These aren’t hot takes. They’re lived truths.

Disabled bodies have always been doing the work of adaptation, listening, pacing, and recalibration— the very things healing spaces claim to value, while often structuring themselves to exclude us.

Co-regulation is a nervous-system process, not just proximity. It’s what happens when bodies settle together through safety, presence, and attunement. When breath slows in response to another’s steadiness. When being witnessed doesn’t escalate the charge, but helps metabolize it. During times of collective upheaval, many of us reach for connection- but this is where a quiet confusion often takes hold.

Healing can feel like a loaded word for those disabled and navigating chronic health. Ongoing states of exhaustion and pain activate our nervous system, heighten isolation, and darken our mind and emotions. And, it can be overwhelming to find the energy and ability to build healing practices and routines. 

Healing and spirituality are so often thought of as ascending above something. The danger is ascending above others as a hierarchy develops in the form of self care at the expense of others, selective care- who is and isn't worthy of it, and consumer based notions of healing and wellness afforded to few.

To truly witness the world, you have to root yourself deeply in the discipline of hope. It is not an easy practice. What we are witnessing in our communities and the world is a heavy and ongoing load. Especially when also being directly impacted. But rooting in hope can help us honor our full spectrum of emotions, while moving us to action.

There is a critical gap in how somatic healing and nervous system regulation are often framed in healing spaces. Many dominant models of trauma and nervous system care emphasize "too much." Too much stress, too much stimulation, too much overwhelm- bypassing what manifests as "not enough." Not enough safety, not enough rest, not enough recognition, resources, or rights.