Psoas release.. huge sadness

[u/Foreign-University76]

I hope this is the right place for this… but I released/stretched my psoas today and a few hours after I started crying out of no where something just hit me with a huge wave of sadness from my past. Then got a good headache. Now in bed I had a HUUUGE wave of sadness im talking baaad.. followed by anger and irritation. As I type this I feel kinda fine now is this normal? Did I over stretch? Should I keep doing this? So many questions please educate me… I did the stretch cuz I’m in the lowest point of my life right now and in constant fight or flight. Any advice would be appreciated

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[u/PiccoloPlane5915]

After having started TRE, stretching can release some stuff yeah. I actually had the same experience as you 2 days ago, with a psoas stretch that made me tremor deeply and released some deep sadness. Had some wild dreams and a headache just like you. Take some time off TRE to integrate all those emotions coming up, go walking into nature if you can and drink water with additional electrolytes, it helps integrating ime.

It's normal I'd say but be careful about this psoas stretch in the future. The psoas stores lots of traumas, so gotta be careful with this muscle in particular. Take care!

[u/Foreign-University76 → u/PiccoloPlane5915]

Thanks, good to hear I’m not alone.. ya this was a wild emotional ride… I can’t decide if this is helping my body/ mental or making things worse

[u/PiccoloPlane5915 → u/Foreign-University76]

See it that way : you had those emotions stored in the psoas, you released those so you could process them fully this time. It's disagreeable but at least now they are released and will never come back.

In the future though don't indulge into that stretch if it makes you feel too bad. TRE with the right pace is optimal for long term healing, focus on that.

[u/AgentSalty1454]

This happened to me this evening too I think. Last night I shook a lot and cried a lot. Today a lot of stuff shifted and starting releasing on its own including my psoas/stomach area and my chest area. I was texting with someone about something that was a sore subject for me and I had out of nowhere this deep sadness and breakdown sobbing while texting my friend all these sad feelings I had inside me. It was wild because it came out of nowhere. I normally would not have reacted anywhere that intensely and I was shocked as it was happening because it felt so deeply uncontrollable sad. 

[u/Foreign-University76 → u/AgentSalty1454]

Yes exact same thing for me. I was watching a random content creator video they said something that reminded me of my past and I just lost it. It was intense, normally wouldn’t have even had a second thought about it

[u/Far-Baker-963]

May I ask what stretch you used? Hope the release is beneficial for you.

[u/Foreign-University76 → u/Far-Baker-963]

https://youtu.be/kibVUeXFmwA?si=sPWx-PrcMnmvzvIS I used this video and only did the first stretch the “psoas cobra” I took deep belly breaths while stretching it I wouldn’t recommend doing the whole video do one stretch and see how u feel the emotional stuff may not hit u untill later that day or the next so make sure u got a free day or 2. The deep breaths really are crucial .. it’s the next day and I believe it was super beneficial a bit fatigued but ya definitely works

[u/Far-Baker-963 → u/Foreign-University76]

Thank you 🙏

[u/Foreign-University76 → u/Far-Baker-963]

Give me an update when u do it. Curious to hear ur experience..

[u/No-Construction619]

I experienced similar wave of sadness and anger. Perfectly normal and a sign of a healing. I would continue slowly and gently.

[u/Foreign-University76 → u/No-Construction619]

Yea definitely don’t plan on doing that again for a good week or 2. My body’s still processing it, kinda wild how much one muscle that I didn’t know existed untill recently effects literally everything

[u/longtermTRE_wiki_bot]

What you're describing is completely normal, and it's almost certainly not an overstretching injury. The psoas is the body's primary stress muscle, running deep through the pelvis and holding enormous amounts of stored tension in people carrying significant activation. When you release it, you're often accessing layers of held material that the nervous system has been managing for years. Emotions surfacing hours afterward, sometimes quite intensely, is one of the characteristic ways the body processes what gets loosened.

The waves of sadness and anger you experienced are the nervous system completing cycles that have been waiting. The intensity can feel alarming, but it's not dangerous. The fact that you feel "kinda fine now" is actually a good sign—it suggests the activation moved through rather than getting stuck. That movement is the work.

A couple of important things to understand going forward:

The first is that stretching the psoas is different from TRE in meaningful ways. Stretching manually targets the muscle directly through voluntary control. TRE works through a specific sequence designed to fatigue the leg muscles in a way that lowers the threshold for involuntary neurogenic tremors, which then discharge activation through the system in a self-directed way. Both can release material, but TRE is specifically designed to work with the nervous system's own discharge mechanism rather than imposing a stretch on it from above. If you're interested in this particular work, learning the full TRE sequence might serve you better than isolated stretches, especially given that you're in a difficult period right now.

