about 7 or 8 years ago while in my 200 hour yoga teacher training, i learned the practice of shaking. the teacher i first learned this practice from had us shake for ten minutes and then asked us how we felt, i exclaimed, “my feet feel so big!” and then i started giggling. a few weeks later i was reintroduced to shaking by another teacher who i was studying more regularly with. he encouraged me to deepen my relationship with the practice. i looked online for books or other information but couldn’t really find anything. so, i took measures into my own hands and dedicated myself to shaking every day. for several weeks i practiced shaking for a minimum of 20 minutes a day, and a maximum of up to an hour. the practice was so transformational. for the first week or so, i noticed that at a certain time into the practice my body would suddenly feel like it shifted immensely. i would feel lighter, warmer, more present, softer, more alert, and more relaxed all at the same time.

the more times i reached this shift, the sooner it seemed to come. at first it took 15 minutes, then maybe 12, then 10, then 7, then sometimes it would happen as soon as 4 or 5. if i continued on, the sense of a shift would come again some time later…again i felt more - lighter, warmer, softer, present, alert, relaxed. a second wave of deepening into a relaxed alert state.

if i continued to shake after that, i witnessed that memories began to arise. sometimes they were just from earlier that day, sometimes from recent days or weeks, and sometimes from much longer ago - memories from my childhood even seemed to surface. in the memories that arose i was often stressed, angry, frightened, or otherwise upset. my intuition was to simply keep shaking, and that is what i did. while the memory played on my internal awareness screen i just kept shaking, and then the shift would come - like i had experienced earlier in my practice. the memory would still be “playing” on my internal screen but my body felt softer, warmer, more present, more alert and relaxed. whatever intense stress or upset response the memory had elicited seemed to complete, or move through me, if i simply kept shaking.

Screen Shot 2019-10-17 at 9.12.41 AM.png

i went back to my teacher to report my results. i was thrilled that this simple, straight forward, and customizable practice seemed to create such real experiential shift in my system. and, to be honest, i was a little proud of myself for my thorough exploration. he was happy to hear what i had discovered and he asked about my practice. i told him “i have been shaking for 20 minutes to an hour every day!” he smiled at me and said, “oh thats nice. the balinese monk i learned this practice from told me that at his monastery they shake for up to 8 hours a day.”

touche!

shaking is still one of my favorite embodiment practices to share. here is a short video i made you to share this simple practice. let me know if you give it a try, and how you like it. you may even want to explore a daily shaking experiment of your own!

all love,

robin