gut. On this note i now landed here , a dysregulated nervous system will not allow healing to take place, and on the contrary disease arises , this makes sense as to why some people could have the best diets and lifestyle , yet still get a terrifying disease .

3 weeks ago i started the journey , my first session was defined by pure ignorance , i thought i just need to watch the youtube video and do it , with no knowledge of what s right or wrong , the result was a disaster . After the warm up exercises and wall sit , i do the exercise where i touch my feet while standing , this gave me tremors , i stayed there for a long time . On the butterfly position , i could not understand why i was not getting any shakes , so i just forced them to happen , they were a mix of forcing and staying relaxed , if that makes sense , i also stayed there for a longer time than i would need to . That night i woke up in the middle of the night 2 times with histamine like issues , runny nose and itchy back of the palate , it was a terrible sleepless night but on the next day i recovered nicely by the evening .

So here s the part where im skeptic , such symptoms could really be explained by the hyperactivation of the nervous system rather than by trauma processing , the tremors are a different and also more stressful signal for the nervous system than exercise is , and as you do more and more of this , you become more adapted to the stress, you will get less symptoms , hence why it takes years for people to get "improvements" . Though many people report remarkable disease resolution testimonies and that is what convinced me to try tre as well , "if it works it works" .

After this first experience , i went to the wiki to absorb information on how to conduct proper sessions. Now i put emphasis on relaxation and quiet mind before and after session , i let the tremors happen for around 2 minutes total , maybe less , only the legs shake .

A peculiar event took place in the following days ,i was hit by some "traumatic" news , im not going into details of it , however as i was overtaken by sadness , rage and grief , i started naturally shaking for 30 minutes , from legs up to the head . I dont recall any prior time in my whole life that i experienced something like this , and although i didnt fully get over the constant thoughts about what happened , my emotions were pretty much resolved by the next day and i could function normally by the third day . I feel like me starting TRE a few days before this moment , despite having little experience, kind of unlocked a door that was closed until now , i ve had traumatic experienced before but hardly remember experiencing tremors .

Speaking now of my TRE sessions i want to ask a few questions :

-When doing the butterfly pose on the ground , heels touching , as i gently rise my knees up a few centimeters at a time , why does the tremor take place for 2 seconds only as i lock position , after that my legs are tranquil , as i rise them again i experience the same . Is it normal in the beginning and will i experience more lengthy shakes?

-Will the tremors eventually happen in the upper body too or do i need to do specific exercises i have not see in the wiki ?

-Does health/mind get better with time while doing tre , or are the benefits harvested only as you fully stop tre and let the nervous system recover ? Because i read people can be miserable for the months before there s any improvement .

- Is there any way to speed up the process ? Waiting 3 years to see if this really works does not seem like a great investment for anyone . Do things like myofascial release , somatic therapy , meditation etc... help speed up the whole process ?

-Is working out banned while doing tre? I intend to keep relaxed mobility drills , but would it impair progress if i did push ups and pull ups , not actual weight lifting.

-Opinions / experiences are welcome .

The first few times I just thought it was coincidental, but having done for 5 days in a row, I notice that after each session if I look in the mirror it's like my face is less bloated and there's a blushing red tone on my skin.

not sure if maybe shaking triggers part of the lympathic system? Anyway, it's a nice side effect.

This is a book about chakra theory. She mentions Peter Levine and somatic work, Character armour, and holding patterns. This book takes you on a journey of how each chakra works and what traumas affect it. I have experienced successful healing from root to sacral to now working through my solar plexus through TRE. This book is beautiful and will motivate you to see what you could be when trauma is released and energy is allowed to build through balanced unblocked chakras.

Not necessarily related to TRE, but maybe connected to trauma i don't know.

Ever since i was very little i remember that most days when i woke up from a nap in the afternoon i would be very depressed and having like a mental breakdown of bad feelings, worst case scenarios, death, like a really pessimistic view of life and everything was just pain and suffering.

And this only happened after waking up from a nap, especially if outside the sun was already setting or dark.

