The Healing Power of Shaking: From Ancient Rituals to Nervous System Reset

Why do we instinctively shake after a shock? Why does rocking soothe a crying baby or calm a distressed adult? Shaking, trembling, and vibrating aren’t symptoms to suppress—they're innate mechanisms of healing. This post explores the roots and relevance of shaking therapy, from ancient rituals to contemporary trauma practices like TRE. We’ll dive into how shaking affects the brain, fascia, and vagus nerve, and even how our organs respond to vibration and sound.

1. A History of Shaking as Medicine

Long before modern psychology, cultures around the world used shaking as a healing ritual. Medicine men and shamans across Indigenous traditions entered altered states through rhythmic movement, chanting, and tremors. These ceremonies weren’t random—they were carefully structured processes to release fear, grief, or stored trauma.

The Quakers, named for their visible trembling during worship, embraced shaking as evidence of divine presence. Trembling, to them, meant truth was moving through the body. It wasn’t pathology, it was power.

This somatic wisdom has been reawakened in modern approaches like Dr David Berceli’s TRE (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises), which guides clients into neurogenic tremors to discharge stored stress. TRE mirrors what animals do in the wild: after danger, they shake. They don’t overthink; they let the body reset.

Try This:

• Begin lying on your back with knees bent. Let your knees open a little

• Gently lift your pelvis and allow it to shake or tremble naturally.

• Let go of control and observe where your body wants to move.

• Gently lower back to the floor and allow the body to gently unwind

• If you would like the tremors to stop - lengthen your legs and dorsi flex your ankles and make fists with your hands.

• Take regular pauses

2. Polyvagal Theory and Deb Dana’s Gentle Rocking

Dr Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory introduced us to the vagus nerve’s role in how we feel safe, connected, or threatened. When we’re stuck in a dorsal vagal (shutdown/freeze) state, the body holds back energy, immobilises, and often traps emotion or trauma in tissue.

Rhythmic movement—especially gentle, repetitive rocking—stimulates the vagus nerve, telling the body that it is safe enough to come out of freeze. Deb Dana, a leading voice in applied Polyvagal Theory, uses rocking to support nervous system regulation. It’s accessible for those who are too dysregulated or braced for traditional breath or body-based practices.

In essence, rocking is a gateway back to flow. It helps down-regulate the nervous system, offering a sense of rhythm and co-regulation that mirrors the sway of a caregiver soothing a child.

Try This:

• Sit or lie down comfortably.

• Begin to gently rock side to side or front to back.

• Pair with slow humming or deep sighs to enhance vagal tone.

3. The Brain on Shaking: Releasing from the Bottom Up

Trauma doesn’t just live in the mind; it lodges in the limbic brain and brainstem—the non-verbal, survival-focused regions. These parts of the brain don’t respond to logic or language; they respond to rhythm, breath, and sensation.

Dr Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, emphasises that trauma must be metabolised through the body. Talk therapy alone can’t reach the stored tension in the psoas, diaphragm, and pelvic floor.

Gabor Maté, known for his compassionate insights into trauma and addiction, teaches that suppressing authentic emotion leads to physical illness. Shaking allows the body to process what the conscious mind has long buried. It lets the truth rise to the surface—safely and naturally.

Neurobiologically, shaking helps integrate the midbrain (emotion) with the cortex (rational thought) and the brainstem (instinct), creating coherence rather than chaos. When trauma gets stuck in the limbic system, it can dysregulate the reptilian brain, keeping the body in a hypervigilant, survival-driven loop. Meanwhile, the frontal cortex continues to reaffirm fear-based narratives in an attempt to rationalise these signals. This results in a mind-body split, where logic and lived experience are at odds.

Shaking breaks that cycle. It allows sensation to speak louder than the story. When we engage the body’s natural tremor reflex, we invite the thinking brain to soften, the emotional brain to feel safe, and the instinctive brain to reset. This is the bridge where true integration begins.

Try This:

• Stand with feet hip-width apart.

• Bounce gently through the knees.

• Let the arms dangle and gently shake, allowing your jaw and lips to flutter.

