Micro-Moments of Safety

For years, when my nervous system was frequently dysregulated, I tried to think my way into feeling better—staying positive, practicing gratitude, being a (grumpy) ray of sunshine. News flash: it didn’t work. My body didn’t feel safer, and I didn’t become more optimistic.

If you live with chronic illness, pain, or long-term stress, you likely know that your body doesn’t feel like a safe place. When your body feels unsafe, the nervous system stays in survival: fight, flight, freeze, fawn, dissociation. These responses are adaptive; they once kept you alive. But living in them constantly is exhausting and can intensify pain and illness.

Through my nervous system training, I learned that safety is the antidote. But what happens when the world isn’t safe—when fascism is rising and your communities are targeted? You know that collective safety doesn’t exist.

Your nervous system doesn’t need total safety to begin regulating and healing. It needs a micro-moment of safety, a brief sensory cue that says, for this moment, I’m not in danger. Sometimes it lasts only one breath. That’s enough to offer your system a foothold. In my work with clients, we practice noticing when vigilance is necessary and when the body has a little more room—while sitting with a pet, a loved one, or within the safety of our sessions. In those moments, we sense and amplify the feeling of safety.

Micro-moments don’t deny reality or erase trauma, but they do interrupt constant threat. Over time, added together, they build capacity and resource, and we're going to need that for the collective resistance long haul.

Try this brief practice:
Let your shoulders drop 5%
Touch a soft texture — a blanket, your clothing, a pet
Listen for a gentle sound (rain, fan noise, soft music)
Place one hand over your heart and feel the weight
Press your feet into the floor for a few seconds
Take one slow exhale

To learn more about my groups or coaching, book a free consult with me today.