So welcome everyone.
And thank you.
Thank you for listening and thank you for being here.
So you may have heard the phrase It's become almost famous and for good reason.
And it named something true that changed how a lot of people understand themselves.
The body keeps the score.
Simple idea being.
That what happens to us,
Frightening,
The overwhelming,
The traumatic,
Doesn't just live in our memories as a story,
It lives in the body.
Inhaled tension,
In a nervous system stuck on high alert,
The flinch,
The brace,
The exhaustion,
The intrusive thoughts,
A sense of carrying something you can't name or control.
The body gives the score.
It remembers what the mind would rather forget.
And when people really take that in,
It's a relief at first.
Oh,
It's not all in my head.
My body is actually holding this.
Then it becomes a kind of despair.
Because it raises a question it doesn't answer.
If the body keeps the score,
Then how exactly do you let it out?
If it's stored in there,
How does it get out?
So,
That's what I want to explore today.
Not where it's kept,
You know that,
But how it moves.
How the body which is holding all of it is also and this is the hopeful part.
The part almost nobody tells you,
Perfectly designed to release it.
So your body is not just a filing cabinet of old fear.
It's a system that knows how to complete,
Discharge and let go.
It's been trying to do this whole time.
It just got interrupted.
So let me show you how it works.
And we are going to start with an animal.
Now picture a gazelle.
And a cheetah bursts out of the grass and the gazelle explodes into a sprint.
A massive total mobilization of the body.
Heart hammering,
Muscles firing and a huge surge of survival energy.
Everything thrown into that run.
Unless you say it gets away.
The cheetah gives up and the danger passes.
Now here's the fascinating part that unlocks everything.
The gazelle stops and it shakes.
It trembles all over,
Sometimes quite dramatically,
For a minute or two.
Its legs shudder,
Its body quivers,
And it might take some deep spontaneous breaths.
Then the trembling stops,
The body settles,
And the gazelle simply goes back to grazing,
Calm,
Completely fine as if it never happened.
No drama,
No flashbacks.
Not lying awake at night,
Replaying the chase.
Now,
No gazelle who develops a lifelong startle response to rustling grass and then has to see a specialist about it.
It shook,
It settled,
It grazed,
Done.
Now here's the question that founded an entire field of trauma work,
Largely through a man named Peter Levine.
Why don't wild animals get traumatized?
They live under constant extreme threat.
Hunted,
Ambushed,
Fighting for their lives on a regular basis.
By rights,
They should be nervous wrecks.
And they are not.
Why?
Maybe the answer is in the shaking.
That trembling the gazelle does afterwards is not random.
It's the body discharging enormous survival energy it mobilized.
The system revved up completely to save its life.
And then when the danger passed,
It deliberately physically released all the charge through the trembling and returned itself to calm.
It completed the cycle.
Threat,
Response,
Discharge,
Settle.
That's the whole arc,
Start to finish.
Nothing left over,
Nothing stored.
Which means the humble gazelle is,
In one respect,
Considerably better at processing trauma than the entire human species.
Slightly humbling.
But there's a very good reason we are worse at it,
And understanding that might be the key.
Here's what happens to us.
And it's the core of the whole thing.
So let me lay it out clearly.
When threat hits a human being,
The same thing happens as with the gazelle.
The body mobilizes a huge charge of survival energy to fight or flee.
Heart pounding,
Muscles ready,
The whole system throwing everything into meeting the danger.
That's the response.
That's the body doing exactly the right thing.
But here is where the human story diverges from the animals.
Very often we can't complete it.
We can't fight,
We can't flee.
Think of situations where trauma really lodges.
A child who can't fight the adult,
Who's frightening them,
And can't run away either.
Someone trapped,
Pinned,
Overwhelmed,
Too small to outnumber.
A situation where the mobilized energy has nowhere to go,
You can't fight,
You can't flee.
So the body does the only thing left,
It freezes,
Shuts down,
Goes still,
Because action is impossible.
And here is the crucial part,
That enormous survival charge.
The energy the body summoned to save you never got used and never got discharged.
The gazelle ran and then shook it off,
But you couldn't run and you never got to shake it off.
So the charge stayed in the body,
Held,
Frozen mid-response.
The survival energy is still there,
Mobilized waiting,
Decades later,
To do the thing it never got to do.
And that is what the body keeps the score actually is mechanically.
It's not just a memory stored in the muscle.
It's an unfinished survival response.
A fight that never got to happen or a run that never got to complete.
Still held in the body as a charge that was never discharged.
The threat is long gone,
But the body doesn't know what.
