How Do We Feel Safe in an Unsafe World?
This world is not safe. Lately, every time I read the news, my stomach sinks. My heart pounds. My hands and feet lose their warmth. I feel like crying and screaming. My grief and anger are immense. The injustice, the hatred, the cowardice—all of it feels abundant.
As a somatic practitioner, it's my mission to help those with overwhelmed nervous systems feel safe in their skin again. But how do we feel safe in a world where safety is not guaranteed? How do we feel safe while stuck in violent systems?
I'm not proposing we gaslight ourselves by doing breathwork and meditation inside a burning building. What I am proposing is that we learn to be fully present with our grief, pain, anger, sadness, heartbreak, and shame so our nervous systems don't stay stuck in trauma response. The reality is that we cannot sustain this fight, this resistance, without resilient nervous systems. We cannot sustain this if we chronically oscillate between expending all our resources and complete exhaustive burnout. Yes, our anger is justified. Yes, our rage is necessary. And if we are unable to express it fully, we will become sick.
In 2024, Dr. Daichi Shimbo of Columbia University and a team of researchers conducted a study on the relationship between anger and cardiovascular health. They found that "over time anger causes long-term vascular damage that has been linked to…hardening of the arteries, a precursor to heart attacks and strokes." Our bodies keep the score.
This is why somatic work rooted in social justice matters so deeply to me. It's an approach grounded in the reality of our world, paired with the truth and wisdom of our bodies. We deserve to feel internal safety even when external chaos pervades. We deserve to move out of survival and into health and expanded capacity. And we deserve to feel all of our justified fear, grief, and anger. I believe we can build a world free from the weight of oppression. My gut tells me it starts with us.
I am right there with you. Being a sensitive soul in this world is exhausting. Sometimes dissociation is your body's only option when feeling becomes too much. But that same sensitivity is also your medicine, your strength. You've survived life's depths before. You will again. It's okay to slow down and tend to what's overtaxed and undernourished.
What does sustainable resistance actually look like? It means noticing when your heart pounds reading the news, then pausing to let your nervous system complete its cycle rather than immediately refreshing the feed. It's recognizing when your jaw clenches in justified rage, and giving yourself permission to physically release it—through movement, sound, shaking—before it calcifies into chronic tension. These aren't distractions from the work. They're essential maintenance that allows us to keep showing up without burning out. When we tend to our bodies' needs alongside our values, we build the stamina this movement requires.
We cannot do this work alone. Our nervous systems are designed to co-regulate with others—to find safety in community, to discharge trauma through connection, to build capacity together. This is why healing is inherently political. As therapist Linda Thai reminds us, "Healing is political because politics decides who has access to time, space, permission, protection, and resources." When we gather to tend our bodies, validate our rage, and practice feeling safe together, we're not retreating from the fight. We're building the collective resilience that sustains it.
This is what I'm creating space for. "Safe in Your Skin: A Somatic Course for Overwhelmed Bodies" is a free, three-week offering where we'll practice exactly this—moving emotions through our bodies, expanding our capacity to feel what we're rightfully feeling, and doing it together. Because you deserve support. You deserve to stop white-knuckling your way through this. You deserve community that holds both your tenderness and your rage.
Join me Sundays, February 1st, 8th, and 15th from 5-6:15pm, live via Google Meet.
Written by Abby Lopac, LMT, CMLD, Somatic Practitioner
References
“Why Anger is Bad for Your Heart” By Robin Lally