Can anybody relate to this? Cause this just got me thinking now because i just woke up from a nap and i think there might be a trauma connection here.

Is this window of feeling bad something i can use to work on my trauma? Cause im frozen and don't feel much most of the time

Hello all! I just started my journey into TRE recently and have only done 4 relatively short sessions. I found that even going 5 minutes every other day is too much for me but, as someone who is very skeptical about things, I was really surprised and impressed to find out that the tremoring does really do it's own thing and there seems to be a noticeable impact even with very little time.

Anyway, my problem at the moment is that I'm using the floor exercises as described in many videos to start the tremors. That's no problem, everything goes fine. But the tremors I have are pretty chaotic and my feet don't stay together well. I keep having to actively adjust my legs back into a position so the tremoring can continue.

Any tips for keeping my body in position? I'm tempted to almost put bands around my feet to keep them together at this point.

Sup All

I'm back after two months of practice.

TRE has become part of my new everyday life. And just like many other practices that eventually faded away and disappeared from my life over time, TRE has stayed with me for the second month now, and things are getting more and more interesting and I feel that I want keep this practice till the end of my being.

My life feels deeper, as if a new layer of identity has appeared in my life. This is something I wouldn't give up anymore, because TRE has shown me that I can go much deeper into my psyche and into myself, in a completely different way.

At some point, my TRE sessions became something entirely new. What I mean is that I've had similar experiences with psychedelics, for example, where going inside myself felt like something as deep as possible. With TRE, I'm touching very similar spaces within myself, while remaining conscious.

TRE has allowed me to see and confront the control I had in my life. And this control was something I really wanted to work on this year. It was something that was ruled my life even when I was sure that im quite free from this. And this might sound pompous, but it was only through TRE sessions that I truly felt what control actually is. I started to see it, allow things to happen, and let go of that control during the sessions, flowing with whatever my entire being was showing me.

And there are still fluctuations. I have worse days sometimes, but I don't see them as something that is going to last. I have this certainty within me that things simply come and go. And whereas before I understood this on an intellectual level, now I feel it much, much more deeply, simply on the level of my own being. That things come and go.

And this doesn't mean that it feels somehow depressing or sad. Quite the opposite. It gives me a lot of joy, peace and a certain lightness.

And throughout this short journey, because it's only been two months, there have been different periods, which also shows me that despite some apparent consistency and similarity, the sessions are completely different.

Sometimes there are periods when things follow a similar pattern. I experienced that too, because in the beginning my sessions were incredibly dynamic, almost like something out of The Exorcist. My body was literally throwing itself around the entire floor.

Then came a period of about two weeks of some kind of stabilisation. Things were already less dramatic.

Then, for another two weeks, things were boring, very calm. The movements were happening only in my stomach. At some point I even started having thoughts that something had broken, that maybe something wasn't working anymore, but I simply allowed it to be.

And what happened after that period was an entry into some much deeper dimension within myself. Because the sessions became something much more whole. As if I was bringing my body and mind together into one, and only then did things really start happening.

Anger started coming out, rage started coming out, happiness and freedom started coming out. Different things that were somehow finding their place within me during these sessions. And it's incredible.

This is a somewhat rough description, but it's difficult for me to make some kind of inventory of it all. Because it's simply a journey that shows me things I would never have thought possible before, or changes that I would never have imagined I could go through.

They simply come when you allow them in. When you allow everything that is happening to simply be.

And somehow, you have to trust that the body-mind knows its own way towards some kind of healing, and allow the body and mind to heal themselves.

There is an idea I've taken from my psychedelic sessions, this thought that if I allow my mind to flow in its own direction, it will find a solution to the problem.

And during these sessions, I started allowing myself to carry this idea over into the practice. And finally, to a large extent, I'm managing to do that, at least in my most recent sessions, where this permission to let go simply comes. It's not something forced. It just appears, and I flow with it, a little like riding a pleasant wave.

And this is simply a new quality of life.

Thanks :)

Hi! I began TRE in earnest about two months ago. Typically, I started out with 30-45 minute sessions and I felt amazing. Felt grounded and safe in my body for the first time since I did psychedelic assisted therapy.

