Your Body Knows: Making Sense of Fight, Flight &Freeze in BIPOC Healing
What if your anxiety, numbness, or constant exhaustion weren’t signs that something is
wrong with you, but signs that your body has been doing its best to keep you safe?
For many Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, our bodies hold not just our own
stress and trauma, but also generations of survival. Our nervous systems carry the
weight of personal experiences, family struggles, and collective histories, stories that
are often felt more than they’re spoken.
When we react with fight, flight, or freeze, it’s not because we’re weak or broken. It’s
because our body remembers. It’s because our body is wise.
Making Sense of Trauma
Let’s be real: a lot of the pain we carry didn’t start with us. Many of us have been living
in survival mode for a long time, because we’ve had to. We’ve grown up in families and
systems shaped by colonization, racism, displacement, violence, and economic
hardship. And our bodies learned to adapt to that.
What this means is that being “on edge,” quick to anger, always alert, or feeling
emotionally numb these aren’t personality flaws. They’re survival skills.
Instead of asking ourselves, “What’s wrong with me?”we can start asking, “What
happened that made my body feel like it had to protect me this way?”
Healing starts when we stop judging our reactions and start listening to them.
Your Nervous System Is Always Listening
There’s a part of your body, your nervous system, that’s always scanning your
surroundings, asking: “Am I safe?”
If the answer is yes, you feel calm and connected. If the answer is no (even if you don’t
know why), your body responds in one of three ways:
Fight – You might feel tense, irritable, angry, or ready to defend yourself.
Flight – You may feel anxious, restless, or like you have to “do something” to stay
ahead of danger.
Freeze – You might feel shut down, disconnected, foggy, or numb.
These responses are not flaws. They are your body doing its job especially in a world
that hasn’t always felt safe for BIPOC folks.
Why BIPOC Bodies Stay in Survival Mode
The truth is, many of us live in a world where we rarely get to feel fully safe. Whether it’s
racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism or the layered weight of all of these
our nervous systems don’t always get the message that the danger has passed.
Being the “only one” in a space. Navigating healthcare or school systems that don’t see
you. Carrying family trauma. Feeling invisible. Feeling watched. Being expected to push
through. These all send signals to your nervous system that you need to stay on guard.
So if you find yourself always bracing, always scanning the room, or feeling shut down
it’s not because you’re failing. It’s because your nervous system is protecting you the
only way it knows how.
Regulation Isn’t Control. It’s Care
Nervous system regulation isn’t about forcing yourself to be calm. It’s not about
pretending you’re okay when you’re not.
It’s about meeting your body where it is and giving it what it needs to come back to a
place of safety, even just a little bit at a time.
Here are some starting points:
If You’re in Fight or Flight (anxious, restless, on edge):
Breathe low and slow. Inhale gently for 4 counts, exhale for 6.
Ground yourself. Press your feet into the floor. Hold a warm cup or feel the texture of
your clothes.
Name what’s happening. “I feel tight in my chest. My thoughts are racing.” Naming
brings awareness.
Move intentionally. Take a walk, stretch your body, or dance to music that connects
you to your culture or joy.
If You’re in Freeze (numb, shut down, foggy):
Move slowly. Wiggle your fingers or toes. Rock gently. Stretch your arms.
Re-orient. Look around your space. Notice five things you can see or feel.
Connect. Call or sit with someone safe. Let your body feel the presence of someone
who sees you.
Offer touch. Wrap yourself in a blanket or place your hand over your heart and breathe
into it.
Returning to What Our Communities Already Knew
Before anyone used the words “nervous system” or “trauma-informed,” our communities
already had practices for healing. We sang. We prayed. We gathered. We told stories.
We moved together. We sat in silence or in ceremony. These aren’t just traditions.
They’re tools.
Regulation isn’t just something you learn in therapy it’s something many of our
ancestors already knew how to do. Our work now is to remember and reclaim those
ways.
You’re Not Alone in This
Healing is not a straight path. It’s not fast, and it doesn’t always feel good at first. But
you deserve care that meets you where you are.
If your nervous system feels stuck, that doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means your body
has been trying to keep you safe. And now, it might be ready to learn a new way.
Working with a therapist who understands your lived experience can help but so can
finding practices that feel true to you. Safety can begin with small moments. With
breath. With presence. With rest.
You Deserve Rest. You Deserve Safety. You Deserve Healing.
Your body has carried so much. And it’s still here, still speaking to you.
Let it know: You don’t have to fight forever.
Let it feel: You are allowed to rest.
Let it believe: You are already worthy of healing, just as you are.
Healing is possible, and you deserve care that honors all of who you are.
If you’re curious about what this support could look like, you can request a free
