For most of my life, I thought calming down was something you did with your mind.

You took a deep breath.
You reframed the thought.
You talked yourself out of the feeling.

And sometimes that works. But there are other times, especially when stress, anger, or fear has nowhere to go, when the mind can’t finish what the body started. That’s where somatic shakeouts come in.

What Is a Somatic Shakeout?

A somatic shakeout is a natural, instinctive movement the body uses to release excess stress, survival energy, and nervous system activation. It often looks like:

• Shaking in the hands or arms
• Trembling through the legs
• Gentle rocking or bouncing
• Full-body shaking that comes in waves

Importantly, this isn’t something the body does because it’s “out of control.”
It’s something the body does because it’s trying to return to regulation. In the work of trauma therapist Peter Levine, particularly in Waking the Tiger, shaking is described as a biological mechanism for completing the stress response. When that completion doesn’t happen—when the body is interrupted, constrained, or told to “calm down” too quickly—stress can get stuck.

The Gazelle Knows What to Do

One of the most well-known examples Levine uses is the gazelle who narrowly escapes a lion. After the chase, the gazelle doesn’t gather the herd to talk about what happened.
It doesn’t analyze the threat.
It doesn’t suppress the experience.

Instead, it shakes. Its body trembles. Its muscles release. Its nervous system discharges the survival energy that was mobilized to run for its life. And then, remarkably, it goes back to grazing. No lingering trauma response. No chronic hypervigilance.

The difference between the gazelle and humans isn’t that humans experience more stress.
It’s that humans are much better at interrupting the body’s natural completion process.

How We Learn to Hold It In

Many of us were socialized, explicitly or implicitly, not to shake. We learned:

• Don’t fidget
• Don’t look strange
• Don’t draw attention
• Don’t “lose control”

So when the body wants to discharge energy, we tense instead.
We clench our jaw.
We lock our shoulders.
We hold our breath.
We override the impulse.

Over time, that uncompleted stress can show up as:

• Chronic tension
• Irritability or anger
• Anxiety that doesn’t resolve
• Fatigue or burnout
• A sense of always being “on edge”

The body isn’t broken.
It’s unfinished.

The First Time I Experienced a Shakeout

The first time this happened to me, I wasn’t looking for it. I was going through a particularly hard time at work, navigating a relationship with a team member who was activating me in ways I hadn’t experienced before. I felt a lot of anger—tight, contained anger—and deep frustration with the situation.

I was doing a guided meditation one evening, mostly trying to calm my nervous system enough to sleep. At one point, the guide invited a small movement: gently shaking the wrists. It seemed simple enough. But almost immediately, something in my body responded.

The shaking moved from my wrists into my arms. Then into my shoulders. Then, without me consciously deciding, it spread through my whole body. It felt unconscious. Instinctive. A little strange. Not something I was “doing” so much as something that was happening through me. The shaking came in waves. It would ease, then return. Over and over throughout the 20-minute meditation. By the end, I felt something I hadn’t felt in weeks.

Calm.

Not because the situation was resolved.
Not because my thoughts had changed.

But because my body had finally been allowed to release what it was holding. Since then, I’ve learned not to stop my body when it needs to shake.

Why Shakeouts Help Complete the Stress Cycle

Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, the part responsible for fight or flight. That activation mobilizes energy:

• Muscles tense
• Heart rate increases
• Breath quickens
• Attention narrows

If that energy doesn’t get used or released, the nervous system can remain stuck in activation. Shakeouts help by:

• Discharging excess muscular tension
• Signaling safety after threat
• Allowing the nervous system to downshift
• Bringing the body back into the present moment

They’re not emotional catharsis.
They’re physiological completion.

Shakeouts Are Not a Sign Something Is Wrong

This matters enough to say clearly:

Shaking does not mean you are dysregulated, unstable, or falling apart. It often means the opposite. It means your nervous system has enough safety to let go.

For some people, shakeouts feel subtle. For others, they’re more noticeable. Both are normal. What matters is not how dramatic they look—but whether the body is allowed to finish the process.

Why Shakeouts Can Feel Scary (and Why That Makes Sense)

For many people, the idea of letting the body shake brings up hesitation, or even fear. This isn’t because shakeouts are dangerous.
It’s because for a lot of us, control became a survival strategy.

