The 2-Minute Shakedown

I want to share with you a little something I've been doing lately to move some of this energy, and this is a practice that we've been utilizing in my coaching program as well. We collectively did this together the other day, and it was fantastic.

So, this is a practice of shaking it out. It may sound silly, but it totally works. Right now, with everything that we're experiencing, I think almost everybody can agree that emotions are all over the place. There's a lot of uncertainty, and people are dealing with fear, grief, sadness, frustration and a lot of emotions that can be really challenging to process.

There are a lot of meditations that are coming out for calming and anxiety, and all of that's fantastic. I'm a huge advocate for meditation and have a practice that I'm dedicated to myself, and yet - it's a lot to ask of ourselves to sit still with all of this emotion, in all of this experience that's happening in our bodies, our nervous systems, our minds, and our hearts.

I know for myself. I have caught myself holding my breath recently.

I can feel this holding-in experience in the center of my body, literally. It feels like I'm breathing shallowly only to the center of the chest. My neck is tight. I'm kind of clenching my jaw. It's just a really intense experience.

And so physically, I keep reminding myself to breathe, to relax. It's just a symptom off the enormous amount of information that we're trying to process on both an emotional and cognitive level.

So, this practice is just about releasing energy, using the wisdom of the body to release whatever is there.

Do this two-minute shakedown to move some energy and change your state.

I'm going to walk you through it. It's super simple. You can even set a timer!

Step 1:

Take notice of where you are emotionally right now. Like maybe right now, the truth for me is that I feel irritated, or impatient, or just resigned, tired - Whatever is true for you in the moment, start by acknowledging that.  And that's where we'll start in terms of our practice.

Acknowledge where you are, and then we're going to add a little movement to it.

Step 2:

Start shaking. You can start just by shaking a leg.  If you've never done a shaking practice before, you could just start with a leg and just shake it out.

And whatever is there - frustration, irritation, sadness, grief - just give it a little shake, shake, shake.

Switch legs and just imagine that you could shake all the frustration. Not necessarily like you're trying to force it away, but you're giving it some expression. And then maybe bring that up into the knees.

Shake those knees. Shake, shake until you're ready to bring it into the hips. Shake those hips. You can feel it start to make its way into the top of your body, so maybe you'll just shake one arm, but keep breathing a lot as you do this. Shake the other arm. The bottom of your body may want to keep going too. Just let it.

And then shake those shoulders - the heart space, the chest. Then get your head into it. Loosen your neck and let your neck shake.

Just give your whole body a chance to shake. Moving frustration and sadness or whatever is there. Maybe a little voice or a little breath – release it!

Then you might start to feel like, “Okay. Oh, yeah!”

Just a minute or two of shaking is a chance to give expression to something THAT'S really hard to put words around, but our body has a way of knowing and releasing.

Step 3:

Complete the practice by taking note of how you feel now. Relieved. Energized. Grateful.  Settled. Whatever is true for you in the moment.

There's something magical about giving space for our experience, not in an intellectual way, but just in a physical, expressive kind of way.

I hope this is useful. By all means, continue your meditation, but I invite you to add a two-minute shakedown to your self-care routine and let me know how that goes for you.