01/29/2026
rolfingseattle.net
Our poor eyes and bodies have been inundated with the terror which is unfolding in Minneapolis and elsewhere. After witnessing such cruelty and banal violence over and over on social media, be careful.
Careful with your nervous system and body, for even though it is from a video feed, your body will still react in all the ways that you would had you seen it in person. Because of this, your sympathetic stress response is activated . . . repeatedly.
Our nervous systems are not meant for this. They are meant for activation, and subsequent resolution and restoration. Don’t forget the latter.
If you find yourself taking action, wanting justice, wonderful. Just don’t forget to soothe your soul, soma and psyche.
One way you can do this is to seek out beauty.
Beauty can be found everywhere. Beauty can be different for everyone.
For me, it can be found in nature. Lately I find it in the rhythms and undulations of water, as well as the shimmering green tips of branches budding in early Spring.
After seeing an act of violence, seek out beauty.
Beauty is the antithesis of terror, the opposite of oppression.
Beauty lowers heart rate, blood pressure and tension.
Being in awe of beauty helps lower the activation of the HPA axis. The hypothalamic-pituitary-Adrenal axis. This is the gas pedal for your body’s stress response.
Beauty helps us find a more relaxed and soothing parasympathetic space and place.
Take good care of yourself during this time. You are worthy of self care, self soothing.
Beauty is all around us. Seek it out often.
Your body will be eternally grateful if you do.
