The Cycle of Trauma: How to Move Trauma Out of Your Body

Our bodies are designed to keep us safe. When we face a threat, they instantly spring into action, activating a survival response: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. This is our gut instinct at work, signaling how we should respond to danger. But what happens when acting on that response isn’t safe or possible in the moment? We shut down, and over time, this suppression creates a pattern that disconnects us from our bodies. Abandoning ourselves becomes "muscle memory."

For those of us with trauma, we've had to learn how to survive by ignoring what our bodies were telling us. You might not have been able to fight back or run. In those moments, your body was left holding onto the stress and energy that it wasn't allowed to release. That stress doesn’t just go away—it stays locked in our muscles, nervous system, and even our posture. Healing involves letting this stress move out of our bodies by reconnecting with ourselves.

Suppressing our Instincts & Ignoring the Body

When we continually suppress these natural responses, we develop habits of disconnection. We stop trusting our gut and, over time, it becomes difficult to even feel what’s happening in our bodies. We may numb ourselves, ignore pain, or dismiss anxiety as just “being in our heads.” But these are all signals that our bodies are holding onto unresolved stress and trauma.

The problem is, trauma and stress don’t just affect our minds. They live in our bodies, too. And ignoring those signals doesn’t help them go away. In fact, it intensifies them. Your body will learn to "scream louder" through physical symptoms like chronic pain, tension, digestive issues, and fatigue until you begin to listen and respond to it.  Our bodies carry the burden of what we never got to release.

Completing the Cycle: Releasing Trauma from the Body

Healing from trauma involves completing the stress cycle—allowing our bodies to do what they weren’t able to do at the time. It’s about releasing the energy that’s been stuck inside us, whether through movement, breath, sound, or other forms of somatic release. Our bodies need this release to return to a state of balance.

Consider a deer in the wild. After escaping a predator, it will often shake or tremble for a few moments before continuing on with its day. That shaking is the animal’s way of releasing the energy from its nervous system, completing the stress cycle. As humans, we've learned to skip this crucial step. We might push through stressful situations, disconnect from our emotions, or pretend everything is fine when it isn’t.

But the truth is, our bodies know what they need. We can heal by learning to trust those instincts again and giving ourselves permission to release. This might look like gentle movement, shaking, or stretching. It could involve deep breathing, vocalizing, or even crying—whatever helps you express what’s been stored inside.

Reconnecting with Your Gut Instincts

Learning to trust your body is a gradual process, especially if you’ve spent years suppressing its signals. But you can begin by practicing small acts of tuning in. Start by simply noticing how your body feels. Where is there tension? Where do you feel constricted or numb? Then, gently explore ways to release that tension. This could be through a body scan meditation, yoga, a walk in nature, or even just taking a few deep breaths.

The goal is to allow your body to do what it needs to do. Over time, you’ll start to feel more connected to your gut instincts. You’ll trust your body more, and in turn, it will begin to release the trauma and stress that’s been stored for so long.

Trusting Your Body is Trusting Yourself

The path to healing is not just about the mind—it’s about the body, too. By learning to trust your gut and complete the stress cycle, you’re allowing your body to heal in the way it’s designed to. This is where true resilience comes from: not from suppressing our pain but by honoring it and allowing it to move through and out of our bodies.

Your body has always known what it needs. The more you listen to it, the more you’ll be able to release what’s been holding you back. It’s time to trust your body’s wisdom and give yourself permission to complete the cycle of healing.