I feel if I can stiffen/flex my neck at certain angles & my neck & spine starts tremoring/shaking with high frequency. I can sustain it for a few seconds at a time until it stops and I can’t make it happen until some time later. The immediate feeling is discharge of nervous energy although I can definitely overdo this which leads to increased anxiety later in day.
Are these neurogenic tremors & is it safe to do this?
I came across the Triune brain theory a while back which I found super interesting and very relevant to the topic of anxiety. Bear in mind, any theory is just a model of reality useful for analysis and prediction. In short, the theory states that the human brain evolved in three distinct layers that aren't perfectly integrated.
The oldest is the reptilian brain: responsible for fight, flight, freeze, reproduction, feeding etc.
Next came the mammalian brain: responsible for complex emotions like fear, shame, joy etc.
And finally the frontal cortex: which is most evolved in humans & is responsible for complex logical thought.
And while these different parts work together, if there’s ever a conflict in motives/desires, the oldest layers always take precedence. Survival & procreation (fight, flight, sexual attraction) take priority over emotions. And emotions take precedence over logic. So for example, you can’t override a visceral survival fear with positive affirmations. OR choose to not feel sexual attraction if the reptilian brain decided so. OR logically convince someone who is motivated by emotion.
Fight & freeze are controlled by the reptilian brain. And while it has its analogs in the mammalian brain (fight/flight = feeling of fear, aversion, apprehension etc) they are distinct from each other. Fight/flight flagged by the reptilian brain is a context-less feeling of danger. This is what raw anxiety actually is. Similarly, freeze shows up as a visceral desire to not move, which then triggers the emotional components to it as well (aversion, disgust, shame etc).
You can’t reason with anxiety. You can’t make it go away. It is run by a totally different part of the brain that circumvents logic, and emotion.
There’s also this crazy interplay between the mammalian & reptilian brain. The context-less anxiety is seen as an actual threat by the emotional brain, which triggers aversive feelings, which then signals back down to the reptilian brain that danger is real. It feeds & maintains the cycle. Fight/freeze in reptiles is a transient phase. Once the threat is over, the organism goes on without the memory of the event. However, the mammalian brain needs to contend with the emotional residue of it which can accumulate over time due to repetition & feedback.
I have started to notice the distinct difference between context-less anxiety & its emotional analogs. Most important being that anxiety produced by the reptilian brain does not respond to cognitive interventions like journaling, talk therapy, sedona method etc. Once it hits, trying to escape it feels futile and may even prolong it. Resisting it signals to the mammalian brain that it is something to be avoided so it builds secondary emotions around it (fear and worry about your anxiety etc). The best bet is treat it like post workout muscle soreness. It’s a process and it will pass.
Once you realize it's just an artifact of your reptilian brain that you can’t really control with your thoughts, you can stop fighting it and actually start managing your biology.
My sense is that TRE and cognitive approaches like talk therapy, sedona method, emdr etc target the emotional structure. Over time, as emotional controls unravel it creates secondary signals which in turn lowers the alarm threshold that triggers the reptilian brain.
I came across the Triune brain theory a while back which I found super interesting and very relevant to the topic of anxiety. Bear in mind, any theory is just a model of reality useful for analysis and prediction. In short, the theory states that the human brain evolved in three distinct layers that aren't perfectly integrated.
The oldest is the reptilian brain: responsible for fight, flight, freeze, reproduction, feeding etc.
Next came the mammalian brain: responsible for complex emotions like fear, shame, joy etc.
And finally the frontal cortex: which is most evolved in humans & is responsible for complex logical thought.
And while these different parts work together, if there’s ever a conflict in motives/desires, the oldest layers always take precedence. Survival & procreation (fight, flight, sexual attraction) take priority over emotions. And emotions take precedence over logic. So for example, you can’t override a visceral survival fear with positive affirmations. OR choose to not feel sexual attraction if the reptilian brain decided so. OR logically convince someone who is motivated by emotion.
Fight & freeze are controlled by the reptilian brain. And while it has its analogs in the mammalian brain (fight/flight = feeling of fear, aversion, apprehension etc) they are distinct from each other. Fight/flight flagged by the reptilian brain is a context-less feeling of danger. This is what raw anxiety actually is. Similarly, freeze shows up as a visceral desire to not move, which then triggers the emotional components to it as well (aversion, disgust, shame etc).
You can’t reason with anxiety. You can’t make it go away. It is run by a totally different part of the brain that circumvents logic, and emotion.
