Part 2: Resilience For Resistors: When Your Body Holds the Stress
Hello Friend,
In Part 1, we talked about rest as strategy. Now let's get practical about helping your body process this work.
If you're showing up—protesting, organizing, speaking out, resisting—your body is holding stress in ways you might not even realize. And you need tools to help process it.
Your Nervous System Doesn't Distinguish
Your nervous system doesn't distinguish between direct threat and witnessing injustice. When you see images of families separated or communities targeted, your body responds as if you're in danger. This is vicarious trauma—and it's real.
You might notice: racing heart, tight chest, clenched jaw, shallow breathing, difficulty sleeping, or feeling simultaneously wired and exhausted. Your body isn't failing you—it's trying to protect you. But it needs help to complete the stress cycle.
Somatic Reset: 5 Practices for Nervous System Regulation
These aren't about "finding your zen" while the world burns. They're about giving your nervous system the support it needs to keep going.
Your body needs to be tended to. It needs to process—or digest—the emotions you're holding, especially when your mind is taking in so much external disturbance from the environment. These practices help your body complete what it's trying to do: move through the stress, release what it's holding, and return to a place where you can act from clarity instead of reactivity.
1. Box Breathing (Calms the Fight-or-Flight Response)
● Breathe in through your nose for 4 counts
● Hold for 4 counts
● Exhale through your mouth for 4 counts
● Hold for 4 counts
● Repeat 4-6 times
Permission to adapt: If 4 counts feels too long, start with 2 or 3. If you can't hold your breath comfortably, skip the holds and just breathe in for 4, out for 4. Meet yourself where you are. The goal is regulation, not perfection.
Why it works: This balanced breathing pattern activates your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest mode) and creates a rhythm that signals safety to your body.
When to use: Before bed, after reading difficult news, when you feel panic rising.
2. Grounding Through the 5 Senses
● Name 5 things you can see
● Name 4 things you can touch
● Name 3 things you can hear
● Name 2 things you can smell
● Name 1 thing you can taste
Why it works: This brings you back to the present moment and out of overwhelm. It interrupts the anxiety spiral.
When to use: When you're dissociating, feeling unmoored, or caught in catastrophic thinking.
3. Progressive Muscle Relaxation
● Tense each muscle group for 5 seconds, then release
● Start with your feet, move up through your body
● Notice the difference between tension and release
Why it works: This helps discharge stress held in the body. Many people don't realize how much tension they're carrying until they intentionally release it.
When to use: Before sleep, after high-stress events, when your body feels locked up.
4. Grounding Visualization: Rooting Into the Earth
● Sit comfortably and gently close your eyes (or soften your gaze)
● Bring awareness to your sit bones resting on the chair and your feet making contact with the ground
● Using imagination, visualize roots extending from the soles of your feet and the base of your body down into the Earth
● Sense the Earth beneath you—steady, present, and supportive
● Notice the felt sense of being held. Allow your body to settle, anchor, and root
Why it works: This practice creates a sense of stability and support when everything feels chaotic. Visualizing connection to the Earth activates a feeling of being held and grounded, which counters the free-floating anxiety of overwhelm.
When to use: When you feel unmoored, scattered, or like you're losing your footing. Before difficult conversations or after consuming heavy news.
5. The Hand-on-Heart Practice
● Place one hand on your heart, one on your belly
● Breathe slowly and feel your hands rise and fall
● Say to yourself: "I am safe right now. I am doing what I can."
Why it works: This activates self-compassion and grounds you in the present. The physical touch stimulates oxytocin release.
When to use: When you're overwhelmed with guilt, when you're being hard on yourself, before bed.
Mindfulness When You're Standing Up
Mindfulness isn't about inner peace while the world burns—it's about staying present enough to act effectively instead of reacting from panic.
Compassionate Awareness: Notice your thoughts without judgment. "I'm feeling overwhelmed" not "I shouldn't feel this way." Name emotions: "This is anger. This is grief. This is fear."
Purposeful Pause: Before scrolling news, take three breaths. Ask "Do I have capacity for this right now?" Set a timer for news consumption.
Grief as Practice: Feel emotions fully. Set a 10-minute timer, let yourself grieve or rage, then consciously shift to action or rest. Create a ritual: journal, cry, light a candle.
Gratitude for Solidarity: Notice moments of solidarity and courage. This isn't toxic positivity—it's acknowledging that even in darkness, humans show up. Each evening, name one moment of solidarity and community you witnessed.
This Week's Practice
Choose one somatic technique and one mindfulness practice. Do them daily for one week. Notice what shifts.
You don't have to do this perfectly. You just have to do it. Your nervous system needs this support to sustain you through the long fight ahead.
With solidarity,
Andrea
___________________________________________
Important Acknowledgement
The grounding visualization exercise in this post was shared by Lupe Murray, a somatic therapist with over 30 years of experience supporting trauma survivors. Lupe's work brings mindful awareness to the nervous system and honors the inherent wisdom within the body. She is a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner and has trained extensively in Interpersonal Neurobiology. I'm grateful for her generosity in allowing me to share this practice with you. Learn more about Lupe's work at The Trauma Foundation.
Next in this series: Part 3 covers how to build community support systems, create sustainable resistance frameworks, and find resources when you're struggling.