Most of us have some level of fatigue and I can't think of anybody who has not at some point in their life, missed a night of sleep for one reason or another. The problem with that is that when we extend interrupted sleep pattern for long periods of time, we can end up doing some real damage to a lot of different physiological systems in the body. Stress plays a big role in this. Because when we experience chronic stress over long periods of time a can bleed from just a bad night's sleep here and there, into chronic insomnia and long term sleep deprivation and we know that over time. Sleep deprivation can actually become another cause of elevated stress levels.

What no one tells you is that unless you’re willing to uncover and shift the shadow patterns that created those habits in the first place it’s nearly impossible to keep those results long term. Our mental, emotional & physical patterns provide the infrastructure for our beliefs and drive our actions. 

Maybe one of the most powerful, deeply entrenched patterns we have are our shadow patterns around food. Changing an eating habit, or any habit permanently is nearly impossible without also addressing the underlying patterns that support it. 

That filter that we see the world through, woven with the voices of our past, serves to keep us safe in whatever experience we know. In effect, it is our own internal safe space. Everyone has one. We maintain it with confirmation bias and identity politics and apparently Facebook Groups.

What happens when something challenges your gatekeeper? What happens when an idea that runs counter to your world view gets into your safe space?

We live in a world that values/celebrates a culture of stress. A society where reacting with too much emotion, where standing up and defending yourself, voicing a different opinion or rocking the boat in anyway is risky behavior. A society that insists we shrink ourselves to fit in it’s boxes instead of finding bigger boxes.

This has led to a systemic detraining of our natural responses to both real and perceived threat. That detraining becomes the foundation of dysfunctional patterned responses to all forms of stress.

The result of the 24/7 news cycle is that we can be constantly bombarded by negative, violent and abusive content. Even if that content isn’t directed at us. The unintended consequences of consuming too much of that content can result in the equivalent of an assault on our nervous system that could range from subtle, chronic worry to outright trauma.

Perhaps you’ve felt it? Debilitating fear, anxiety, panic that comes out of nowhere and knocks you sideways. The people around you can’t understand it and you can’t explain it or rationalize it. Once you’re in the middle of it you can’t talk yourself out of it. You live in fear of the feeling of fear because you’re not exactly sure where it’s coming from.

That’s where Sarah was before she discovered trauma release exercise and the power of the tremor mechanism. I sat down with her to find out more about how TRE changed her life. This is Sarah’s story.