There’s also this crazy interplay between the mammalian & reptilian brain. The context-less anxiety is seen as an actual threat by the emotional brain, which triggers aversive feelings, which then signals back down to the reptilian brain that danger is real. It feeds & maintains the cycle. Fight/freeze in reptiles is a transient phase. Once the threat is over, the organism goes on without the memory of the event. However, the mammalian brain needs to contend with the emotional residue of it which can accumulate over time due to repetition & feedback.
I have started to notice the distinct difference between context-less anxiety & its emotional analogs. Most important being that anxiety produced by the reptilian brain does not respond to cognitive interventions like journaling, talk therapy, sedona method etc. Once it hits, trying to escape it feels futile and may even prolong it. Resisting it signals to the mammalian brain that it is something to be avoided so it builds secondary emotions around it (fear and worry about your anxiety etc). The best bet is treat it like post workout muscle soreness. It’s a process and it will pass.
Once you realize it's just an artifact of your reptilian brain that you can’t really control with your thoughts, you can stop fighting it and actually start managing your biology.
My sense is that TRE and cognitive approaches like talk therapy, sedona method, emdr etc target the emotional structure. Over time, as emotional controls unravel it creates secondary signals which in turn lowers the alarm threshold that triggers the reptilian brain.
I came across the Triune brain theory a while back which I found super interesting and very relevant to the topic of anxiety. Bear in mind, any theory is just a model of reality useful for analysis and prediction. In short, the theory states that the human brain evolved in three distinct layers that aren't perfectly integrated.
The oldest is the reptilian brain: responsible for fight, flight, freeze, reproduction, feeding etc.
Next came the mammalian brain: responsible for complex emotions like fear, shame, joy etc.
And finally the frontal cortex: which is most evolved in humans & is responsible for complex logical thought.
And while these different parts work together, if there’s ever a conflict in motives/desires, the oldest layers always take precedence. Survival & procreation (fight, flight, sexual attraction) take priority over emotions. And emotions take precedence over logic. So for example, you can’t override a visceral survival fear with positive affirmations. OR choose to not feel sexual attraction if the reptilian brain decided so. OR logically convince someone who is motivated by emotion.
Fight & freeze are controlled by the reptilian brain. And while it has its analogs in the mammalian brain (fight/flight = feeling of fear, aversion, apprehension etc) they are distinct from each other. Fight/flight flagged by the reptilian brain is a context-less feeling of danger. This is what raw anxiety actually is. Similarly, freeze shows up as a visceral desire to not move, which then triggers the emotional components to it as well (aversion, disgust, shame etc).
You can’t reason with anxiety. You can’t make it go away. It is run by a totally different part of the brain that circumvents logic, and emotion.
There’s also this crazy interplay between the mammalian & reptilian brain. The context-less anxiety is seen as an actual threat by the emotional brain, which triggers aversive feelings, which then signals back down to the reptilian brain that danger is real. It feeds & maintains the cycle. Fight/freeze in reptiles is a transient phase. Once the threat is over, the organism goes on without the memory of the event. However, the mammalian brain needs to contend with the emotional residue of it which can accumulate over time due to repetition & feedback.
I have started to notice the distinct difference between context-less anxiety & its emotional analogs. Most important being that anxiety produced by the reptilian brain does not respond to cognitive interventions like journaling, talk therapy, sedona method etc. Once it hits, trying to escape it feels futile and may even prolong it. Resisting it signals to the mammalian brain that it is something to be avoided so it builds secondary emotions around it (fear and worry about your anxiety etc). The best bet is treat it like post workout muscle soreness. It’s a process and it will pass.
Once you realize it's just an artifact of your reptilian brain that you can’t really control with your thoughts, you can stop fighting it and actually start managing your biology.
My sense is that TRE and cognitive approaches like talk therapy, sedona method, emdr etc target the emotional structure. Over time, as emotional controls unravel it creates secondary signals which in turn lowers the alarm threshold that triggers the reptilian brain.
I came across the Triune brain theory a while back which I found super interesting and very relevant to the topic of anxiety. Bear in mind, any theory is just a model of reality useful for analysis and prediction. In short, the theory states that the human brain evolved in three distinct layers that aren't perfectly integrated.
The oldest is the reptilian brain: responsible for fight, flight, freeze, reproduction, feeding etc.
Next came the mammalian brain: responsible for complex emotions like fear, shame, joy etc.
And finally the frontal cortex: which is most evolved in humans & is responsible for complex logical thought.
And while these different parts work together, if there’s ever a conflict in motives/desires, the oldest layers always take precedence. Survival & procreation (fight, flight, sexual attraction) take priority over emotions. And emotions take precedence over logic. So for example, you can’t override a visceral survival fear with positive affirmations. OR choose to not feel sexual attraction if the reptilian brain decided so. OR logically convince someone who is motivated by emotion.
