How to Release Stress from Your Body

Being able to manage stress effectively is a key aspect of leadership. In this video, I share how the body holds on to stress and how you can release stress from your body. In particular, I share a strategy grounded in somatics which involves shaking.

Navigating Stress in Leadership

Today I wanted to share a simple strategy today to help you release stress from your body.

A key challenge for many leaders I work with involves managing their stress, and remaining just as poised and effective in stressful situations as they might otherwise.

It’s with that challenge in mind that I’m sharing this strategy, which involves shaking.

If you’re used to showing up in a really polished and professional manner, this might might seen very bizarre. So we’re going to get into why shaking is so important, and how shaking can help you navigate stress in the workplace.

How Does the Body Hold Stress

When we’re talking about stress, it’s helpful to separate out situations that are stress inducing, and external to us - stressors - versus the stress response inside of us to that situation.

Let’s say you’re at a board meeting; you’ve been asked a question that you are not prepared to answer. You’re put on the spot and because the stakes are high, you are uncomfortable.

You can think of this situation as an external stressor. And then there’s this whole response inside of you. You might notice your heart race increase, you’re holding your breath, body tense up, you can’t think clearly.

It’s really helpful to have this distinction of external stressor vs. the stress response in our body because this gives insight into how our body holds onto stress and how we can start releasing stress from our body. The key is to focus on the response that’s happening inside of you.

Cultivating awareness of your own stress response in different situations is a great first step, and then to go step further, that’s where shaking comes in.

How to Release Stress from Your Body

The reason to try shaking is that while we might be seasoned professionals, we also have an animal body. Our animal body, which is highly connected with our autonomic nervous system - which has a foundational goal keep us safe.

If I’m in this board meeting and I’ve been put on the spot, my animal body and nervous system might register this situation as unsafe even though I’m not in physical danger. You might feel embarrassed and emotionally exposed, which our bodies can register as unsafe. You might feel like your job performance could come into question, which again the body can register as being unsafe.

These responses might not be logical or make sense, but nonetheless they trigger our autonomic nervous system kicks into gear with this stress response. I might experience it in your body as fight, flight, freeze.

As these verbs imply, our nervous system has geared up our bodies to actually fight, flee, or freeze. But we don’t usually do any of these reactions because we’re focused on keeping it together - staying calm cool and collected - But our bodies still want to express all of this energy that’s coursing through us that can mobilize us to fight, flee, or freeze.

I’m not advocating that we all for example start fighting or fleeing when we’re in stressful board meetings. But I am advocating for respecting our body’s interest in letting the stress response move through and out of us.

When we feel like our body is holding on to stress, it’s not holding on to the situation or external stressor necessarily, but rather our bodies didn’t have the opportunity to allow the stress response to move through us and out of us. So all that energy gets stuck inside.

For oftentimes, we have stress that’s been accumulating in our body for many many years. As we have this build-up, we may feel it as physical tension, but can also make us more easily triggered in stressful situations.

It’s harder to stay poised and keep our calm, which can then have ripple effects into other aspects of our leadership.

So shaking, if it feels good to you, is one way to start releasing this stress and this energy that wasn’t able to surface and move through you.

So how do you do it?

Shaking to Release Stress

Shaking as you might guess can take make different shapes, sizes, and speeds. It can just be your arms, legs, or full body. It can be small or big, fast or slow.

If you have limited mobility or an area that’s painful, you can just avoid moving that area.

To key is to only do what feels good and comfortable in your body. It’s also helpful to not worry if you look a little crazy. I recommend with doing this just for a 10 seconds.

One thing to notice - If there’s a sign, or a yawn, that’s usually a cues from your nervous system that you’re good for the time being.

I usually recommend people try it out first when they’re pretty calm to just see how it feels - you could pause the video and try it right now. And once you get the hang of it, you could shaking after you’re in a stressful situation, or right after. If you forget, that’s totally fine; you can always do it later in the day.

And this is new to you, you can just start by doing it for a couple seconds, and stop and see how it felt. And if it felt productive, you can do it a little more, and then check in. You can experiment with shaking different areas, or different speeds.

Other Strategies for Embodied Leadership

Is shaking going to release all of the stress from your body? No.

There are more nuanced strategies to help with that, but it’s a great place to start. And to help us release stress in real time so it doesn’t add to the backlog of stress we’re already carrying around. Because of that, this is a strategy I use often in my life and it’s been surprisingly helpful for clients as well.

If you try it out, I’d love to know how it goes. Share in the comments! And if you’d like support with this process, or other aspects of Embodied Leadership, contact me here to schedule a free Somatic Coaching Consult.