My very first TRE experience…
My very first time attending a TRE class/session was in May of 2025. All I knew at this point was that this was where I was supposed to be and that I would be teaching whatever this was. My spirit new this as soon as I saw this class being offered at Downtown Yoga in Hammond Louisiana.
I did a little research on it prior to class, but not much. I wanted to be open to whatever this was and just let it happen. Loreen, was the teacher and wow what I wonderful woman she is. We had four of us in the class, all females.
She started the class out with some lecture on what TRE was and how it helps, and how we got here as a society. She passed out a Polyvagal Chart that I still have now. I will post it here…
As you can see, it has a lot of information and I suggest anyone reading this please keep this for yourself so you can understand yourself and where you are at in your daily lives. I completely understand that we as a society hold ourselves in a constant state of fight or flight mode, and we don’t even know we are doing it!! I know I would love to be in a state of calm/settled/groudedness every moment of my life. I know that is not always going to be! Life throws us things and our body reacts the way it does to help. But we are NOT MEANT to live in FIGHT OR FLIGHT MODE.
So, back to the session. We went over this chart and how we each handle ourselves somewhere in this chart. Where we want to be is in the Ventral Vagal (Safety). Where most of ourselves are is somewhere in between the Sympathetic (Danger) and the Dorsal Vagal (Life Threat)-both in Hyperarousal. Always on, always alert, always ready for the next thing, the next shock, the next drama, the next whatever the heck is coming around the corner.
Over my life I have found myself in that complete survival mode. I became hyper-vigilant. Easily scared/spooked and on edge. This definitely came from PTSD from trauma experienced in my life. I am much better now, but once in a while it comes back up.
We discussed all this and now it was time to do TRE. Again, I had no idea what to expect. We did some very easy exercises that anyone can do within the limitations of their own body. We did the wall sit for example. I understand now why we did that exercise. It is to tire your muscles to get them to bring the ‘shake’ on.
Once we go back to our mat and go on the floor, we went into a Supta Baddha Konasana or Reclining Bound Angle Pose. Very simple and classic yoga pose where the soles of your feel come together and your knees are out wide. For this exercise my feet are little more out in front of my then when I do it in yoga class. Making it more of a long diamond shape with the legs. We lifted our hips slightly and from that point….it was on!
I am going to explain this to you just as I felt it to be that day. I went into the lying down pose lifted my hips up and after about a minute my my hips and legs started to vibrate. My hips and legs started shaking and I was like, ‘WOAH,’ what is going on? LOL! I went back and forth in the very beginning, with relaxing and holding on. I would let go, and then I would pull back. This went on for a little while, with me fighting it back and forth. I finally let go and let my body do its thing. Which meant exactly what I said. I LET MY BODY DO ITS THING. My hips went left and right my knees went to the left, my knees went to the right. My entire lower body was tremoring on its own. While my body is shaking I cried and I cried, and then when I felt like I couldn’t cry anymore, I still cried more! I let my body do its thing and I cried. I let it out and out and out. at some points my body would sort of relax, and then it would tremor again. Sometimes my lower body would head to the left side more/knees to the left and sometimes to the right, but more to the left.
I knew that all of us in the room were having our own experience, but I was in my own world, because I realized while I was doing this that I WAS HEALING MYSELF. This miracle was happening and it was happening within my own body, with my own energy. This feeling alone was remarkable! Almost hard to describe in words, this feeling.
Loreen was taking care of us this entire time. She would coach me when she would check on me and help me to relax more. This process took about 60 minutes. As it came to a close she got us to relax our bodies and rest for a bit, before we came out of it. The experience was phenomenal!
I have been practicing yoga for fifteen years and teaching for 8 years. When I tell you that never felt anything like this before in my life I am not lying. My nervous system felt like it was on another plane. Like it was overstimulated but in the most fabulous way. I felt refreshed, rejuvenated and simply, fabulous. I felt like I had created space in my shoulders that wasn’t space before. I felt like I had moved things in my body that haven’t been moved in ages, or ever. I felt more grounded than I have EVER FELT. I felt a connection to my body, like I have never felt. The most awesome part of this experience was finding the ability to HEAL MYSELF with MYSELF.
As a note. We were instructed not to make a story about anything that came into our mind. My experience in my first session was that my pain, the crying and tremoring came from when I was a child. When I was little, probably around 5 or 6 years of age I would wake up all the time in the middle of the night screaming with stomach pains. This happened several times during this time frame. Nothing was ever found to be wrong with me. They put needles in my stomach, which didn’t make anything better, but made things worse I am sure, for a child my age.
During my session I KNEW that this is what I was reliving and feeling. My tears were from the pain of not being heard. I wanted someone to hear me, to listen to me, to know that I mattered, but sadly at that time it wasn’t available. I cried for all those years that I just wanted to be heard. My body and my spirit knew this while I was going trough my tremoring. I didn’t add anything to my story or take away I just let myself feel and be right where I was in the room.
More to come in the next blog….