Fight & freeze are controlled by the reptilian brain. And while it has its analogs in the mammalian brain (fight/flight = feeling of fear, aversion, apprehension etc) they are distinct from each other. Fight/flight flagged by the reptilian brain is a context-less feeling of danger. This is what raw anxiety actually is. Similarly, freeze shows up as a visceral desire to not move, which then triggers the emotional components to it as well (aversion, disgust, shame etc). You can’t reason with anxiety. You can’t make it go away. It is run by a totally different part of the brain that circumvents logic, and emotion.
There’s also this crazy interplay between the mammalian & reptilian brain. The context-less anxiety is seen as an actual threat by the emotional brain, which triggers aversive feelings, which then signals back down to the reptilian brain that danger is real. It feeds & maintains the cycle. Fight/freeze in reptiles is a transient phase. Once the threat is over, the organism goes on with the memory of the event. However, the mammalian brain needs to contend with the emotional memory of it which can accumulate over time.
I have started to notice the distinct difference between context-less anxiety & its emotional analogs. Most important being that anxiety produced by the reptilian brain does not respond to cognitive interventions like journaling, talk therapy, sedona method etc. Once it hits, trying to escape it feels futile and may even prolong it. Resisting it signals to the mammalian brain that it is something to be avoided so it builds secondary emotions around it (fear and worry about your anxiety). The best bet is treat it like post workout muscle soreness. It’s a process and it will pass.
Once you realize it's just an artifact of your reptilian brain that you can’t really control with your thoughts, you can stop fighting it and actually start managing your biology.
My sense is that TRE and cognitive approaches like talk therapy, sedona method, emdr etc target the emotional structure. Over time, as emotional controls unravel it creates secondary signals which in turn lowers the alarm threshold that triggers the reptilian brain
When you read that something should be done ‘24/7,’ you might assume it means doing it as much as possible. Because otherwise it’s being assumed you ought to be releasing in your sleep as well.
However, this doesn’t quite line up with the precise language used in the six steps. Why be so precise? Well, it turns out that if you’re releasing constantly as suggested you’d find yourself spontaneously releasing when you encounter a clinch (wanting/resisting) in your dreams. Im currently noticing this.
This is similar to a technique often used to trigger lucid dreams, where the practitioner constantly does reality checks during waking hours until the act becomes automatic. When it happens in a dream, the dreamer becomes lucid.
About 6 weeks ago I somehow destabilized myself. It was following months of journaling & body scanning. Not sure what exactly triggered it but it was after I spent extended time placing my attention on an anxious body sensation. I feel I might have broken through a dissociation.
It has been intense. I woke up daily with a sinking feeling in chest. There was strong persistent anxiety with tinnitus that changed pitch and loudness strongly correlated to anxiety. I’ve used Sedona method & breathing techniques to manage this but it’s been v hard tbh.
I started seeing a somatic therapist a couple weeks ago who introduced me to somatic releases on a massage table & via brain spotting. The somatic releases were intense & looked long winding movements like body was trying to unwind.
This week has been much better & I guess I’m stabilizing. I tried a 30min TRE session yesterday & was able to replicate that long winding loops & body twitching I experienced with therapist. I felt relatively okay so I did another session this morning.
The desire to heal is strong but I’m weary of over doing it. Given my situation I’m wondering what would be the recommended pacing or things to know. I recognize that physical release is the path to my healing & I’m committed to the process long term. Any help is appreciated.
Got an Ultra 3 as a birthday present from my wife. I have never worn a watch or any kind of jewelry so I was skeptical if I’d be able to make that lifestyle shift. Being that it was a gift I wanted to give it a fair shot so I started wearing it.
So here at close to two week mark. I don’t get it. Whatever it provides I already have access to on my iPhone. Except now I need reading glasses to see it (which I don’t normally use). There are some sleep quality readings & hrv monitor which is interesting but at an expense of wearing this thing 24/7.
Did I miss anything of value here (that my iPhone doesn’t provide). I need to decide if I should return it for something else in a couple days. I’m on fence. Please help me decide.
So I’ve been doing high volume releasing these days. It has been having some really interesting effects to the extent that there is little doubt in my mind that the method impacts my nervous system in ways I cant yet quantify (by taking some sort of test for example). The effects are experientially real though.
My nervous system has been in fight or flight last few months with high sympathetic activation. This manifests as strong anxiety in the morning. It manifests primarily as fear which I’ve been releasing on. However, I’m noticing that releasing on that does not cause the energy shift that releasing on any other feeling/want does.
I thought maybe that’s because it’s not a “regular” feeling & perhaps anxiety is sympathetic activation not releasable by the method.
