The way we conduct politics threatens our safety, belonging, and dignity. In this episode, Staci Haines helps us understand these threats and our reactions to them. She provides a somatic framework for understanding how we can move beyond that reactivity toward a new type of engagement that is grounded in our values and aligned with what we hope for this world.

In this episode, Staci and I discuss:

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• How our families, communities, and society influence the way we understand the rules of engagement for the political sphere
  
  
• What somatics is and how it provides a pathway for change and the individual and collective level
  
  
• Our inherent need for safety, dignity, and belonging and how politics threatens all three
  
  
• What fight, flight, freeze, appease, and dissociate look like in a political context
  
  
• How somatic awareness, releasing past trauma, and building new practices can move us beyond reactivity
  
  
• Why relieving tension is not the goal of healing or political engagement
  
  
• The inherent connection between individual and social healing
  

Spiritual Practices for this Election Season from Staci:

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• Somatic Centering for Political Engagement (Video Practice)
  
  
• Politics and Trauma 2.0 Online Course
  
  
• Free SomaSJ Practice community
  

See our page on Spiritual Practices for Political Engagement for offerings from all our guests.

Connect with Staci on her website or through instagram @stacikhaines.

Connect with me at katie@thiselection.org or on instagram @katie.m.cochran.

The post Politics and Trauma: Moving Beyond Reactivity with Staci Haines appeared first on This Election.