• Finish by pausing and noticing any shifts in body awareness.

4. Fascia, Flow, and Unwinding

Fascia is the body’s connective tissue web, and it holds patterns—of movement, posture, injury, and emotion. When we experience trauma, fascia can tighten or thicken, creating restrictions in movement and energy flow.

Shaking creates a low-level oscillation that hydrates fascia, restores glide, and unwinds stuck patterns. This is what we call a fascial release. Unlike static stretching, this type of movement is dynamic and internal, guided by the body’s own rhythms.

From a biotensegrity perspective, this oscillation helps recalibrate tension lines, creating a new equilibrium in the musculoskeletal and fascial system. It’s not about “fixing” posture but restoring adaptability.

What’s more, fascia is deeply innervated and responsive to the nervous system. When it becomes stiff or glued due to fear or bracing, it sends distorted feedback to the brain, which the brain interprets as threat or pain. This loop perpetuates the freeze response. Through shaking, we can begin to melt these restrictions, giving the brain more accurate information about the body’s safety and mobility.

This is another way the mind-body connection is restored—not through mental effort, but through tissue-level truth.

Try This:

• Use a foam roller or fascia ball under your feet or glutes.

• Gently apply pressure, then add a pulsing or oscillating motion.

• Finish by standing and lightly bouncing, letting the ripple travel up the spine.

5. Sound and Organ Resonance

Every cell and organ vibrates at a specific frequency. When these rhythms become dissonant due to stress, illness, or trauma, dysfunction can arise. Shaking and sound reintroduce harmonious vibration into the system.

The diaphragm acts as a key oscillator. When it vibrates through breath, sound, or movement, it gently massages the organs and stimulates vagal tone.

Humming, chanting, and singing aren't just spiritual practices—they're physiological interventions. Humming creates a vibratory resonance that can calm the heart, regulate the breath, and activate the parasympathetic nervous system. It also mechanically moves cerebrospinal fluid, influencing brain detoxification and nervous system clarity.

Shaking paired with vocal vibration becomes a full-body reset.

Try This:

• Sit tall, relax your belly, and begin slow breathing.

• On your exhale, use these vocal sounds to resonate with different organs:

  • "Vu" – grounding and stabilising for the pelvis

  • "Ah" – heart-opening, often felt across the chest

  • "Oo" – calming for the gut

  • "Ee" – stimulating for the brain and crown

• Repeat each 5–10 times while allowing the body to subtly vibrate.

6. Dance as Joy and Expression

Dance is our oldest form of collective therapy. In cultures worldwide, dance isn’t performance—it’s healing. It gives permission to express grief, joy, rage, and rebirth.

When we shake through dance, we access deep pelvic rhythms, uncoil the diaphragm, and liberate the voice. It becomes a ritual of return—to sensation, to expression, to the sacred.

For women, especially, dance can unlock areas long held in tension: the pelvic floor, the womb space, the throat. These are deeply interconnected areas both anatomically and energetically. Shaking them loose is an act of reclaiming.

Try This:

• Play a track with steady rhythm and let your body lead.

• Begin by shaking out the arms, then hips, knees, shoulders.

• Add in vocal tones or sighs. Let it be messy, emotional, free.

• Close with stillness, palms on heart or belly.

Conclusion: Remembering the Wisdom Within

Shaking is not a symptom of instability. It’s the body's call to return to itself. Through shaking, we move from freeze to flow, from holding to release. Whether it arises in TRE, in dance, in grief, or joy—this movement is medicine.

It reconnects us not only to our body’s primal wisdom but also to the wider field of nervous system health, emotional clarity, and embodied resilience. In a world where we are often encouraged to stay still, hold it in, or push through—shaking invites us to let go, to be moved, and to feel.

As we reconnect with these ancient rhythms and modern insights, we find not just relief but restoration. Shaking is how we remember what safety feels like in the body—and from there, anything becomes possible.

If you're curious to explore shaking, rocking, or TRE in your own healing journey, I offer guided sessions that combine movement, breath, and nervous system support. Reach out to learn more.