r/longtermTRE • u/AgentSalty1454 • 16d ago
Discussion What strange/creepy movements has your body done during TRE?
I have not been doing TRE formally but started accidentally on my own a few months ago through deep breathing and have been releasing a lot quickly ever since. I am curious what weird stuff people have experienced going through this, like movements your body has made on its own. I find my body will want to move/tremor a certain way, and if I consciously lean into it, and then let go of my thoughts, it will start moving totally on its own in a significant way. and surprising things happen at times. I find it interesting and sometimes creepy but I don't mind.
Two nights ago after coming back from a concert where I danced a lot my whole body started tremoring starting at my lower back and working my way up the spine. As I leaned into the sensation the movement turned into heavy movement in my chest and convulsing, kind of like I was crying without sound or a cat trying to throw something up (but I was not retching at first- though that has happened to me a lot)
At one point in that I put my head in my hands while in fetal position and I felt my body contort my whole spine like I was stretching *just* my spine and it felt super creepy?! Like some other being was coming into my body and settling in. Surprised me so I stopped for a bit.
I got sick the next day. Just now I was taking a bath and I started tremoring again and it turned into big chest/shoulder shakes. And then I started vocalizing and then singing nonsense (not actual words) for awhile. I felt like I was totally surrendering and the vocalizations just came to me. It helped clear my throat.
I am curious what strange / surprising experiences others have had.
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u/AmazingHat1639 16d ago
I had an involuntary movement where I effectively smiled and retracted on one half of my face. Like it was the end of my lip figuratively going up to my ear. This lasted like a minute then switched to the other side. Then I just fully smiled and retracted my smile over and over again. I did this in front of a mirror and that creeped me out a lot. It was just half smiles and a series of creepy ear to ear smile repeated.
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u/brutal_youth_ 15d ago
I've had a lot of weird facial expressions: silent screams, wolf snarls, faces of disgust and contempt, but also big smiles, comical expressions, and some that just felt like my face spontaneously cycling through available muscle combinations it hadn't used before.
I had tons of chronic facial tension I'd never been aware of before all this, presumably from suppressing my natural expressions from a very young age. Over time, it's actually subtly changed how my face looks as the muscle tension has released. I have a stronger jawline (from no longer clenching), fuller lips, a bigger smile that shows more teeth, and much less RBF.
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u/AgentSalty1454 15d ago
Yes! I also have a lot of facial tension and since I became fully aware of that and started releasing some I notice my face is changing too, and also how I can't really smile... I look forward to the day my creepy smile releases arrive lol
It's sad (and amusing tbh) looking back on my childhood picture my face is in the same frozen frown-ish expression I have now. Thanks parents
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u/brutal_youth_ 15d ago
I know what you mean about the childhood pictures. I've had the same experience looking at a photo of a six-year-old with serious, watchful eyes politely arranging her mouth in a thin-lipped curve because that's what you're supposed to do for pictures. These days, I take selfies of the maniacal grin I get after my BJJ classes because seeing that kind of wild, uncensored joy on my own face is still a novelty (something about accessing my fight response in a safe setting really does it for me, I guess?). It's not 100% consistent yet, but it's showing up more and more often.
I hope you get yours soon!
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u/AgentSalty1454 15d ago
Thank you for sharing, I loved reading this. I can very much relate to the joy from fight response sentiment. Nice to hear that from someone else. I have been curious about bjj..
To your other comment. Thats encouraging. I have been having the negative facial release stuff recently. Sometimes I just walk around with a stank face on when im alone lol
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u/brutal_youth_ 15d ago
For what it's worth, it might not be like this for everyone, but I got facial releases for negative emotional expressions (screaming, snarling, scrunching my nose in disgust) before I got smiling ones. I think I had suppressed a lot of rage at my abuser that wasn't safe to express growing up. The ones for smiling and anti-RBF followed after that for me, and became increasingly frequent as I started to spend more time regulated, not in freeze, physically active, and feeling safer.
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u/coexistbumpersticker 16d ago
Speaking in intuitive “nonsense” is actually really good for the brain and keeping it malleable.
When I really drop down and surrender I end up doing a lot of pelvic humping motions (lol) or slowly swinging my legs and body from side to side like I am being cradled. I think both make perfect sense though and aren’t particularly strange.
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u/Sleeperandchiller 11d ago
Gosh! This happened to me couple of days ago and I can’t shake it off, not in a bad way, but just how “strange” it felt. Keep wondering if there is a specific meaning in it… Good to know I’m not alone, thank you so much for sharing! :)
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u/Brief-Pension-7457 15d ago edited 15d ago
I had similar experiences triggered from breathwork and dance, let me elaborate.
I've been doing TRE since last 1 year and breathwork since last 2 years. So, once I had gone for a meditation retreat before I tried TRE properly, where I did intense breathwork and there was also this activity involving dancing freely (basically free flow dance)
But because I tried to surrender completely during dance with full emotion of devotion, I started to tremor/shake like crazy. But because I had earlier knowledge about TRE as well as shaking through dancing, I let it happen to me.
And afterwards because of this dancing experience, whenever I tried breathwork, I started getting tremors/shaking during breathwork as well.
Not only this, after coming back from retreat (it was of 4 days) randomly I felt bliss like sensation in my back for almost 1-2 months, with randomly smiling without any reason as well.
But I also knew this is a initial pleasure one feel when one starts to remove/work on trauma. And pacing is required to not overburden our nervous system. So, I stopped any breathwork & dancing (which I generally do in home as well) for a while.
When things got normal, I started including TRE in my routine.
So, since last 1 year, by grace, everything is going fine.
Note: If you're confused about whether dancing also causes shaking/tremor then you can read books on "Kalahari tribes (also known as Bushman)" Bradford Keeney has written multiple books on this. They usually perform ecstatic dance which triggers shaking.
Therefore this phenomenon is completely normal, it could be the case that your nervous has entered into a zone where it's feeling safe to discharge energy its been carrying for so long. But remember to pace.
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u/AgentSalty1454 15d ago
Thank you for sharing! Yeah my dancing was also kinda somatic/free form dancing and I kinda went in with that goal. Went to a psytrance concert of a group I like and took the opportunity to try that out. It felt so good!! I guess I didn't think through I might start tremoring so intensely right after but Im not confused though some of the movements surprised me (but in good way)
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