How to Release Stress From Your Body: 5 Somatic Practices That Help
By Victoria Duarte, Somatic and Mindfulness Coach and Co-Founder of Healing Arts Center, Virginia Beach, VA
In short: Your body can stay on high alert long after a stressful moment ends. Somatic practices such as rocking your feet, humming a "voo" breath, pressing into a wall, looking around the room, and holding yourself help your nervous system finish the stress cycle and return to rest. Paired with self-compassion, they teach your body that it's safe to let go.
Why Does Your Body Hold On to Stress?
Everyone tells us to let go of stress. Hardly anyone shows us how. For years, I wondered if it was even possible.
I once worked for a company that treated everything as an emergency. Every task was urgent, every problem had to be solved immediately, and the pressure never let up.
The hardest part wasn't the workday. It was what happened after. I would walk through my front door, and my body would stay on high alert, braced for the next crisis. I carried that tension through the evening, into the night, and back to work the next morning. My body never got the chance to finish the stress cycle and return to rest.
From the outside, I looked fine. On the inside, my body was sending signals I couldn't ignore: restless nights, a racing heart, and shoulders that never let go.
What Does Chronic Stress Cost You?
Stress didn't only exhaust me. It made me smaller. When my body was always preparing for the next emergency, there was no room for creativity, fresh ideas, or the life I wanted to build. Survival took up all the space.
I tried many ways to release it, and each one helped for a moment. None of them reached the root.
How Somatic Work Helps You Release Stress
Somatic work was different. Instead of asking me to quiet my mind or push the feelings away, it asked me to pay attention to what my body was feeling and what it was trying to tell me. Feelings we push away don't disappear. They find another way out, often through the body. I explain more in What Happens to the Feelings We Push Away.
As I listened, the stress began to untangle, and I found what was underneath it. My boundaries had been crossed. I had been disrespected. Over time, I had stopped trusting myself.
For years, "stress" was the only word I had for all of it. Naming what was underneath gave me something stress never did: the ability to trust my own experience again.
Does Letting Go of Stress Mean Never Feeling It?
No. When I started, I was looking for an off switch. I wanted the tight shoulders and racing heart gone for good.
What I found instead was something better. Stress still shows up in my life, but it no longer moves in and stays. My body knows the way back to rest now, because I've practiced that path again and again. Letting go of stress doesn't mean a life without it. It means a body that doesn't have to carry it home every night.
Why Self-Compassion Matters for Stress Relief
The second thing I learned was self-compassion. I used to think of it as something I would get to once everything else was handled. Now I understand it as an offering I give myself, in the moment I need it most. I talked about this on the She Can Heal podcast, which you can find in Mothering Yourself: Victoria on Burnout and Self-Compassion.
I no longer wait for the perfect time. When I feel tension building, I pause and tend to what is happening inside me right then.
5 Somatic Practices to Release Stress From Your Body
Before you try one, ask yourself how you're arriving. Wound up and buzzing? Heavy and flat? Steady and open? Then rate how strong it feels, from one to ten. Whatever you find, your body is working hard on your behalf.
1. Rock Your Feet (When Anxiety Feels Buzzy)
Sit comfortably, or stand if you prefer. Spread your toes wide, as if pressing them into warm sand. Then slowly shift your weight forward onto the balls of your feet and back onto your heels. As you rock, notice whether one foot presses into the floor more than the other.
Why it helps: Anxiety and anger tend to rush up into the chest, shoulders, and head. Moving your feet draws that energy downward and takes some of the pressure off your upper body.
2. Hum a "Voo" Breath (When Stress Settles in Your Stomach)
Rest a hand on your belly and let the chair or floor take your weight. Breathe in, then release a long, low "vooo" on the exhale, like a distant foghorn, until your breath runs out. Feel where the sound vibrates. Rest for a moment, then repeat twice more.
Why it helps: The long, vibrating exhale stimulates the vagus nerve, which helps slow your heart rate, steady your breathing, and settle digestion. It tells your body it's time to rest. For more ways sound and humming can interrupt stressful thought patterns, read 8 Cognitive Distortions (and 6 Ways to Retrain Your Brain).
3. Press Into a Wall (When You're Angry or Replaying a Conversation)
Place your palms flat on a wall while standing. Before you push, scan your body from your feet up to your head and notice where the energy is gathering. Press into the wall from that place, and ease off whenever your body is ready. Then stand quietly and feel what's changed. Repeat if your body asks for more.
Why it helps: Your body is wired to defend itself and hold its ground. When you freeze or hold back in a hard moment, that energy can get stuck. Pushing lets it move through safely. Gentle presses work as well as strong ones. To learn how your body signals a limit before you ever say a word, read A Boundary Begins in the Body.
4. Look Around the Room (When You Feel On Edge)
Let your eyes lead and allow your head and neck to follow. Slowly explore the colors, textures, shadows, and objects around you, as if seeing the space for the first time. Turn to look above and behind you. Settle your feet on the floor, then notice whether your breath or shoulders have changed.
Why it helps: Stress narrows our attention to whatever might be a threat. Taking in your whole surroundings shows your body that you're safe in this moment. For four more ways to calm your nervous system with your eyes, read Unlocking Calm: Eye Movement Strategies from a Neurosomatic Coach.
5. Hold Yourself (When It All Feels Like Too Much)
Sit back in a chair that supports you. Wrap your left hand around your right upper arm, then tuck your right hand under your left arm. Lean into the chair and feel yourself held from both front and back. Breathe here, and sway gently if it feels good.
Why it helps: Gentle pressure helps your body shift into rest, and the hold brings comfort and containment. It's self-compassion you can feel.
How to Tell If Somatic Practices Are Working
When you finish, pause before moving on. Maybe your shoulders dropped, your breath slowed, or you feel a little more settled. Maybe nothing feels different, and that's useful information, too.
Small shifts are where change begins. If a practice doesn't seem to help right away, you haven't failed. Some bodies need more time, more repetition, or the support of a practitioner. Choose one or two practices that feel right and return to them whenever stress starts to build.
Ready to go deeper? Try How to Be With Your Body: A Six-Step Somatic Practice, a gentle way to stay with a feeling in your body.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to complete the stress cycle?
Completing the stress cycle means giving your body a way to release the energy stress creates, so your nervous system can return to rest. Movement, breath, and practices like the ones above help your body finish what stress started.
How long does it take for somatic practices to work?
Some people feel a small shift within a minute or two. Lasting change usually comes from practicing regularly over weeks, as your body learns it can return to rest more easily.
Can somatic practices help with anxiety?
Many people find that somatic practices help them feel anxiety with more ease and recover from it faster. They aren't a substitute for medical or mental health care, and a trained practitioner can offer more support.
Do I need a somatic coach, or can I practice on my own?
You can begin on your own with simple practices like these. A somatic coach can help you go deeper, understand what your body is communicating, and build practices that fit your needs. See What Somatic Coaching with Victoria Can Help With: 10 Reasons People Book.
Get Support for Stress in Virginia Beach
This is the work I share with my clients at Healing Arts Center. Together, we listen to what the body is communicating, name what lies beneath the stress, and meet it with compassion. Sessions are available in person in Virginia Beach and online. If you're ready to stop carrying what was never yours to hold, I would love to walk alongside you.
About the author: Victoria Duarte is a somatic and mindfulness coach and co-founder of Healing Arts Center, a veteran-owned wellness collective in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She helps people release stress, heal from people-pleasing, and build self-compassion through body-based practices.
