My body was not my own. At different points of my life, my body was not my own. It seemed as though my body was created for others to destroy, to break, to touch, to use as others saw fit. It was a struggle for me to want to get to know my body, to feel at home with it one day. It was painful to truly feel all those bruises and bumps. So, I self-medicated with other substances to further disassociate. It wasn’t until a HUGE moment of divine intervention in 2015 that I began my healing journey. Through yoga, meditation, therapy and most recently, in 2019, TRE.

Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (or TRE®) is a simple yet innovative series of exercises that assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma. Created by Dr. David Berceli, PhD, TRE safely activates a natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous system. When this muscular shaking/vibrating mechanism is activated in a safe and controlled environment, the body is encouraged to return back to a state of balance. TRE was created with the intension for all people to easily have access to it and with training, utilize it whenever it is needed.

My first experience with TRE was in a workshop with about 100 people, and it was incredible. I felt an overwhelming sense of joy that I had not felt in a long time. That joy felt like a strong vibration that started at my psoas muscles and bubbled up to my throat to let out a burst of laughter. It was as if my body was trying to reintroduce me to joy. Reminding me of what it felt like. We were encouraged to listen to our body instead of our ego and trust that the body knows what it is doing. With that encouragement, I surrendered. I surrendered to the experience. I surrendered to the emotions. I surrendered to my body. My second round of TRE, my body knew exactly what it needed to release, my multiple miscarriages. My core started jolting me to sit up and it started to contract. I did not realize what was happening until a few minutes later. My body was completing a birth. Naturally, I began to cry. It was a perfect moment of my mind, my grief, and my body coming together. The aftereffect led to a stillness and a quite within that I had never felt before.

TRE gives our bodies permission to release stories that have impacted us physically, psychologically, and physiologically. The best messages I had received from this practice were to not question why my body was moving in the way it was. But instead, be in the present moment and trust that my body knows what it is doing and how it needs to release.

My body has not betrayed me, and my body is mine once again. I know now all the crevices inside and out. The parts that were wanting to hide deep within me, I have brought to the light. I am now at home in my body.