This practice offers a simple, embodied way to understand and navigate stress in these contexts. It introduces the basic physiological stress responses - fight, flight, freeze, and appease - and explores how these responses show up in the body. By recognising the signals in ourselves and in others, we can begin to bring more awareness, choice and shared language to how we respond under pressure.
At Ulex, we think about resilience as something that exists across multiple layers: personal, interpersonal, social, and movement-level. Organisers working for social and ecological change often operate under significant pressure - whether through direct action, confronting issues that deeply affect their communities, or navigating the complexities of working together in groups. Campaigns around housing, environmental protection, or local development can carry emotional weight and sometimes real threats to wellbeing. On top of this, collective work inevitably brings group dynamics, conflict, and the challenge of sustaining collaboration over time.
The practice includes a few accessible regulation tools such as grounding, centering, tapping, and other embodiment exercises. These small practices help widen our “window of tolerance,” allowing us to move out of narrow or reactive stress states and return to a more resourced place. Reflective prompts invite participants to consider how these insights might shape them personally and the culture of the groups they organise with.
Over time, this approach builds a shared language for recognising stress responses and supporting one another. It strengthens both self-regulation and co-regulation within groups, helping organisers stay engaged for the long term. By bringing care and awareness into how we respond to pressure, groups can collaborate more creatively and avoid replicating the patterns of stress and oppression that many movements seek to transform.
Join the event
Psycho-Social Resilience: Nervous System Regulation for Organising and Collective Work
May 14th, 16:00 - 17:30 UTC
Diving deeper
Integral Activist Training - offered by ULEX - Change is multi-layered. The social field, our organisational cultures, and the individuals within them arise in mutual dependence upon each other. Integral Activist Training supports integrated transformation on all of these levels
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Opportunities to keep connected and learn more
Connect to Ilaj - ilaj@ulexproject.org
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You can Register Here - https://practise.transitionnetwork.org/day-of-transition-practise-2026-full-programme/
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