Reclaim Reflections: Personal Healing in a System Designed for Survival
Breathwork can become a bandaid. A way to push your body into a calm state without actually addressing why it is stuck in activation. Does it have a place? Oh, yes, absolutely. Does it actually impact change long-term and resolve the underlying reason your body is stuck in activation? No, that it does not do. Same with all the other “nervous system regulation” tips and tricks the wellness community wants you to believe will solve all your problems. The problem isn’t the tools themselves.
The problem is when they ignore the conditions that are keeping people dysregulated in the first place.
Here’s the reality…when the very system we live and operate in is oppressive, you cannot “regulate” your way out of an activated state. Capitalism wants us barely surviving. Making JUST enough money to survive, but no more. Having us spinning in this cycle of production, work, doing, going, giving, pushing. Of course you’re burnt out. Of course your system is activated. Of course you’re tired of living in this constant state of survival. That is how the current system we live in is designed.
One of the things the wellness community does so often is make a systemic issue a personal one.
“Just do XYZ and you’ll feel better.”
“Positive thoughts only”
“I do not give my energy to low vibration.”
Yeah…that is a hard pass.
Let me be perfectly clear…the current activation you feel, the survival mode you are likely stuck in, the anger, the sadness, the grief, all of that…it is not some personal failure to be fixed. It is not some problem you need to resolve.
When “nervous system regulation” becomes about bypassing the current reality of our world, it is missing something. Addressing personal without acknowledging the systemic will never lead to collective liberation. Breathwork, tapping, cold plunges, on so on and so on, are all personal tools to calm your body down. But here’s the question…why is your body stuck in activation? What is behind the survival mode? What is it your body is actually needing? Until we can acknowledge the intersection of personal healing with collective change, we will be spinning our wheels.
One cannot exist without the other.
In order to build collective change, each individual needs capacity to do so.
In order to truly increase our capacity, our systems need to support us. Allowing for time to rest, time to create, time to simply look at the beautiful creations all around us.
The intersection.
The questions.
The next right step.
How to hold both truths. How to personally increase our capacity in order to chip away at the systemic oppression. When we work through our personal traumas and our patterns that keep us stuck, we can bring a little more of our authentic selves into the world. A little of my healing to share with your healing. A little of your healing to bring more love to the world. Building capacity while also building change.