Because from its point of view,
The response was never completed.
Cycle never closed.
So the danger never officially declared over.
Which is why you can understand your trauma perfectly,
Talk about it endlessly with very competent and some not so very competent therapists,
Know exactly what happened and why.
And still flinch,
Still brace,
And still carry it.
Because the thing that's stuck isn't a story that needs understanding or more understanding.
It's a physical charge that needs completing.
So you can't think a frozen survival response to completion any more than the gazelle could think itself complete.
The body did the holding and the body has to do the releasing.
And the astonishing hopeful thing that this whole piece is here to tell you is that the body still knows how.
The capacity to shake it off,
Discharge,
Complete the cycle,
And to return to calm,
It's not gone.
It's innate.
It's in you exactly as it's in the gazelle.
It just got overridden and it has been waiting patiently to be allowed to finish what it started.
Now you might wonder,
If the body knows how to shake it off,
Then why don't we do it?
Why don't I do it?
Why are we the only animal that stores stuff instead of discharging it?
Partly it's that,
In that original moment,
We genuinely couldn't.
The response was trapped.
But partly,
Honestly,
It's culture.
Because the human body,
After a shock,
Often does try to shake.
You felt it.
The trembling after a car nearly hits you,
The shaking after a fright,
Or the quivering after something intense.
That is the gazelle mechanism firing correctly,
Trying to discharge the charge.
And what do we do every single time?
We stop it.
We clamp down.
Someone hands you a cup of tea and says,
You're alright,
You're alright.
Deep breaths.
Pull yourself together.
So we are embarrassed.
We think it means we are falling apart,
When in fact it's the opposite.
It's the body putting itself back together,
Doing the precise thing that would prevent the trauma from lodging.
And we shut it down because trembling in front of people feels undignified.
And we are a species that would rather be traumatized than undignified.
So we override one mechanism that would have let it move through.
We hold still,
We stay composed,
And we cope.
And the charge denied its discharge settles in for the long haul.
The gazelle would be appalled at all of us.
So the good news is that the mechanism doesn't expire.
Even years later,
Decades later,
The body can still complete what it never finished.
But it happens gently,
Safely in its own time.
So that's in essence what all type of somatic work is at its heart.
Not digging up the story,
But giving the body at last the conditions to do the thing it always knew how.
There are thousands of ways of doing it today,
If not more.
So let me show you a little bit of how that feels very carefully.
I want to slow write down here.
Please be very careful with you.
Because this next part matters.
We are just going to invite the body just a little towards its own natural capacity to settle and release.
And I need you to hear this clearly.
You are in complete control all the time.
So we are not going to force anything.
They're not going to push you into a big feeling.
That's not how it works.
The body releases when it feels safe,
Not when it's pushed.
A fast and forced discharge,
Like the one you see on TikTok and Instagram,
It re-frightens the system.
So we always go slow,
We go very gentle and we take only what feels manageable.
If just in case big emotions arise or you feel overwhelmed.
Or you just don't want to,
Just stop.
It's your process,
You can't get this wrong.
Stopping is not failing.
Knowing when to stop is the skill in healing.
So the work is only ever done in very,
Very small micro doses.
It's not glamorous at all.
A little,
And then rest.
That's the whole method.
So if you're in a place or a state where this doesn't feel right for you,
That's completely fine.
You can simply listen and let the understanding be enough for today.
And if you do want to come back to the practice,
You can.
The teaching alone does the real work.
Take only what's yours to take right now.
And for those of you who feel guided to explore this safely,
Gently at your own pace.
Let's settle a little bit together.
Wherever you are.
Just let yourself settle.
And first.
Let's establish safety in the body.
Because nothing releases until the system knows it's safe.
Feel the ground beneath you.
Feel the ground beneath you.
Is there a chair,
A floor,
A bed,
A couch?
What is holding you right now?
Just feel it.
And feel how solid it is for a minute.
How it's taking your full weight.
And let yourself be held by it.
This is the signal the body needs.
The danger is not here now.
I am supported and I am safe in this moment.
Look around you if your eyes are open or open them for a moment.
Where are you?
Notice.
This room,
This present moment Notice that you are here now.
And you're not in any past thing.
You're here and you're very,
Very safe.
In an ordinary moment.
Let your body register that.
We are safe.
It's over.
We are safe.
It's over.
And we are here.
Now very gently Just notice your body without trying to change anything.
And see if you can sense any place.
That holds a bit of charge,
A tightness,
A bracing or a held tension.
You are not going to do anything to it.
You are just going to notice it.
With friendly attention.
From the safety we have just established.
