Activation

Over the last several weeks of my online class series (Monday evenings at 7pm CT), we’ve been exploring the idea of Building Resilience in Challenging Times through the themes of forgiveness, grounding, and balance. Each of those offers a foundation of safety so that we can confidently and responsibly explore activation.

Activation is most effective when it starts from neutral. That’s why those earlier practices matter. They tether us back to a baseline. Without it, activation can be messy, unpredictable, and tangled up in old patterns that are easy for our systems to recall.

Think about the nervous system: once activated, it has inertia. If we’re not paying attention, unhelpful patterns pop up. In movement, that might look like lifting with poor form and getting hurt, “throwing out” your back because of disorganization, or collapsing into a slumped posture from being in front of a computer too much.

But activation isn’t only about the body - it's also about the world. And we're seeing a lot of it these days. Protest, volunteerism, ingenuity, conversation, strategy: all of these are forms of collective activation. And like in the body, it takes more than habit. It takes intention and attention.

When nervous systems regulate with intention together, we get successful organizing. I think about the critiques of large protests like the recent No Kings march. I understand the shade: what did it change? What happens after the march? Where were the demands? I’ve asked those questions myself, after thousands of doors knocked, calls made, trainings held, even arrests risked.

But here’s the thing: when I teach someone a new movement, I remind them to start small, without ambition. It’s not about a big dramatic gesture. It’s about feeling the activation first. Sometimes being in a sea of people is that first little brush of activation; an awakening, a glimpse of the muscle’s capability.

Maybe not everyone at a march will keep going. But some will. Some will volunteer, join their local community, or even run for office. And that’s more than would have happened if there were no activation at all.

Just like in somatic practice, until we unblock those layers of tension and let ourselves feel a simple activation, we'll never find our full strength. Activation, whether in the body or in the world, isn’t about perfection. It’s about beginning, returning to neutral, and trying again - again and again.