EARTH: Bioenergetic Shaking

Ground, align, release, shake it off.

Once upon a time, a happy-go-lucky bunny rabbit got snatched out of the grass by a hawk. It happened quickly, without so much as a squawk. The talons—they gripped. But then, no—they slipped! And Bunny fell free, all a-gawk.

Know what happened next? Bunny high-tailed it into the undergrowth, leaving a disgruntled bird of prey to fly off in search of a different lunch. Gradually, the other nearby creatures who had not been snatched up by the predator went about their business. Gradually, Bunny closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief at such a narrow escape.

Then Bunny started to shake. Whole-body, she quaked. Bunny did not wonder if she had gone off, half-baked. Because this was a completely natural reaction which she allowed to overtake her entire nervous system until it was finished.

After a bit more chill-time, Bunny crept out of the branch-filled tangle, glanced around, and went about her bunny-business. Easy-peasy, right?

Well, see, Bunny didn’t have any coworkers to look at her like she’s just lost her babbity-rabbity mind when she started shaking. She didn’t have a judgey boyfriend or snickering frenemies or a critical mom or an iron-fisted boss telling her to suck it up, get back on the clock, and smile pretty while she was at it.

She simply let her nervous system do what it was designed to do in order to release all that life-threatening stress.

A body doesn’t have to be constantly subjected to life-or-death situations in order for stress to be life-shortening. Life-threatening. But all too often, we override so much of our body’s natural healing mechanisms for the sake of societal expectation, appearances, reputation, productivity, and the calendar. Unfortunately, too much of our basic means of survival is dependent upon these things now.

So I build my body’s natural shaking phenomenon into my routine. I use it as:

• a stress-reliever

• a muscle-relaxer

• an anti-computer-chair remedy

• a shield against the pressure of gravity on my musculoskeletal supports

• a way to shake up old, stuck energy, mental attitudes, habits and patterns that no longer serve me, and get things moving in a better direction

• a way to feel really, really good inside my own personal meatsuit that has undergone a host of traumas and injuries

For your deeper geeking pleasure, I’ll put links below. ¹

**Please always consult your medical & mental health team before engaging in a practice like this to make sure it’s good for you to do, and then deeply listen to your body and your own mind as you add in your personal tweaks to make the practice your own.

Bioenergetic Shaking

Welcome to one of my favorite tools/toys of the Earth Element.² This is why I love it:

This is how to do it:

The Spotify Playlist I made for this practice - SHAKE IT OFF:

© 2024 Hartebeast

---

All 5 of the Elemental Hubs gathered in one place for your bookmaking pleasure:

1. What we can learn from wild animals about stress & trauma

Trauma, shaking & why wild animals have less propensity for PTSD

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind & Body in the Healing of Trauma
—Don't want to read the book? Here's the basic premise of what trauma does to the body and why talking about it, even in therapy, so often doesn't solve the problems: Short Version. Or Long Version by the author himself

A little more about Shaking It Off to release stress and re-energize

2. What is all this Elements Stuff anyway?

This video series came from having to figure out how I could still teach students who had already paid me for in-person lessons when Covid lockdown happened. The course was made for my Level 2 class, so it can be overwhelming to newcomers or even my long-time students if they haven’t yet been exposed to the later techniques I added in after my move to Arkansas.

But this shaking practice is a foundation technique of the Earth Element. I’ll be gradually sharing all that good stuff in this publication, now from the ground up.

In today’s case, literally. Badum-tsss!