Why federal employees need more than resilience—they need recovery.

Meditate on Your Body Instead of Your Mind
Why federal employees need more than resilience—they need recovery.

“Meditate on your body instead of your mind.” That phrase, shared by somatic experiencing pioneer Dr. Peter Levine, landed in my nervous system like a revelation.

As someone who has spent years navigating the unpredictable terrain of federal service—and now works with others through somatic practices like Kundalini Activation Process (KAP)—I’ve come to understand just how much our bodies know before our minds catch up.

Federal employees are no strangers to stress. We operate in systems that demand adaptability, reward endurance, and rarely give space to process. But over the last year—amid downsizing, reorgs, budget freezes, and leadership churn—I’ve seen a deeper, more insidious pattern emerge: collective trauma.

This trauma doesn’t always show up with a single event. It builds over time in environments where change is constant but communication is vague. Where your job feels like it could disappear overnight. Where you’re expected to be calm, clear-headed, and “professional” even as your foundation shakes beneath you.

And here’s the hard truth: many of us have been surviving, not thriving.

We push through. We compartmentalize. We make it work.

But our bodies keep the score.

I see it in colleagues who can’t sleep anymore. In the weight of decision fatigue. In the hypervigilance that doesn’t fade—even after the Teams meeting ends.

In my somatic work, I often guide people back to the body—to sensations, breath, and internal rhythms that don’t rely on cognitive explanation. Practices like KAP aren’t about performance or productivity. They’re about presence. About reconnection. About remembering that we are human beings, not just human doings.

That’s why I created a short, anonymous survey to gather the human side of federal restructuring and workforce instability. Not the policies. Not the press releases. The lived experience. The toll. The truth.

If you’re a current or former federal employee who’s been impacted—directly or indirectly—I invite you to share your story. You don’t need to write a novel. You just need to be real.

Take the survey here: https://blocksurvey.io/the-human-experience-of-federal-downsizing-J57nY7p2ROin2y85pGHyJQ

Let’s honor the whole story.

Let’s bring our bodies back into the conversation.

Because surviving isn’t the same as being okay.
And healing begins with being heard.