Updated: Rooted Resilience
Proactively cultivating somatic resilience in times of ambient & collective trauma
Since originally publishing this piece back in November, our community here has grown, our insights have deepened, and we’re proud to be teaching and facilitating later today at Steady in the Storm, a global online gathering focusing on resilience and fundraising for LA fire relief. Tickets are by donation, and the lineup is a powerful, This update reflects our expanded perspective on resilience and offers links to additional resources for your journey.
We are living in a time of upheaval. The cracks in the world’s systems are no longer subtle—they are ruptures. Political unrest, ecological collapse, economic volatility, and growing inequality are not distant issues; they are the backdrop of our daily lives. Our nervous systems are frayed as ambient fear, grief, and uncertainty seep into our bodies and relationships. It’s easy to feel like we’re on shifting ground with no solid place to stand.
And yet—this is the terrain where resilience is forged.
Resilience is more than endurance or toughness. It’s the capacity to meet chaos without losing connection to ourselves. It’s what allows us not just to survive but to evolve in real time. The word resilience comes from the Latin resilire, meaning “to leap back”—but today, resilience is not about returning to what was. Resilience today requires us to expand into what’s possible.
Resilience must be an integrative life practice—one that connects the physical, energetic, and conscious aspects of who we are. It is what allows us to stay rooted while navigating disruption and chaos. And in times like these, resilience isn’t optional—it’s essential.
Stress, Trauma, and the Pathways to Resilience
The visible crises of our time are only part of the story. Beneath them run deeper, more insidious currents—what we call ambient trauma. This is the stress that accumulates not from one singular event but from the relentless undercurrent of instability: the churn of the news cycle, the weight of climate anxiety, the felt sense that we have knowing that power is being consolidated into the hands of billionaires and economic inequality and state violence is growing more and more every day. It is the dissonance of living in systems built for extraction and disconnection—systems that wear down our bodies and spirits while demanding we continue producing, performing, and surviving.
Within this context, daily life continues. We must feed our children, show up for work, navigate relationships, tend to our partnerships, and care for our communities. These daily acts can feel exhausting under the weight of ambient trauma. Yet, if we are anchored internally, they can also be portals to systemic resilience—small, steady practices that ripple outward into the collective.
This is why resilience must address more than what we think—it must address what we feel and hold in the body. Ambient trauma lives within us physically, stored in our fascia, nervous system, and breath patterns. It manifests as chronic tension, exhaustion, or a subtle feeling of being “on guard,” even when no immediate threat is present. When we live in a state of constant low-level stress, our capacity to respond to acute trauma is significantly diminished. The nervous system, already frayed from the background hum of ambient trauma, has fewer resources to adapt to sudden shocks or crises.
But the inverse is also true: If we cultivate resilience in times when ambient trauma is our primary challenge, when the tension is more subtle but ever-present, we build the capacity to face acute trauma with clarity and presence. Rather than collapsing into overwhelm or freezing in reactivity, we are more able to respond from a state of embodied awareness. This is the heart of multidimensional resilience: tending to the layers beneath the surface so that when life brings sudden rupture, we can meet it not from depletion, but from depth.
Resilience isn’t just about responding to the crises we see—it’s about addressing the unseen pressures we carry, and in so doing, we can see more clearly.
Three Dimensions of Somatic Resilience
Resilience moves through many layers of our being. In a separate essay, we explore Somatic, Spiritual, and Systemic Resilience, a multidimensional framework for stabilizing and expanding through these times. Here, we’ll go deeper into somatic resilience, exploring how it unfolds through three key dimensions:
1. Physical Resilience: Rooting Strength in the Body
The soma, our lived experience of the body, anchors resilience, providing the strength and adaptability we need to face life’s demands. Physical resilience is not simply about health or endurance—it is about responsiveness and recovery.
Through practices like mindful movement, breathwork, and grounding techniques, we regulate the nervous system, release tension, and increase our capacity to meet challenges. By tending to the body, we cultivate a sturdy foundation that empowers us to engage fully with life from a place of inner and outer strength.
2. Energetic Resilience: Flowing with Life Force
Beyond the physical body lies the subtle energy body—a field through which life force flows, sustaining our vitality. Central to this is the fascia, a connective tissue web that connects all of our muscles and organs, and which stores both physical and emotional tension. When blockages form from various types of trauma, they disrupt this vital flow, depleting resilience and adaptability.
