Guide: Shake off tension

There is tension that breathing can't shift. After an argument, after an appointment at some office, after a morning full of friction, it sits in your shoulders, your jaw, your hands. Your mind has long known it's over. Your body hasn't.

For this there is the simplest exercise in the whole collection: shaking out. In the app, Shake off tension sets the pace for you for one minute, body part by body part. Here is the exercise to read up on, for all the moments without a phone.

Why it works

Physically, stress is a mobilisation: muscles tense up, energy is made available, for fleeing or fighting, neither of which happens in everyday parenting. The tension stays.

Shaking is the most direct way to get rid of it again. Mammals do exactly this after fright and exertion: they tremble it out, and afterwards the body is back to normal. When you shake out on purpose, you use the same mechanism: the fast, loose movement lets the muscles swing between tensing and releasing until they find release again. There is also a simple effect on top: you can't stay grim while you're wobbling. Many people end up laughing briefly, and that too is release.

What it gives you

One minute of shaking takes the built-up charge out of the body before it looks for an outlet as irritability. Afterwards many people feel more awake and looser at the same time, a good state to go back to the children in. Shaking is also the best preparation before a calm exercise: release first, then calm down.

Here is how

1. Hands first

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, knees soft. Shake your hands out from the wrists, as loosely as if you were shaking off water. Ten, fifteen seconds.