SHAKE: 6 week practice of Letting Go

From fall to winter, lets do a 6-week practice of TRE, Qi Gong, movement and stillness together.

Every fall, the trees let go of what they no longer need to carry into winter. What if we practiced doing the same? Our bodies carry things that we might not need in this season of our life.. The stress of our days. The conversations we haven't quite digested. The ways we brace and hold ourselves together. The uncertainty of work, relationships and a world that seems to be spiraling into chaos faster every day.

Sometimes we don't need to think about it more. Sometimes we need to dance, stretch, breathe, shake it out and be still.

SHAKE is a six-week exploration of how we can work with our bodies to move through stress, activation and change without losing our ground.

At the centre of our practice is TRE, Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises, a body-based practice that uses our innate neurogenic tremoring to release what we don't need. The goal of this series is to go deeper into creating a regular TRE practice that becomes a tool we can rely on through this transition from fall to winter.

If you're new to TRE, we'll start at the beginning. You'll learn how to invite the tremors and experience what it is like to discover: Oh. My body knows how to do this. But that's only the beginning.

Learning to work with the shake

Over six weeks, we'll move beyond simply activating the tremors and begin developing a more curious, responsive TRE practice.

• What happens if I change positions?

• What happens if I let the tremors get bigger? Or smaller?

• Can I notice when activation feels interesting and workable, and when it starts becoming too much?

• Where do I brace?

• Where do I feel stuck?

• What are my blindspots?

• What happens when emotion arises, how does it move in my body?

• What does my body want to do next?

• What happens when I stop shaking and become still?

• What is my body telling me?

Weaving in multi-disciplines and practices:

We'll use ideas from Polyvagal Theory and the Window of Tolerance to help us understand our experiences and build greater awareness of activation, settling and overwhelm.

We'll explore different TRE positions and modifications, giving you more ways to work with your own body rather than following the same sequence every time.

We'll bring in pandiculation, following the body's impulses to stretch, contract, yawn and reorganize.

We'll experiment with music and rhythm and notice how sound changes our experience of movement, emotion and tremoring.

Every session will include Qi Gong as a way to arrive, ground, move energy and reconnect with the whole body.

And we'll explore meditation after TRE, making space to notice what remains when the movement becomes quiet.

From release to capacity

The intention isn't to shake harder or release as much as possible.

It's to become more skillful at listening and building a curious and trusting relationship with our body's intelligence.

Over time, TRE can become an opportunity to notice the same patterns that appear in everyday life.

When do I push?

When do I brace?

When do I disconnect?

When do I need to slow down?

When can I stay with something uncomfortable for a little longer?

When is it time to stop?

This is where our practice begins to move beyond the mat.

We're not trying to eliminate fight, flight or freeze. These are part of being human.

We're practicing recognizing our own nervous system and developing more ways to move through activation and return to ourselves.

Our weekly rhythm

We'll gather every week on:

MONDAY EVENINGS (7pm EST) TO EXPLORE

For 1.5h every week we'll shake together while exploring TRE modifications, nervous system concepts, Qi Gong, music, pandiculation, meditation and what we're discovering through our practice.

Each week we'll go a little deeper.

OPTIONAL: THURSDAY LUNCH (12pm EST) TO SHAKE

Our drop-in practice. Less teaching and any new concepts for the mind. More shaking. It'll be a chance to return to the body, practice what we're learning and develop a consistent relationship with TRE.

Come as you are.

Why now?

We are in a period of enormous change on every level. We wake up to all kinds of breaking news, unexpected events, decisions, outrage, chaos, war both in a the micro and macro scale.. AI is changing how we work and create. There is constant pressure to respond, adapt and keep up.

We can't always control the pace of the world around us. But we can practice how we meet it.

We can pause and notice before responding. We can move some of what we're carrying.

We can expand our capacity to stay present when things feel uncertain. We can cultivate the ability to move between activation and rest, effort and ease, movement and stillness.

And we can remember that intelligence doesn't only live in our heads.

A practice for fall

Trees don't release their leaves because something has gone wrong.

Letting go is part of their rhythm.

They release what they no longer need and draw their energy inward for winter.

Over these six weeks, we'll practice our own version of that movement.

Shake. Notice. Explore. Allow. Settle. Integrate.

Not forcing ourselves to let go.

Not deciding ahead of time what needs to be released.

Just creating enough space to listen to what our bodies have to say.

And seeing what we're ready to stop carrying into winter.

Who is this for?

You don't need previous experience with TRE, Qi Gong or meditation.

This series is designed to support beginners and people who already have some experience with TRE.

It may be especially interesting if you want to:

• develop a regular TRE practice rather than only trying it once

• better understand your own stress and activation patterns

• learn how to modify and self-regulate your TRE practice

• explore your Window of Tolerance with more curiosity

• experiment with movement, music, Qi Gong and meditation alongside TRE

• explore how embodied practices can support you through uncertainty and change

• become more confident listening to your body and knowing when to continue, slow down or stop

You don't need to be flexible, good at meditation or particularly "embodied."

Curiosity is enough.

What to expect

This is an experiential series.

We'll learn concepts, but we'll spend much of our time actually practicing.

Wear comfortable clothes you can move in. You'll want enough space to lie down comfortably and move your arms and legs.

Bring a yoga mat, water and anything else that helps you feel comfortable practicing on the floor.

Because we're learning together over six weeks, you're encouraged to attend as consistently as you can. The repetition is part of the practice.