Something clicked for me after reading an article where the author described anxiety as a false alarm generated by a sensitized nervous system. The recommendation was to not react to it & stop trying to change it.
So the next time anxiety hit, I released on my want of trying to make it go away. This has started working for me I feel. Focusing on releasing the want of trying to escape a feeling gets you unstuck. It’s counter intuitive but feels like the intent of step #5.
My mental model of the method is this. Your desires/aversions are a stack loaded up in your consciousness. You can readily release the top of the stack & once you do the next item on the stack becomes available for release. It is sometimes not clear what the current top item is.. you may think it’s fear but it might be wanting to control that fear. By practicing the method you become more calibrated with recognizing your true wants/feelings & trappings of your ego.
I started seeing a therapist a couple weeks ago & my first couple sessions have been intense to say the least.
On my second session he suggested I get on the massage table. I never expected and therapy would involve a massage table but I was willing to try anything at this point.
A couple seconds after he touched my back I exploded into convulsions & intense emotions. This felt very cathartic & endless to a degree that we ran out of session time while my body wanted to continue.
The nature of the convulsions were like a tightly wrung rope trying to untwist as tension is released. My body wanted to arch & stretch in odd angles. I was groaning & growling at times.
The therapist did an excellent job holding space. Although I was and still am very confused. Looks like I have decades of energy coiled up inside me desperately trying to get out. I didn’t even know this was possible & I was capable of doing this.
I have done a lot of solo introspective journaling recently along with high volume Sedona method releasing. The therapist thought it may have been a factor with releases being so available.
It’s the second day since the session & I’m slipping in & out of bouts of anxious thoughts. Little afraid but hopeful. Wondering how many sessions it would take to get to where I start feeling normal again. And how long will it take to resolve this trauma assuming I continue (which I intend to).
Any thoughts are appreciated!
I started seeing a therapist a couple weeks ago & my first couple sessions have been intense to say the least.
On my second session he suggested I get on the massage table. I never expected and therapy would involve a massage table but I was willing to try anything at this point.
A couple seconds after he touched my back I exploded into convulsions & intense emotions. This felt very cathartic & endless to a degree that we ran out of session time while my body wanted to continue.
The nature of the convulsions were like a tightly wrung rope trying to untwist as tension is released. My body wanted to arch & stretch in odd angles. I was groaning & growling at times.
The therapist did an excellent job holding space. Although I was and still am very confused. Looks like I have decades of energy coiled up inside me desperately trying to get out. I didn’t even know this was possible & I was capable of doing this.
I have done a lot of solo introspective journaling recently along with high volume Sedona method releasing. The therapist thought it may have been a factor with releases being so available.
It’s the second day since the session & I’m slipping in & out of bouts of anxious thoughts. Little afraid but hopeful. Wondering how many sessions it would take to get to where I start feeling normal again. And how long will it take to resolve this trauma assuming I continue (which I intend to).
Any thoughts are appreciated!
I’m a software engineer/architect based in SF Bay Area with a couple decades of experience building complex enterprise applications. Looking to start (pivot) to a consulting business where I build custom solutions for clients. Initially myself but later with a team once I can prove viability.
I do not have experience in sales which I feel might be crucial here. Not underestimating the work & degree of difficulty involved in launching this. I’m in it for long term so whatever it takes to get there.
I just need some pointers on what to look out for & how to pitch/land my first clients. How to get my head above water asap with this.
Any advice would be appreciated.
I’m a software engineer/architect based in SF Bay Area with a couple decades of experience building complex enterprise applications. Looking to start (pivot) to a consulting business where I build custom solutions for clients. Initially myself but later with a team once I can prove viability.
I do not have experience in sales which I feel might be crucial here. Not underestimating the work & degree of difficulty involved in launching this. I’m in it for long term so whatever it takes to get there.
I just need some pointers on what to look out for & how to pitch/land my first clients. How to get my head above water asap with this.
Any advice would be appreciated.
I’ve been doing high volume releasing with Sedona method. Like several hours a day. I’ve started noticing a recurring theme with releasing on certain emotions.
I notice when I start releasing a specific emotion.. let’s say fear of judgement, it starts off feeling like a diffuse cloud with non specific shape somatically in the body. After each release session it may dissipate only to reappear later with changed intensity.
However, over time the somatic quality of that feeling in body changes to something more defined. It also starts to get localized on the back around spine or between shoulder blades or kidneys. And on each release there’s a distinct feeling of a tug and a strong sensation in that localized area. Almost like the feeling has concentrated.
