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Can you help your body relearn how to regulate stress?

Unlock the tools to enable your body to release the tension it's instinctively holding onto.

Gaydar

07 May 2025 — 3 min read

I'd heard of Tension Release Exercises before but a 1-to-1 session with Andy Butterfield in London was my first opportunity to actually experience what it was all about.

Andy has been working in the broad field of tantra and body-work for many years - he's one of the best-known practitioners in the UK in terms of naked yoga, tantra retreats, and somatic therapy.

Positioning me on a mat on the floor, Andy talked through the principles of tension release and then guided me through a series of exercises.

I'm over-simplifying it, but Tension Release Exercises seek to activate your body's natural mechanism of shaking to release the stress or trauma being processed by your nervous system - stress that most obviously manifests as muscular tension.

This is our bodies at their most primal. You'll have seen animals that shake or tremble when they are stressed, anxious, or fearful. It's a physical response that is a natural way for their bodies to release adrenaline and cortisol - hormones that are released during stressful situations. It's the fight-or-flight mode being activated

Shaking during moments of stress and trauma is also something frequently seen in children. The technical term is Neurogenic Tremors.

Adults tend not to display neurogenic tremors as frequently or visibly as children or animals. It's not really clear why, but we seem to learn to channel our stress, tension, and trauma in other ways. We adopt coping mechanism. Often, we simply hold onto the stress in our bodies.

Whether it's the low-level stress of daily life, or some kind of more significant trauma that has impacted you physically or emotionally, holding onto that tension in your body can have significant negative impacts. There's detailed studies that have demonstrated how stress is detrimental to numerous aspects of both our physical and mental health.

Your coping mechanisms may help you to continue to function while you navigate stressful situations or aspects of your life, but that's not enabling your body to physically process the tension that your nervous system is being subjected to.

While I had total trust in Andy's expertise in this work, I was sceptical of my own ability to be open enough to experience the benefits of Tension Release Exercises.

But it worked.

Guided by Andy, lying on the floor, my legs were soon vibrating with an involuntary motion that felt very instinctive.

There's lots of things that can be helpful in managing and alleviating stress and trauma. Yoga and meditation are awesome. Physical touch is powerful. Therapy can be really helpful. Going for a swim, hitting the gym, lying in the sun, or doing some gardening will all have some benefits in helping you find your balance in the world.

But there's something very healing about figuring out how to let the body do what it was designed to do - to enable it to physically process the after-shocks of activating your fight-or-flight mode.