Breathwork, somatic release practices, and mindful movement help dissolve these blockages and restore energy circulation. As the flow of life force is sustained, the body’s ability to adapt, recover, and replenish becomes more fluid and resilient.
3. Conscious Resilience: Integrating Mind, Emotion, and Awareness
Conscious resilience emerges when body, mind, and emotion are integrated. It is the ability to witness our internal landscape—thoughts, feelings, and sensations—without being overwhelmed by them. This dimension allows us to shift from reactivity to responsiveness, meeting life’s challenges with clarity and groundedness.
Reflective practices such as journaling, visualization, and meditation calm the mind and align us with our values, enabling us to meet life’s complexities from a place of inner stability and clarity. When the body is regulated, awareness sharpens. When awareness sharpens, the body responds more freely.
When the Dimensions Align: A Unified System of Resilience
When physical, energetic, and conscious resilience align, we experience resilience not as a concept but as an embodied reality:
Physical resilience grounds us with literal strength and mobility.
Energetic resilience brings vitality and flow to our ability to respond.
Conscious resilience provides clarity and adaptability.
Together, they form an interconnected system—one that enables us not only to endure life’s challenges but to meet them with presence, creativity, and care. Through this integration, resilience becomes more than personal—it becomes systemic, rippling outward from within us into the world we shape through our actions and relationships.
From Ambient Trauma to Protective Patterns
Earlier, we explored ambient trauma—the steady, often invisible pressure that arises from societal, environmental, and familial patterns. This chronic, low-level stress doesn’t simply reside in the mind; it imprints itself into the body, shaping our posture, breath, and responses to daily life. One of the most common ways the body expresses this stored tension is through a deeply ingrained survival pattern known as the Red Light Reflex.
Red Light Reflex: The Body’s Protective Impulse
The Red Light Reflex (a term coined by Thomas Hannah, who also coined the term somatics) is a primal, somatic response to perceived threat. Imagine a firecracker going off behind you—your body instinctively contracts: your shoulders tighten, your chest caves inward, and you curl slightly into yourself. This reflex is the body’s ancient protective mechanism, designed to shield vital organs from harm.
However, in the context of ambient trauma—where the threat is chronic but subtle—this reflex can become a habitual pattern rather than a momentary response. Over time, the body begins to live in a low-grade state of contraction, creating patterns of muscular tension and restricted energy flow. The fascia—the connective tissue that holds the body together—stores this tension, compressing both movement and vitality.
The Impact of a Persistent Red Light Reflex
Physically: It manifests as tightness in the chest, shallow breathing, and chronic neck or back pain. The body remains subtly “on guard,” depleting energy reserves.
Emotionally: The contracted body sends signals of danger to the brain, contributing to feelings of anxiety, fatigue, or emotional numbness.
Energetically: The tension in the fascia blocks the free flow of life force, reducing vitality and resilience.
Releasing the Reflex: Restoring Fluidity and Ease
To address the Red Light Reflex, we must speak the body’s language—through movement, sensation, and breath. Somatic practices help interrupt the chronic contraction and restore the body’s capacity for easeful, adaptive movement:
Slow, Conscious Movement: Movements done with presence, awareness, and continuous conscious relaxation help the body explore new pathways and release habitual tension patterns.
Breathwork for Expansion: Full, diaphragmatic breathing reopens the chest, signaling safety to the nervous system.
Fascial Release: Gentle self-massage or using tools like soft balls can release the fascia, increasing fluidity and restoring energy flow.
Fascia as a Highway for Consciousness and Resilience
Our fascia forms an intricate network within the body, linking muscles, bones, and nerves into a unified whole. But fascia is more than structure—it is an energetic highway, facilitating the flow of energy, memory, and consciousness throughout the body. It not only supports movement but also holds tension and imprints of experience, shaping how we feel and respond—often beyond conscious awareness. (I explore this in greater depth in my essay on fascia, which you can find here)
Fascia’s Role in Storing Memory and Energy
Fascia holds more than the body together; it holds the body’s stories. Trauma, emotional patterns, and physical stress become woven into its fibers, stored as tension and energetic blockages. Over time, these imprints can limit our adaptability, making us feel stuck or depleted. Yet, fascia is also a gateway to release. When gently tended through myofascial release, mindful stretching, and breathwork, fascia softens—freeing both physical and energetic pathways. This release restores flow, supporting openness, emotional balance, and resilience.
