When you think about emergency preparedness, what do you often imagine? Checklists, supplies, evacuation routes, and contingency plans? All of these matter, and are in fact essentials especially when it comes to being prepared in the age of climate crisis.
But there is another element that determines whether those plans are actually usable in a moment of crisis: the state of your nervous system.
As someone who is prone to anxiety and panic attacks more often than I’d like to admit, when I started to focus on regulating my nervous system, I realize one thing: self-regulation is a muscle that needs to be built.
Panic clouds judgment. Freeze delays action. Dissociation disconnects us from our surroundings. Presence, on the other hand, creates options.
Grounding is not about being calm for the sake of calm. It is about reclaiming decision-making power when conditions are uncertain. And in a world shaped by climate disruption, that ability is a survival skill than can build your resilience to climate crisis.
Panic Is a Body Response, Not a Personal Failure
Even as someone who teaches grounding, embodiment, and wellness, I still experience anxiety and dissociative freeze responses. In fact, this is why I teach them! I am not exempt from this work, I need this work. With being in both the wellness and climate change spaces, I realized that many of us need this work more than we realize.
From a personal lens, there are moments when the weight of climate news, personal stress, and systemic instability all converge. My mind goes foggy. My body feels heavy or distant. Decision-making becomes difficult. I know what I “should” do, but my system doesn’t feel ready to move.
What has changed over time is not that these responses disappeared. It’s that I learned how to meet them.
Through therapy, self-study, prayer, and training in Reiki, acupressure, breathwork, and meditation, I’ve learned how to recognize when my nervous system is slipping into freeze. I’ve learned how to gently bring myself back into my body.
Not perfectly. Not instantly. But consistently enough to witness how I’m beginning to move myself from panic to presence, from fog to clarity, from stuckness to one small, grounded action.
That shift, even when it’s subtle, changes everything.
Why Grounding Is Emergency Readiness
During a climate-related emergency, information comes quickly. Conditions change. People are asked to make decisions under pressure.
When the nervous system is overwhelmed, the brain prioritizes survival reflexes over reasoning. This can look like:
- Forgetting where supplies are stored
- Struggling to follow instructions
- Delaying evacuation
- Becoming reactive or shut down in group settings
Grounding practices help stabilize the nervous system so the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for planning and decision-making, can come back online.
Grounding doesn’t remove fear. It creates enough internal stability to respond with intention rather than reflex.
In this way, grounding is not separate from preparedness. In fact, it is the consistent practice of grounding before disaster strikes that allows preparedness to function before, during and after a crisis.
Before, During, and After Crisis
Grounding practices support climate resilience across three critical phases.
Before a Crisis
Grounding builds familiarity with your body’s signals. You learn how stress shows up for you and how to intervene early. This increases your capacity to prepare without becoming overwhelmed. It allows planning to come from a sense of awareness and care rather than panic.
During a Crisis
When disruption occurs, grounding helps you orient to the present moment. It supports clearer thinking, better communication, and safer decision-making. Even brief practices can help regulate the nervous system enough to take the next necessary step.
After a Crisis
Post-event stress can linger in the body. Grounding supports integration, recovery, and the processing of grief or shock. It can help to prevent long-term burnout, decrease the onset of PTSD, and supports communal healing.
Resilience is not just about surviving the moment. It’s about remaining resourced enough to rebuild.
Grounding as a Path from Freeze to Action
One of the most common responses I see, in myself and others, is freeze. Freeze doesn’t mean someone doesn’t care. It often means the system is overloaded.
Grounding creates a bridge out of freeze by reestablishing a sense of safety and agency in the body.
Here is a simple grounding sequence I use when I feel myself shutting down:
- Orient: Name five things you can see in your immediate environment.
- Anchor: Place your feet firmly on the ground and press them down gently.
- Breathe: Take slow breaths with longer exhales, signaling safety to the nervous system.
- Name Choice: Ask, “What is one small action I can take right now?”
This might lead to drinking water, checking in with someone, reviewing a plan, or stepping outside for fresh air. Small actions rebuild momentum. Momentum rebuilds confidence.
Presence doesn’t mean having all the answers. It means being available to respond.
Wellness Is Not an Escape from Reality
There is a misconception that wellness practices are about avoidance or comfort. In the context of climate resilience, the opposite is true.
Wellness practices help us stay with reality without being consumed by it. They allow us to remain embodied in moments that would otherwise push us into panic or numbness.
Grounding supports creativity, collaboration, and imagination. These are not luxuries. They are essential tools for navigating uncertainty and rebuilding after disruption.
Our ancestors understood this. Ritual, breath, movement, and connection to land were always part of survival.
Practicing Together
This work is not meant to be done alone.
In my work with individuals and groups, I focus on helping people build embodied resilience that supports both emotional regulation and practical preparedness. Through eco-wellness coaching, we explore grounding practices, nervous system literacy, and climate resilience skills in a way that is trauma-informed, accessible, and rooted in care.
Whether in one-on-one sessions or group workshops, the goal is the same: to help people feel more present, capable, and connected in the face of change.
You don’t need to eliminate anxiety to be resilient. You need tools to work with it.
Moving Forward with Presence
Climate disruption asks a lot of us. It asks us to stay present in moments that are frightening, uncertain, and emotionally complex.
Grounding is how we stay here.
It is how we move from panic to presence. From freeze to action. From isolation to collaboration.
And it is something we can learn, practice, and strengthen together.
If you’re interested in building personalized embodied climate resilience through grounding, preparedness, and eco-wellness practices, I invite you to explore working with me one-on-one or in a group setting.
This work is about showing up, imperfectly but intentionally, for ourselves, our communities, and the future we are still shaping.
References
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2017). Understanding the impact of trauma. In Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services. National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191/
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2017). Behavioral health – Healthy, resilient, and sustainable communities after disasters. In Strengthening the Disaster Resilience of the Academic Biomedical Research Community: Protecting the Nation’s Investment. National Academies Press. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK316541/
Columbus Care Center. (2026, January 5). How grounding techniques support dissociation treatment. https://columbuscarecenter.com/2026/01/05/how-grounding-techniques-support-dissociation-treatment/