Just say hello to it.
Whatever is showing up.
Ah,
There's something there.
There's some holding there.
There is something there.
There is some holding there.
And here is the whole gentle art of it.
You stay connected to the safety.
You stay anchored.
The ground,
The present moment and the held weight while you lightly notice the charge.
The ground,
The present moment,
The held weight,
While you lightly notice the charge.
Not diving into it,
Not diving away from it.
Just letting both be true at once.
I am safe.
And there is some old holding here.
I am safe.
And there is some old holding here.
And this combination,
Safety and sensation together.
Safety and sensation together.
Safety and sensation together in small doses is exactly the condition the body needs to begin at its own pace.
To let go if it wants to.
Just stay there with the safety and the sensation.
Lightly notice the sensation.
That's all.
Stay connected to the ground,
To the chair,
To the present moment.
Some of you might notice.
If you stay gently with it.
That something wants to move.
A breath wants to come,
A small shift,
A sigh,
A tremble,
Or a settling.
And if it comes,
Please let it.
That's the body doing its thing.
Discharging a little,
Completing a little.
And if nothing comes,
That's completely fine too.
You have still shown the body that it's safe to be noticed,
Which is the first step and sometimes the whole step.
Let whatever moves move.
If you want to make a spontaneous movement,
Your shoulder wants to drop,
You want to shake your hands,
You want to make a sound,
Please feel free.
Let whatever wants to stay held stay held.
Safety and sensation together.
It'll go when it's ready and not before.
You're not forcing the gazelle to shake.
You're just standing in the safe meadow with it,
Letting it know the cheetah is gone.
Notice what you notice.
Feel what you feel.
Allow what you can allow.
You can keep your eyes closed.
If you want to open them,
You can open them.
Whatever your body wants you to do.
If you want to change how you're sitting or lying down.
You want to lean over to one side.
Whatever,
Your body will not misguide you.
Whatever happened or didn't.
Let's come back.
At your own pace,
Nice and slow.
Start by feeling the ground again.
Start by feeling your weight again.
You are here,
You are safe,
And that was enough.
You are here.
You are safe.
And that was enough.
You are here.
You are safe.
And that was enough.
If when you're ready.
You might want to look around the room.
I want you to understand what just happened.
And what it means because it reframes the whole long project of healing.
You didn't need to relieve anything.
You didn't need to tell the story or understand the trauma or dig up the past.
You simply gave your body a small taste of one thing it never got,
Safety,
In the presence of the old charge,
With permission to let a little go.
And that's the entire mechanism.
That's how it moves out.
Not in one dramatic release.
That's the Hollywood version.
And it's mostly a myth.
But in small and safe repeated doses.
A little discharge.
Rest.
A little more another day.
The body completing gradually over time,
The responses it never got to finish.
This is why,
Healing trauma somatically is slow and gentle and layered.
Process.
The body will not be rash and it shouldn't be.
Each small completion,
Each little discharge,
Each moment of safety with sensation closes a little more of the unfinished cycle and bit by bit that's been the charge that's been held for years begins to move.
And the system that's been stuck on high alert finally begins to stand down.
Your body has been holding this for you faithfully at real cost,
Waiting for the moment it was safe enough to let go,
Was never broken,
It was never keeping the score to punish you.
It was holding an unfinished response with extraordinary patience,
Waiting for you to come back,
Establish safety and let it at last complete.
Rest now fully in the present,
Fully held by the ground,
Nothing to release.
And nothing to do.
Just let the body be in its safety.
Your body always knew how to heal.
It was only ever waiting to feel safe enough to begin.
This is what I want you to carry from this.
Yes,
The body keeps the score,
But the body also knows how to settle the score.
What's held as an unfinished survival response can be completed,
Not by understanding it,
But by giving the body,
In small safe doses,
The safety it needed and permission to discharge what it carried.
You are not a filing cabinet of permanent damage.
You are a living system that got interrupted mid-response.
It won't happen all at once,
And it shouldn't.
The slow,
Layered,
Patient work.
Is best done especially for big things with someone who can hold the safety for you.
Because some charges are too large to meet alone.
But the process and the direction is the same.
Towards a body that is allowed finally to let go of what it was never able to release.
So,
Gentle with your body,
Gentle with yourself.
It's been holding so much for you for so long.
Wasn't malfunctioning it was waiting and now it knows a little more than it did an hour ago.
So the gazelle shakes,
Settles and grazes.
Your body remembers how to do that too.
It always did.
So go gently,
Repeat this if you want as many times if it helped you.
Thank you for joining me today and Namaste.
