Our bodies prefer nourishment.

Take a step back and ask yourself, "How do I want to feel?"

Most of us are fluent in what we don’t want — feelings like pain, stress, loneliness, and fear. But as a society, we’re less fluent in what we do want, because we don’t tend to spend much time there.

Regardless of circumstance or culture, humans share the desire to feel safe, joyful, and connected — one mode of the total mind-body experience we call somatic state.

Despite our society’s unprecedented material wealth, our states are trending in the wrong direction. But they don’t have to.

A continuum between two modes.

At any given moment, our bodies fall somewhere between reactive and nourished. This somatic state drives how we show up across the key areas of our life.

Mode One

Reactive

Defensive, anxious, closed off.

Mode Two

Nourished

Safe, joyful, connected.

  • Reactive

    We feel unsettled. Common physical effects include tight chest, shallow breathing, clenched jaw, blocked digestion and reproductive function, light-headedness, racing heart, high blood pressure, cold hands and feet, pain, and general illness. Sleep suffers, healing decreases, and we feel out of control.

    Nourished

    We feel at peace. Common physical effects include good circulation and blood pressure, deep breathing, relaxed heart rate, strong and flexible muscles, easy digestion and reproductive function, fast immune response, and low levels of pain and inflammation. Sleep is regular, healing is fast, and we feel grounded.

  • Reactive

    Relationships suffer. We don’t feel like we’re showing up like we want to. Conversations go sideways, conflict escalates, and we feel lonely. Small disagreements grow big over time, and reset is difficult to impossible.

    Nourished

    Relationships deepen. We feel like we’re both authentic and there for the people we care about. Conversations are natural and collaborative, we avoid unnecessary conflict, and we feel connected. When things go sideways, we can repair them.

  • Reactive

    Urgency dominates. We feel like work is being done to us, not created by us. Survival and prestige drive motivation. Money is scarce, regardless of whether we’re living paycheck to paycheck or in our third home. Success is zero-sum, winning is a high, and purpose is sidelined or subordinated.

    Nourished

    Contribution anchors. Work is an extension of our deeply-rooted passion. We are motivated by compassion and curiosity. Money is a byproduct and a tool, not an identity. Success comes from harmonizing our purpose with the world around us, and service replaces winning as our kick.

  • Reactive

    We are cynical. We are right, our enemies are wrong. Anything beyond “I” doesn’t exist, so we must defend “I” at all costs. The world is out to get us and our tribe. Compassion is weakness, domination is strength. Money and status are ends unto themselves. We are a target and always will be, so fortification is a must.

    Nourished

    We have faith. We can hold our beliefs while appreciating those of others, especially our enemies. “I” is a temporary vessel, not an immortal fact. The world is all figuring it out together. Compassion is strength, domination is counterproductive. Money and status are means held at arm’s length. Separateness is a limiting strategy.

  • Reactive

    We are in reaction. Small things — seeing the news, checking our bank account, catching a glimpse in the mirror, a tense interaction, noticing someone else’s stuff — can send us in a spiral. We often pursue short-term highs — like unhealthy food, altering substances, unnecessary shopping, status competition, and doomscrolling — in an attempt to find balance. We’re often anxious, angry, or resigned. The world feels like it’s shrinking.

    Nourished

    We are nourished. We start to notice that the things that used to trigger us are beginning to lose their grip. We know what it feels like to be settled, and can start to create that feeling. We begin to outgrow our escapism and develop new habits — like healthy eating, meaningful connections, material discipline, meditation, learning, and exercise guided by the body, not status. We are joyful, settled, and inspired. The world is full of possibility.

How somatic state works.

  • It’s rooted in the body, starting with the nervous system.

    Somatic state is not a mere thought or mood — it’s a well-documented phenomenon that emerges from how the body detects threat. It is directly observable, both scientifically (heart rate variability, breathing rate, hormone levels, vagal tone) and experientially (whether or not we feel grounded).

    At the highest level, this threat-detection system involves interaction between the autonomic nervous system that controls the body’s involuntary functions, the hormones in our blood that weight our priorities (especially the stress hormone cortisol), and the brain’s limbic system that classifies danger.

  • It’s both a snapshot and a baseline, and we can learn to shape both.

    At any given point in time, our somatic state emerges from our body’s overall baseline level of reactivity and the stimuli in our immediate environment. In the modern world, our baselines are constantly assaulted, with intrusive technology, rapid change, an avalanche of advertising, unhealthy food, and altering substances adding to large amounts of already unprocessed trauma.

    However, we can shape our state both in the moment (most effectively through breath and other forms of physical grounding) and over our long-term baseline (by retraining our bodies and minds about what constitutes a threat).

  • It both creates and is created by feedback loops.

    Until we learn how to work with our bodies and minds, our somatic state is largely something that is done unto us. For instance, if we live in a highly reactive society (which we do), we are far more likely to become reactive. This reactivity itself becomes self-fulfilling — we might struggle to find connection, doomscroll to unwind, eat junk food to calm ourselves, then vote for reactive politicians to fix a world that appears out of control.

    However, once our our baseline somatic state is more nourished, we naturally gravitate to activities that nourish us further, like slow and healthy food, meaningful connections, and time in nature. This shift then leads us to both attract and seek out others pursuing a similar somactic state.

Resources that nourish somatic state.

  • The Body

    Somatic state arises from the body, and nourishing the body comes from mindful consumption — whether of information, entertainment, time, food, shelter, or discretionary spending.

  • Community

    Humans require relation to other humans to feel safe, and to feel that their lives have purpose. A healthy community is just that: a web of relationships that both have and create meaning.

  • The Earth

    At a fundamental level, without earth, there can be no body or community. At a more immediate level, being in relation to nature settles our somatic state. Disconnecting from it has the opposite effect.

  • Meaning

    Humans are fundamentally opposed to the idea that our lives are meaningless. While we create meaning through relationships, the most nourished somatic state requires reconciling the question of “Why are we here?”

Practice cultivates somatic state.

Somatic state is done to us, unless we set out to create it proactively.

But, because it is so deeply rooted in the programming of our bodies and minds, retraining our baseline somatic state is a continual process, not a quick fix.

We build containers for people who are curious about whether there’s a different track than the one we all seem to be on. Because for both individual humans and groups of humans, there is.

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