Releasing stored trauma feels like a physical and emotional unwinding, involving trembling, heat/cold, deep sighs, muscle relaxation, and fatigue, alongside sudden emotional waves (crying, laughter), vivid dreams, and mood swings, as your nervous system discharges stress, leading to feeling more present, grounded, and calmer as tension frees up, though it can initially feel disorienting as your system recalibrates.
Physical Sensations
Tremors or Shaking: These involuntary movements can occur as the body releases stored energy associated with traumatic experiences. Tingling or Warmth: You may feel tingling sensations or warmth in certain areas of your body as trauma is processed and released.
Safety and Stabilization. People affected by trauma tend to feel unsafe in their bodies and in their relationships with others. Regaining a sense of safety may take days to weeks with acutely traumatized individuals or months to years with individuals who have experienced ongoing/chronic abuse.
Physical sensations such as tingling, warmth or a sense of energy may occur. Some people experience muscle twitching or shaking as tension is released. These sensations are often temporary and can indicate that your body is working through and letting go of past stress or trauma.
Physical Symptoms Linked to Unprocessed Trauma
Some of the most common include: Muscle and Joint Pain – Chronic tightness in shoulders, jaw, or back. Headaches or Migraines – Linked to ongoing stress and hyperarousal. Digestive Problems – Gut-brain connection can trigger IBS or nausea.
Some of the signs of unhealed trauma may include:
Because our nervous system and brain can hold onto painful and traumatic events, chronic pain can be very real and present even after the physical injury has healed.
Fascia, the body's connective tissue network, is believed to store patterns of tension from intense emotions and past traumas like stress, fear, grief, and overwhelm, manifesting as physical restrictions, stiffness, or chronic pain. While not a direct "recording," it holds the physical residue of these experiences through cellular changes (like dehydration or thickening) and nerve signals, leading to emotional releases (tears, laughter) when worked on.
There are many different ways to release trauma from the body. Therapeutic approaches such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) or somatic experiencing can help with releasing trauma from the body. In addition, mind-body practices such as yoga or breathwork can be beneficial as well.
Here are five signs that may mean someone is in emotional pain and might need help:
While all traumas leave a profound mark on an individual's life, there's a different level of difficulty in recovering from what's called "complex trauma." Unlike single-incident traumas, complex trauma stems from repeated experiences of stressful and traumatic events, usually in environments where there's no escape.
It won't rid you of PTSD and your fears, but let your tears flow and you'll maybe feel a little better afterwards. 'Crying for long periods of time releases oxytocin and endogenous opioids, otherwise known as endorphins. These feel-good chemicals can help ease both physical and emotional pain.
The five stages of trauma
But in my experience, emotional healing happens in seven stages: awareness, acceptance, processing, release, growth, integration, and transformation. We don't move through these seven stages in a straight line, but we do pass through them all eventually on the path to healing.
Smiling or laughing when disclosing trauma can be an indicator of shame. Some trauma survivors hold deeply entrenched feelings of self-blame and other distorted and inaccurate thoughts about the role they believe they played in their abuse.
The Trauma-Healing Diet
8 Trauma Release Exercises to Try at Home
Physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea, or dizziness can often accompany the release of trauma. These symptoms may arise seemingly out of nowhere and can be perplexing to those experiencing them. The nervous system, having been in a prolonged state of alert, begins to normalize, causing various physical reactions.
Shaking is one of the body's natural ways to release tension and reset the nervous system. By mimicking the instinctive tremors animals use after stress, you can help your hips let go of stored energy. How to Try It: Stand comfortably, start with gentle movements, and let your body shake naturally.
Grief has a way of creeping into our muscles, especially in areas like the shoulders, neck, and jaw. You may have been carrying this tension for so long that you don't even notice it anymore. But as you begin to release, you might feel these areas soften.
The hips are far away from the face or the heart, so the body often can find it 'more safe' to store deep emotions like grief or fear in this area of the body.
The “90-second rule,” introduced by Harvard neuroscientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, reveals that an emotional surge in the body lasts only about 90 seconds—unless we mentally keep it alive.
Often, when someone is stuck in the past, it's because of unresolved emotions. It can be difficult to address these feelings, especially if they relate to painful experiences. However, recognising and accepting our emotions is the first step towards emotional healing and growth.
The classics usually associate anger with the Liver, which is why the Liver is the General, but in fact [the emotions of] the Liver include melancholy, hatred, neuroticism, and all the Seven Emotions 七情.
Our bodies keep unprocessed trauma. For some, that strength manifests inside the feet as a “holding on” response — the body literally grips the ground for stability and protection. It's a subconscious way of dealing with beyond fear or instability.