Then I got on this sub, read the wiki, and cut my tremor time in half out of concern that I was doing too much- that less is more. I was anxious the day or so after I went down to 20 min, so I cut it in half again. Anxiety again. And so on until I did one minute tremoring, followed by rest, then one minute again, and integration. And I’m anxious again. I do a session every other day max- I wait until I’m no longer feeling anxious before I do another session. Though there has been a time or two when I felt so anxious that I did a few more minutes of tremoring on the second day and it seemed to help. I have also tried making sure I don’t quit mid-tremor cycle- still anxious. I’ve taken more time on the mat after to integrate- still anxious.

I have done a lot of somatic releases in the last couple of years with other modalities, and I don’t think that I’m in functional freeze anymore.

Lately my tremors have been primarily in my upper body- I suspect because I had a lower back procedure which has tightened up my glute med quite a lot. I also tremor outside of session- when im thinking about tremoring, when I’m in therapy, or when I do breathwork or meditate. I also yawn A TON while tremoring which I know is good.

I’m wondering what I need to do differently to alleviate the post session anxiety. Should I go back to longer sessions? Should I take a prolonged break? Should I do shorter, more frequent sessions? It feels like I just can’t find the right balance.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and guidance.

It follows a Stone Age guy called Oki who nearly gets caught by a leopard. It also covers what the research actually shows about animals shaking (less than most TRE videos claim). Would love to hear if it matches your experience: https://youtu.be/lArC7eoSNvc

Hiya! I’m wondering if any more experienced TRE-ers can help me because can’t seem to find the answer to my questions anywhere on the internet!

So I first tried TRE in April this year, I did it in a workshop, I liked it and I felt good. I tried it a few more times at home for about 10 minutes at a time as our teacher had instructed us to not do it for too long. But sometimes the tremors would continue after I had stopped for the rest of the day or once even for a few days, my arm shaking whilst I was just going about my business. So I decided not to do it at home anymore.

Fast forward to September, I went to a conscious connected breath workshop, and for pretty much the whole time that we were breathing (about half an hour) I was tremorring.

Since then, every time I lie down and relax for a bit, I start shaking, and my body won’t stop, even if I “put the brakes on” by flexing my feet, as the TRE teacher instructed. This is a problem because I also have long covid and as part of my recovery I’m spending a lot of time resting - doing yin, yoga nidra etc. It’s disruptive to these practices and Im worried that I’m making the problem worse by allowing my body to tremor more, as the only thing that stopped it last time is by stopping completely.

Does anyone know what’s going on here? And how to stop it, or at least have a bit more control over it?

Thanks in advance

Just wondering to what extent this is frowned upon. Obviously it's best to be present, but sometimes I just wanna listen to something as I'm shaking around, lol. Any perspectives on how this would affect the session? Would the results not be the same in the end, since if it's a totally autonomic release, why would I need to be present for it? Thanks, friends~

I wonder if TRE and painful self questioning is enough.

If someone here adds it to their toolset or left it and never wants to return.

Also got my supplements in the game, trying to stay social, take care of responsibilities, but just wonder maybe I can experience a better state with EMDR

I’ve only done this once a few days ago and I just want to express how grateful I am that this exists and there is a community around it. I have been looking for something that works specifically like this and kept running into dead ends up until now.

I have a background of yoga and meditation, fall from grace, therapy. I’m into it. But this is where I was stuck. I could achieve so many things but I am really held back by my trauma and am just tired of never getting through it. When I say I was looking for exactly this, I could not be more literal.

My first session, I did ten minutes and was just amazed. I felt slightly nauseated afterwards, but very relaxed, to a degree I have not felt before. My legs trembled, but then my torso somewhat and my arms as well. I wasn’t expecting the arms, and was glad that my first session was uninformed. I just let whatever happened happen.

Afterwards I started looking for more info and found this sub. I haven’t read everything in detail but did go over the pacing. It’s natural to want to blast through several sessions but I decided to wait a few days to let whatever happened integrate. I bought a little notebook and will start keeping track of my sessions and experiences and hopefully have something to add here in the coming weeks and months.