If I continue I feel like my body wanting to arch backwards and even tremor or convulse with each release. This has culminated in past in an event where I had a strong tremor and desire to grunt and vocalize after which the troubling emotion disappeared & didn’t return.
Of course to get here I had to do a lot of releasing on a very troubling emotion (hence my motivation to continue). Wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar.
I find the release technique to be a simple but highly sophisticated & counterintuitive maneuver of consciousness. I think the spiritual jargon around it has probably come in the way of it being not more widely recognized therapeutic modality.
It’s so simple why didn’t anyone discover it before Lester. Well.. apples fall from the tree all the time, it took Newton to really explore the implications.
You feel a clinch in a given situation. It is something you want. You can narrow it down to one of: acceptance, control, or safety. You have established you want it. Now suspend belief. We do it all the time watching movies.
Ask yourself to pretend you do not want acceptance/control/safety for that clinch. This is critical to overcome conscious resistance to the release. You’re telling yourself.. sure I want safety but for the moment I’m going to drop it. This exposes the deeper layer of the ego momentarily. And you can take that opportunity to release the next layer to get to an even deeper layer. And so on.
Nervous system learns by training & you are training your nervous system to be non-reactive repeatedly. The same want may appear later in same or different context & if you continue to release it you’ve established a repeating pattern for your nervous system to unlearn it.
So while a short release session may feel good. Lasting change will come from high volume repeated practice where you do not let too many counter examples of something you released slip in until the tipping point where your nervous system has effectively reorganized. This may explain why Lester insisted on releasing “all the time” to be free in a couple of months.
Last year I started experiencing anxiety around some career stress. Then I came across this TikTok where a Buddhist monk suggested to “stop resisting” & associate into your unwanted feelings & body sensations. Seemed like a counterintuitive & interesting idea so I tried. And it helped.
I continued experimenting with this & found that if I breathed into the feeling & exhaled and removed attention off that feeling (with don’t care attitude), it would shift into my body. Over the course of several weeks i felt the feelings shifted from my abdomen area to back where I started getting muscle knots. I also started getting body spasms as I would do the removing the attention technique. And then one day it culminated in a release with accompanied shaking and my back arching. And my anxiety around those thoughts disappeared.
Googling around AI suggested that I’m actually doing what’s called somatic experiencing. Great!
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was journaling & ran across a troubling thought that I’d experienced for a long time and accompanied with a knotted feeling in my body. So I decided to focus on it for several minutes. After a while it shifted and exploded into anxiousness. It’s a pretty disconcerting feeling. Comes and goes. And I’m also experiencing somatic tenitus that shifts in pitch & volume constantly.
I feel like I may have thawed an old wound that I’d very much like to resolve but I’m also very mindful to do it safely. Online research suggests I should tread with caution. I had a rough childhood & I do have patterning around high functioning fight or flight which looks like I’ve exposed. Anyway, it’s fairly disconcerting but manageable right now. Perhaps I’m in a so called “healing crises” where everything feels raw & amplified.
Any help & guidance regarding this is appreciated!
I’ve been using Sedona method for quite a while & have made some great progress. However, I’m curious what people think about its effectiveness for someone in fight or flight. Basically for someone who has a sensitized nervous system. Or someone with frozen feelings that need to release before they can be processed.
Going through a difficult time in my life, I started to journal earlier this year. It helped so I continued. Since then it has evolved into something I engage in several hours a day.
For me it follows this pattern. I start writing in bullet points about individual thoughts exactly as they come without interpretation. Often they are attached with an emotion. I notice that my bullet points about a certain situation form a stack that loops over and over. I write whatever comes up, even the repetitions.
Over time, patterns start to emerge. Loops repeat and I can label them (which I find very useful). And start to become aware of variations and tangents. I become very familiar with the feelings (in my body) attached with each thought. Sometimes, I can stop and use therapeutic techniques on them (like reframing, somatic-experiencing, releasing, connected breathing etc).
Oftentimes I get into this flow/trance like state where vivid childhood memories start surfacing with strong realizations.
I am noticing that over time, a thought loop about a certain situation shifts. Certain thoughts drop out and so does the underlying feeling. Certain thoughts I had my entire life have greatly reduced in frequency. Others have disappeared altogether.
Not sure what is happening at a neurological level really. Perhaps I am boring my brain out of dropping a subject lol. Or by looking at all my thoughts about a situation from all angles exhaustively I allow my conscious mind to find a solution or realize the futility of the pattern.
Can't help but feel I have found a way to emotionally process my identity. My feeling is that if this is actually working then you could potentially process all your emotional baggage like this leading to emotional freedom. Needless to say this is an arduous process.
Wondering if anyone else has tried something similar. Just want to compare notes & iterate.