I was working as a yoga teacher at a Muay Thai fitness camp when I noticed a young man struggling to relax at the end of the session. In my experience, a vital aspect of yoga that often gets overlooked is “yoga nidra,” or deep rest practice, after a yoga session. Yoga involves placing your body into various angles and shapes to release stress and tension held within the body and mind. The deep rest practice (Shavasana, or “corpse pose”) at the end allows the body and mind to integrate the movements and release the tension that has been awakened and moved during the yoga session.
I often notice yogis sitting up and heading to the changing rooms right after the movement session ends, missing out on the significant benefits of the deep rest practice that follows. I’ve written more about this on my website.
One day, I noticed a young German named Hans struggling to lie still. His legs were fidgeting and gently rocking back and forth as he lay on the ground. His eyes were partly open, and his breath was shallow and light. With his legs wide open and slightly bent at the knees, his thighs were subtly rocking up and down. As a trained TRE practitioner, I immediately recognised this movement.
After the class, I spoke with him and discovered he had been diagnosed with ADHD since childhood. Hans was tall and slim, with glasses and an almost bowl-like haircut. He had approached me to share how much he enjoyed the class. I briefly mentioned noticing his level of activation during the relaxation. “Oh, I know. I can’t lie still at all for any length of time,” he responded.
I talked to him about TRE, a series of movements designed to help release deep muscular patterns of stress, tension, and trauma. TRE activates a natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that calms the nervous system. When this shaking mechanism is activated in a safe and controlled environment, the body is encouraged to return to a state of balance. Hans was intrigued and set up a session for the following day.
The session involves completing a set series of exercises, followed by lying on the floor and finding the tremor mechanism—essentially allowing your body to shake on its own. Neurogenic tremoring is a natural response that helps release tension and stress through involuntary shaking or vibrating movements. This phenomenon often occurs after a stressful event or trauma, acting as a mechanism to discharge accumulated stress energy and restore the nervous system’s balance. The tremoring can also be triggered by fatiguing specific muscle groups and positioning the body in ways that amplify the sensation of shaking.
To start with, Hans began laughing, which is quite common. The experience of the body shaking on its own can be so unusual that it often triggers emotions like disbelief, uncertainty, and even laughter. These responses are completely natural when encountering a sensation that’s unfamiliar and different from what we usually experience.
As a practitioner, I ensured that Hans was comfortable and felt safe throughout the process. From my experience, I know that people’s reactions to the tremors can vary. The tremors can expand across the body, moving up and down or side to side, and it’s important to monitor how each individual responds to ensure they feel at ease.
After a few minutes of trembling quietly, Hans suddenly sat up. I asked if he was okay, and he merely nodded.
What happened next was something I hadn’t experienced before. As he sat there with his legs slightly bent and head bowed, he took a deep breath and exhaled shakily. He repeated this several times. The best way to describe it is similar to someone on the verge of bursting into tears—like a child struggling to hold back tears of rage. It almost resembled hyperventilation. His breathing was coming from deep in his belly, with a strong, rhythmic rise and fall that was accompanied by noisy, breathy sounds.
I checked in again, concerned that he might be having the start of a panic attack, but he reassured me that he was okay. After a couple of minutes in that position, he lay back down and continued to tremor for the rest of the session. We talked afterward, and I could sense that he was now at ease and had processed something significant.
After the tremoring part of the session, we move into an ‘integration’ phase in TRE, which is similar to yoga nidra. This phase allows the body to rest in complete silence and stillness, helping it integrate the benefits of the shaking session.
Hans lay perfectly still— a stark contrast to his earlier relaxation after the yoga class the day before. He was completely silent and serene, and I could see the gentle rise and fall of his breath all the way down through his stomach and abdomen.
Afterward, we spoke about the session, and I shared my observations on what I had noticed during our time together. I reassured him that his experience was a natural part of the process, helping his body release what it needed. I explained that the intense moment had passed and that he was now rested and calm after the powerful release of tension from his stomach and breath. Hans was both amazed and awed by what he had experienced.
In a follow-up session, Hans shared that his heart rate had dropped by 10 beats per minute since our previous session, and he felt he could breathe normally for the first time in years. He mentioned that he hadn’t realized how shallow his breathing had been until that session. The moment of explosive breath and near hyperventilation seemed to have released something inside him, allowing him to breathe deeply and fully for the first time in years. He also recalled a childhood incident with a parent that had caused him significant hurt, and he believed that this event had somehow constricted his ability to breathe deeply.
Using TRE, Hans had reached a point where his body was able to release some tension in his diaphragm, allowing him to breathe more fully, deeply, and in a more regulated manner. He attributed the moment when he sat up suddenly to his body’s process of resetting from the trauma he experienced in childhood. It was a profoundly moving moment.
Since that moment, I’ve become keenly aware of TRE’s ability to reset a person’s baseline state, allowing deep-seated tension and stress to be released from the body, with corresponding benefits to the mind. It truly can be a wondrous experience, and I have the privileged to introduce it to clients as a substance-free way of coping with life and raising their vibration!