The Activism of Nervous System Regulation
Because my fear and panic do not foster liberation for all
Violence is going viral
”allies” fight fire with fire
flames travel far with fearful winds
beyond borders, ideologies and sides
across our inflamed earth
this fire burns us all.
Perhaps at the root of war, the root of imperialism, the root of human violence is…
Fear.
Fear causes me to for-bode joy, to resent people I adore, to withhold my love and authenticity, to limit my world in cages of oppressive stories and realities. Fear causes humans to do some wild, crazy, absurd things…from avoiding or mistreating people we love to killing people en masse who we don’t understand.
Panic is often how I, and we as humans, deal with fear. Panic has its righteous purpose to keep us alive; it can quickly get us out of dangerous situations. We need it like we need the stress hormone cortisol to help our bodies maintain blood pressure, immune function and anti-inflammatory processes. Panic can move us to action against the inflammations of injustice and violence.
Panic can look graceful and calm, defensive, hyperactive, over-productive or unable to be still, or the opposite: hypoactive, paralyzed, numb, shut down or immobilized. It can make us hypersensitive, distracted or avoidant. It can move us to shame or blame ourselves and/or others. It causes us to feel scarce with resources, even if/when resources are sufficient. Fundamentally, it makes us unable to listen to one another without inserting assumptions, judgments and stories, or reductive binaries (good or bad, black or white, right or wrong).
Yet, when panic is persistent and chronic, and when dangerously inhumane, catastrophic situations go on and spread like wild flames across the globe- despite our activism and resistance and movements- relying on panic to carry us forward f*cks us over even more (like being hit by a second arrow), and the panic fuels even more panic and suffering.
Being in panic is not “bad” or “wrong”
Our bodies get dysregulated when shit is dysregulating! When there’s a lot of stimuli on the planet to fear (and even when the perceived stimuli isn’t true but the fear feels very real), fear is so human.
Experiencing states of rage, grief, debilitating confusion, anxious hyperactivity, numbness, are all natural and even wise. As Jiddu Krishnamurti said, “it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” Fear and panic can be a healthy response to the violence of domination and separation (from ourselves, from our lineages and cultures, from one another, from the land, from a sense of possibility). It can move us to action quickly.
At the same time, panic is not evolutionarily meant to leave space for much else. When we are chronically in the survival mode of panic, there’s no sense of time or capacity for the heart medicine. In this state of panic, we are not wired for the rest, the physical and energetic digestion, and the deep listening, love and compassion that’s especially needed from us in these times.
Yet, I’ve been told explicitly and I see messages going viral on social media that “we ought to be enraged” and “we ought to be fighting.” Rage and fight responses are natural, as natural as panic is in the face of threat. But to put this on others see this response as the signal of care or “right” activism is to moralize and glorify the panic.
When dysregulation is moralized or reinforced, expected or sought out as a virtue of solidarity, it’s easy to view the priority to regulate one’s nervous system as selfish, indulgent, irrelevant or even complicit.
Being regulated is not necessarily condoning the dysfunction of society. Being regulated is not necessarily being uncaring, unaffected or immune to the violence and suffering. But how can we expect to steward- from our dysregulated nervous systems- a New Earth that’s wholly different from the one built by dysregulated nervous systems?
I, and we, disrupt the cycles of multigenerational trauma each time I/we actively tend to our nervous systems.
When war, genocide, occupation, apartheid, reinforced cycles of trauma are truly far beyond logical understanding, I turn to my body, to our bodies, to the body of earth for regulation, sustainability, coexistence.
When I engage in the activism of tending to my and our body’s nervous system(s), I access heart wisdom and my/our ability to let go a little bit more of the controlling ego. I let all of what’s present belong, I can better let myself and others belong- despite our differences of opinion, experience and stance.
…And I don’t always, or even often enough. There have been many times when I’ve resorted to outwardly yelling, trying to dominate a conversation with my “right” opinions, or silently built walls between me and another through my judgements of our disagreement. But when I recognize it’s more to do with my own nervous system than the others’ “wrong” opinions, I’m in a better position to access and offer freedom and connection.
When we engage in the activism of tending to our nervous systems, we access the possibilities of coexistence. Liberation is coexistence. Coexistence is not apartheid, war or genocide. Coexistence is not separation or domination. It’s the coexistence that I long for in a Free Palestine, which to me is a freedom for everyone on the lands known as Palestine and Israel, and Myanmar, Iran, Congo, Kashmir +++. It’s a freedom of all oppressed people and beings in this world, and a freedom from the confines of our egoic minds that fuel panic, separation and domination.
So I practice the activism of regulating my nervous system and showing up, which are mutually inclusive.
I have the privilege to regulate my nervous system with the space, safety and tools I have, and I will use this privilege to sustainably contribute in the ways I can from a rippling felt sense in my body to a collective reality of liberation for all.
Sometimes regulating my nervous system looks like making more calls to my congressional representatives, expanding my education and awareness, speaking AND listening in difficult conversations.
It’s letting go the tendency to dominate or control how others behave or think. It’s offering a perspective, even if I don’t change anyone’s mind. It’s letting myself feel protected in my echo chambers AND stretching out of them as often as I can in curiosity and humility. It’s acknowledging my fears and resentments so that I can be more present with my relations.
Sometimes regulating my nervous system is disengaging from spaces (and platforms like instagram and tiktok) where panic is moralized or reinforced. It's prioritizing connections with those I can make eye contact with. It's chanting, yelling, singing, crying, laughing, celebrating, grieving, shaking my body with more bodies.
It looks like being in ever-inquiry and letting myself and others NOT have answers to what is so complex, so human, tender and deeply tragic at the same time. It’s savoring extra minutes in savasana, and letting the reminder sink in that we’re all figuring life out on the planet right now and no human actually has panaceas for any of it.
Regulating my nervous system looks like slowing down, which can be judged as indulgent or unproductive in the urgent, capitalist culture so many of us are seeped in. Yet I ground myself in my body, I tend to my and our nerves, I keep doing what I/we can today and I let it be so, until tomorrow.
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