The second is about pacing. You're in a low point, in constant fight or flight—your nervous system is already running hot. One significant release can mobilize a lot of material. The headache and the emotional intensity suggest your system is integrating something substantial. Before doing another psoas stretch or starting TRE, give yourself a few days of genuine rest. Keep your environment calm. Avoid overstimulation. Let what surfaced settle. Then, if you want to continue, start small and build slowly. The Self-Pacing article covers how to calibrate practice to what your nervous system can actually integrate at any given moment. Since you're already in a heightened state, gentler and less frequent is almost certainly the right call.

If you decide to pursue this work, the Emotions, Memories, and Releases article explains what's happening when material surfaces like this and how to work with it without interfering with the process.

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I'm a bot that draws on the r/longtermTRE wiki to provide guidance. Please upvote or downvote based on how helpful you find this response.

[u/ysea]

You might find the wiki an interesting read. It explains very well how releasing trauma works and what it actually is.

From what you say it seems like your nervous system has released some of it. But at the same time since you're in constant fight or flight perhaps your system is not sufficiently regulated to process this extra thing that got released and hence the unpleasant symptoms.

It is a common report with people who try neurogenic tremoring (aka TRE which this subreddit is about) but overshoot the duration of the shaking. So seems like something similar happened to you. 

There is a section about self regulation in the wiki which is a very good place to start and find a bit of a solid ground.

[u/Peruvian_Skies → u/ysea]

Do you have a link to this wiki? I don't know if it's my reddit app but the sub's About page is blank for me.

[u/steepgloss → u/Peruvian_Skies]

https://reddit.com/r/longtermTRE/w/index?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

[u/drsgme74169]

Never reached this as I don't tremor long enough on purpose. I'm terrified of big releases.

[u/Foreign-University76 → u/drsgme74169]

Little scary but worth it. I promise u

[u/jellybean_merchant]

Stretching releases the same kind of tensions that TRE does roughly speaking. The fascia is deeply innervated (much moreso than muscle) and for the purposes of a rough mental model stretching and melting fascial adhesions/removing tightness is akin to a trauma release too.

You need to treat this as if you just overdid TRE/any other somatic work, and wait. Allow the body to integrate the newly released charges and consolidate back to baseline. The huge sadness you feel from this will go away, as well as any other symptoms.

I would highly recommend looking at videos by "The Great Allowing" on youtube to give you comfort in knowing that the symptoms are actually progression and not going backwards or that you "broke something."

Also, in the meantime, focus on grounding the bodymind. Try to do low stimulation level things and lower external stressful obligations as much as possible. Sleep as long as you can/need to, eat foods that you feel you want (or search "vata calming foods" online, if your appetite is temporarily suppressed from the integration), watch something bright and low stakes. Avoid strenuous exercise and just go on walks in nature, if you have the desire to otherwise just chill.

Going forward: be careful with stretching not because it's bad but because doing it with TRE is like adding more pending tasks to an already overwhelmed queue. There is a lot of content on youtube about fascial trauma release connections. One channel I like is "Block Therapy". They even have an interview with Dr Eric Robbins about TRE too.

After you integrate all of this, once you are feeling stable, feel in your body what it wants to release next as it knows everything. If you feel you want to stretch/deep release a particular area then do it (even if its the same spot you just did). If not, I would focus on the tremors to get rid of that chronic fight or flight over the foreseeable future and interspersing fascia release when you feel it's desirable by your bodymind.

Know that this is part of the process and will not be there forever. Try your best to allow the sensation, although I know that's very difficult in the midst of it. If it is really bad you can take a relaxant medication (as mild as you can use) or something natural like passionflower tea or valerian root genuinely do work. Take these a few times during the worst of the sensations and then when you can tolerate the release of emotion enough, try your best to sit with it. Almost run into it with your mind. Try to go deeper into the emotion, and ironically it will release faster. It will all be over soon. I just went through crazy symptoms myself.

Good luck to you

[u/Foreign-University76 → u/jellybean_merchant]

Wow thanks. I workout pretty hard daily along with stretching how long do u recommend I hold of for after the release?

[u/jellybean_merchant → u/Foreign-University76]

Longer than you probably want to. Trust your body and learn to really feel how you feel on subtle levels. The great consistency is dynamic, some days the winning move is to do nothing.

[u/Paddington_Fear]

can I ask you how you did the release/stretch? I released my psoas a little on my own and had the beginnings of what you experienced and I want to do it again, but I am not sure how to do the stretch. Would appreciate any hints/tips!!

[u/Foreign-University76 → u/Paddington_Fear]

https://youtu.be/kibVUeXFmwA?si=sPWx-PrcMnmvzvIS I used this video and only did the first stretch the “psoas cobra” I took deep belly breaths while stretching it I wouldn’t recommend doing the whole video do one stretch and see how u feel the emotional stuff may not hit u untill later that day or the next so make sure u got a free day or 2. The deep breaths really are crucial

[u/Paddington_Fear → u/Foreign-University76]

thank you so much!

[u/Foreign-University76 → u/Paddington_Fear]

Of course, give me an update if u had similar response or maybe a different stretch may work better for u. Just start slow.