We learned—often very early—that staying composed kept us safe. That being still, quiet, and contained reduced risk. That letting the body do whatever it wanted might invite judgment, punishment, or loss of connection. So when shaking arises, it can feel like:

• Losing control
• “Doing it wrong”
• Being exposed or vulnerable
• Opening something that won’t stop

That fear deserves respect. Shakeouts ask us to trust something that many of us were taught not to trust: the body’s intelligence. It’s important to know that somatic shakeouts are self-limiting. The nervous system doesn’t release more than it can handle when there’s enough safety present. The shaking comes in waves. It pauses. It resolves. The body knows when it’s done. If at any point the experience feels overwhelming, you can:

• Open your eyes
• Slow the movement
• Place your feet firmly on the ground
• Put a hand on something solid nearby

Choice and agency are part of regulation.

Shakeouts Don’t Look the Same for Everyone

Another misconception is that somatic release has to look dramatic. In reality, shakeouts exist on a spectrum. For some people, they’re:

• Barely visible tremors in the legs
• A subtle vibration in the hands
• A brief shiver through the spine

For others, they’re more overt:

• Full-body shaking
• Spontaneous stretching or yawning
• Sighs, tears, or temperature changes

All of these are normal. What matters is not the form, but the after-effect. Often people notice:

• A sense of relief or softness
• Deeper breathing
• Clearer thinking
• Reduced irritability
• A feeling of “coming back” into the body

That’s the nervous system settling.

When Shakeouts Are Especially Helpful

Shakeouts can be particularly supportive when:

• Anger has nowhere to go
• You’ve had to stay composed in a charged situation
• You feel keyed up but exhausted
• You’ve “handled it” intellectually, but your body hasn’t caught up

They can also be useful preventively, not just after stress, but as a way to keep activation from accumulating. Think of them as the body’s version of clearing a cache.

A Final Reframe

Somatic shakeouts aren’t about reliving stress. They’re about completing it. They don’t ask you to revisit the story, assign meaning, or make sense of what happened. They simply allow the body to do what it was designed to do - release, reset, and return to the present.

You’re not losing control when you let yourself shake. You’re giving the body permission to finish a process that was interrupted. And often, that permission is enough to create more calm, more clarity, and more capacity for whatever comes next.

Ways to Practice Somatic Shakeouts

You don’t need a meditation cushion or a perfect environment. Shakeouts can be small, private, and integrated into daily life.

Here are a few options:

1. Wrist and Hand Shakes

• Gently shake your hands as if drying them
• Let the movement travel up the arms if it wants to
• Keep breathing

This is often a safe entry point.

2. Leg and Foot Shakes

• While standing, gently bounce your knees
• Let your heels lift and fall
• Imagine shaking tension down into the floor

Great after long periods of sitting.

3. Full-Body Shake

• Stand with feet hip-width apart
• Start shaking lightly and let the body lead
• Stop when it naturally subsides

This can take 30 seconds, or several minutes.

4. Seated Shakeouts

• Sitting in a chair, shake one limb at a time
• Notice sensations without forcing anything

Helpful when privacy is limited. I like to quickly shrug my shoulders to get the process started.

5. After Stressful Moments

Try a shakeout:

• After a difficult conversation
• After a tense meeting
• After reading upsetting news
• After holding it together for too long

You don’t have to carry it forward.

Integrating Shakeouts into Daily Life

Think of shakeouts as maintenance, not emergency repair. You might:

• Shake for 30 seconds before bed
• Do a quick shake in the bathroom at work
• Shake after a walk or workout
• Let your body shake during meditation instead of stopping it

The goal isn’t to make it happen. The goal is to not interrupt it when it does.

A Gentle Practice Invitation

This week, I invite you to try one experiment.

Once a day, or when stress is high, pause and ask:
If my body could move right now, what would it want to do?

If the answer is shaking, let it.

Stay with it.
Breathe.
Notice what shifts afterward.

You don’t need to analyze it.
You don’t need to explain it.
You don’t need to fix anything.

You’re simply letting the body finish a sentence it’s been trying to say. And often, when the body is done speaking, the nervous system can finally rest.

What I’m Loving This Week

Sound:
Music with a beat that makes it almost impossible to stay still—sometimes the body needs an invitation.

Practice:
Somatic shakeouts as nervous-system hygiene. Letting the body release what it’s been holding instead of asking my mind to carry it all.

Tool:
A few minutes of intentional movement between meetings—shaking, stretching, or bouncing just enough to reset before moving on.

Quote:
“The body knows how to finish what stress starts.”

Song:
Shake It Off by Taylor Swift

Yes. It’s obvious. And also… perfect. It’s the best way to give your body permission for a somatic shakeout. Beneath the pop anthem energy, there’s something deeply regulating about giving the body permission to move, shake, and release without overthinking it. Sometimes the most effective nervous-system wisdom comes packaged in the simplest (and catchiest) form: you don’t have to hold onto everything. You really can shake it off—and then get back to your day a little lighter.