The Nervous System, Fascia, and Consciousness
Fascia and the nervous system work as one, creating a dynamic, sensory landscape where experience is stored and expressed. The CNS (brain and spinal cord) processes signals, while the PNS (peripheral nerves) delivers sensation and governs automatic responses. Fascia, richly innervated with sensory receptors, acts as a secondary neural network—registering experience, storing trauma, and shaping how we feel in our bodies. The concept of biotensegrity, developed by Dr. Stephen Levin and building on the work of Buckminster Fuller, explains how fascia, bones, and tissues form an integrated structure, balancing tension and compression. Stress or trauma disrupts this balance, creating tension patterns that mirror our emotional states. Recognizing fascia as part of the nervous system’s expressive field reminds us: resilience is both physical and psychological—quite literally woven into the fibers of our being.
Consciousness and Resilience
Consciousness is more than awareness, it is connection to our true self, expressed through body, breath, and presence. In yogic tradition, consciousness is said to flow through the sushumna nadi, a central channel that aligns with the spine. Modern science validates and expands this understanding: consciousness emerges throughout the entire nervous system, fascia included—a living matrix where thoughts, sensations, and emotions converge. When stress arises, the body reflects disconnection: tension, shallow breath, and foggy thoughts signal a break from our core self. Reconnecting begins not in the mind, but in the felt sense of the body. Through breathwork, releasing fascia, and softening areas of holding, we calm the nervous system and return to presence. Each act of attunement—each breath, each softening—is a return to self.
Beyond the Self: Resilience’s Ripple Effect
When we restore connection within, we generate ripples outward. Grounded in somatic awareness, we meet others from presence rather than reactivity. Resilience, then, becomes inherently relational—a field we co-create through conscious interaction. As we respond to life from a regulated, authentic self, we become a stabilizing presence for others. Our relationships shift from tension to trust, and our communities become ecosystems of support. This is where resilience transcends individuality: it becomes systemic. The self attuned to the body creates space for others to attune to theirs. The ripple becomes a wave—a shared field of resilience that moves through families, communities, and beyond.
Rooted Resilience as a Lifelong Practice
In a time of rapid change and upheaval, resilience is no longer a luxury—it is a practice of survival and evolution. The pace of modern life can fracture our attention and shake our stability. But amid this whirlwind, we hold an inner compass: our ability to reclaim body, mind, and spirit—to choose how we respond and who we become. This is the essence our multidimensional approach to Somatic, Spiritual, and Systemic Resilience. Somatic resilience grounds us in the wisdom of the body. Spiritual resilience anchors us in a greater sense of meaning. Systemic resilience reminds us that we are part of a larger whole, inviting us to engage in ways that nourish collective well-being.
Rooted resilience is not about bouncing back; it is about becoming—expanding into life with adaptability, clarity, and care. It is a practice of living from our deepest integrity—so that every choice, every interaction, and every moment of presence contributes not only to our own strength but to the resilience of the world.
Resilience Is the Practice. You Are the Path.
Resilience is not a destination; it is a relationship—with ourselves, with each other, and with the living world. By integrating strength and adaptability across soma, spirit, and system, we cultivate a life of depth and vitality that radiates far beyond the self. The practice of resilience is ongoing. The impact is immeasurable. The time is always now.
Invitation to Go Deeper
If this essay has brought you value and you would like to explore these ideas more fully, and bring them into practice, I warmly welcome you join our community. Paid subscribers on Substack are automatically granted full community member access to our platform, EMUNAH, where we host all of our resources, courses, and embodiment practices that support Somatic, Spiritual, and Systemic resilience.
EMUNAH is a space for community, connection, and practice. Inside, you’ll find:
Embodiment practices that integrate movement, reflection, release, and visioning to support you to metabolize the past, ground into the present, and co-create the future with consciousness.
Practical Wisdom Frameworks to bring clarity and shared language to things that you may already sense intuitively, presented in a format that you can download and share with your closest people, because growth is relational and we integrate best with the people we love.
Office hours and community dialogues where we gather for deeper connection and shared exploration.
It’s a space designed to help you move beyond ideas and into living practice within a supportive community of practice. We would be honored to walk this path with you and look forward to seeing you there.
Beautifully written. Love the clarity and depth. So deeply pleased and grateful to see the work you are doing! Much love.