Embodied resilience
“Our bodies have answers to questions that we don’t know how to ask.”
- Katherine May
What is embodied resilience?
Embodied resilience is a trauma-informed, somatic approach to real-time stress navigation. It is based on The Resilience Toolkit developed by Lumos Transforms.
Embodied resilience expands your internal capacity to navigate challenges without getting overwhelmed, burning out or checking out.
‘Resilience’ is a complicated word
Resilience is often understood as the individual ability to bounce back from adversity.
This doesn’t recognise that adversity, stress, trauma and oppression are highly unevenly distributed across society.
Embodied resilience reframes resilience as inherently collective and systemic.
It’s not about becoming better at ‘managing’ stress, but instead the focus is on strengthening our collective capacity to create a world that includes all of us.
What participants have said
What does it look like in practice?
Embodied resilience is a multi-modal approach that combines body-based practices, scientific models, systemic frameworks and peer reflection.
It helps you understand how stress and resilience manifests at the individual and collective level and teaches you how to navigate stress in real time.
The practices are simple, portable and adaptable and can be done anywhere in under 2 minutes.
Some of the embodied practices include optional gentle physical movement, which can be adapted to your body or entirely visualised.
What are the benefits?
Embodied resilience offers benefits at the individual and collective level simultaneously. These expand the more you practise. The capacity you develop builds the foundation not only for individual healing but for collective transformation.
Individual benefits
Through regular individual practice, you will learn how to:
Identify your stress level in real time
Discern whether that level of stress is helpful to the situation you’re in
De-escalate your stress response using a range of practices if it’s safe to do so
Access more internal safety and stability to change or leave the conditions that are causing your stress in the first place
Building your internal capacity helps you to:
Notice your own boundaries and limitations before they have been crossed, which prevents burnout
Stay socially connected to others even and especially when under pressure, which prevents isolation
Respond to situations in ways that are in line with your values, which builds integrity
Communicate with more emotional clarity and presence, which prevents misunderstandings and conflict
Give and receive feedback with clarity and care, which deepens relationships and improves wellbeing
Collective benefits
Through regular collective practice, you will increase your capacity to:
Build trust, integrity and leadership through authentic connection
Strengthen relationships and collaborations by knowing your capacity and how to read other people’s stress responses
Align everyday behaviours with your guiding values by having greater awareness of and choice over your default habits
Deepen learning and understanding by being able to fully listen to each other
Navigate tension and conflict in ways that preserve rather than rupture relationships by staying present in the moment
Make sound strategic decisions that are aligned with your values, capacity and vision
Expand creativity and imagination by increasing your capacity for ideas, learning and connection
What’s the methodology?
Embodied resilience is a multi-modal approach based on The Resilience Toolkit. It combines the following cognitive and embodied elements:
Body-based practices
Simple, portable and adaptable exercises that can be practised anywhere and in under 2 minutes to help the body de-escalate its stress response when it’s safe to do so.
Systemic frameworks
Designed to help you put your own experience into a wider systemic context and illuminate the connection between personal embodied practice and collective action.
Scientific models
Drawing on models from neuroscience, ethology, psychology to illustrate how stress manifests in the body, mind and emotions and how our survival responses are shaped by the conditions around us.
Peer learning
Learning, reflecting, co-regulating and building community with people who share similar questions are central for expanding individual and collective capacity and resilience.
Trauma-informed facilitation
Trauma often occurs when people have no choice. Agency, care and collaboration are central. Everything we do is invitational, so you can choose what works for you and let go what doesn’t.
How can I learn embodied resilience skills?
There are different ways in which you can learn embodied resilience with me:
As a team
Through a 12-week practice-based programme that teaches you the foundations of embodied resilience and helps you embed it into your team culture.
In a peer group
Through a 12-week practice-based programme with a group of peers who are applying embodied resilience in different contexts.
1-to-1
Through a deeply tailored approach that meets you in your specific context, helps you explore your history with stress and trauma and provides additional safety.