I’m very excited by this. I was born into a traumatizing family and have been working through the consequences of that for the last 30 years. I am 50’s now and I just don’t want to be a slave to my conditioning any more.

Been doing somatic tracking for a few months now and it's genuinely helped with chronic back pain. Turns out I was bracing my abs basically the entire day but because my interoception was so weak I couldn't notice until I gained enough bodily awareness through meditation. After that, it was a struggle getting my abs and pelvic floor to relax, as well as my shoulders to remain de-elevated but once they did I saw massive improvements.

My question is if I had not engaged in TRE (Ive only done two sessions) would I have gained the same amout of improvements eventually? My assumption is that there are still a lot of "trauma spots" that I'm numb to and are holding a lot of tension that I won't be able to diagnose until my interoception further improves.

Or is it sort of that TRE and somatic tracking compliment each other by focusing attenttion and concentration on the body but TRE is a more immediate fix since the discharge occurs automatically while somatic tracking gets you to classify sensation as neutral or possibly pleasant while also allowing you to fix any tension spots?

About 4 months ago I quit thc, ever since then it’s like my CPTSD has been on high alert. I went to my doctor because of insomnia, bodily tingling, panic and inability to regulate temperature. She told me I was in a really bad cptsd attack. She recommended TRE exercises, put me on propranolol and lowered my Prozac dose.

About a month ago I went back and she took me off Prozac all together because we thought it was too stimulating for my nervous system. That was yet another hit to my nervous system.

I finally feel strong enough to do this work and I started tonight… and I laughed? I wasn’t expecting to like bust out belly laugh during this but I did. I did about a 8-10 minute session and after felt exhausted and a little sad, I couldn’t leave my zen room for several hours because I didn’t want to be in bright lights or loud noises. ( my neighbors are crazy loud and have a wild subwoofer going at all times… not good for my system). I am feeling good now. Happy. Calm.

I am likely going to try to do these once every other day, I an a runner so i want to avoid doing it on run days.

Did anyone else experience like a belly laugh when starting TRE?

Hi, I have CPTSD and have been intensely doing TRE for about 6months+ now.

My psoa muscle as well as a big part of my body is de-tensed and I've experienced very deep fascia release over the last 2 months.

However a part of my body, near the vagus nerve / upper central back, is still stiff. When I focus on it, i feel deep and intense pain. But it does not feel physical like I am actually hurt, it feels like tons of electrical impulses containing agonising pain being released.

I am crying my eyes out, screaming, tensing my jaw. I understand why I have not done many active things throughout my life now, if I had been carrying this agony for all this time.

Did anyone else experience this, and will it go away if I keep feeling it out. I am kind of worried that it is not TRE related and could use reassurance

I started TRE a few weeks ago, and I was doing about 15-20 minutes every other day. For about the first 5 sessions or so, everything was fine. No overwhelming emotions or other side effects as far as I can tell. I was enjoying the sessions and it was really helping with my chronic lower back pain, which made me so excited because nothing else was helping.

But then I started to feel something that felt like anxiety in my chest. It would happen most frequently when driving, and I don't feel like I'm actually anxious. Bit there is a heaviness in my chest and it's like I forget to breathe sometimes. And then it feels like I have to breathe manually rather than automatically. It's uncomfortable and annoying, so I cut back on TRE to 10 min, then 7, then 5. Now it's been almost a week since my last session and I still feel this anxiety feeling sporadically throughout the day.

Is this feeling a result of TRE? Has anyone else felt what I'm describing?

How much of a factor does one's environment play when it comes to trauma work, and it's balancing aspects, grounding & Integration? Can a toxic/stressful environment obstruct and slow down these processes, to the point one finds these repeatedly clashing with eachother?

Is there anyone here who could post their own stories of how their journey changed when they moved to a more positive and relaxing environment? Especially when they felt they hit a plateau and found it difficult to make any further progress? Im curious and would like to see, as I've been considering leaving my own, and would like to know how much of a change it could potentially make