What It Means to be Resilient

What we're witnessing in Gaza, across Palestine, and numerous other colonized areas in the world is a form of survival forced on people who should not have to prove their strength through relentless adversity. Resilience is often described as the ability to bend without breaking, to adapt and endure through hardship. Yet resilience is not meant to be the endless capacity to withstand suffering. 

Resilience should serve in reclaiming well-being and possibility, not reinforce colonial narratives that mistake forced survival for resilient living. 

For those of us in the diaspora, resilience takes on a different shape. It isn’t about surviving bombardment or displacement in the way our people back home are forced to. To be resilient is to cultivate inner resources and the ability to recover and build capacity, not to normalize oppression or glorify endurance under conditions no one should bear. For those of us living outside our homeland, it’s about carrying memory, refusing erasure, and nurturing spaces where our culture, stories, and humanity remain alive and unbroken. 

Resilience means protecting our hearts from numbness.

Resilience means staying connected to truth in a world that distorts it.

Resilience means sustaining our clarity and energy to advocate, create, and imagine futures beyond colonial narratives.

What You'll Find in Our Circle

Validation & Belonging

Your experiences matter. This space acknowledges the weight you carry and offers validation for what you’ve been holding.

Body-Based Practices

Gentle somatic tools to release tension and move through stress and activation at your own pace, without pressure or rush.

Clarity For Action

Embodied strategies, anchored in your values, to ease the “what can I do?” burden and guide you toward intentional contribution.

This is for Students

Who are ready to move beyond overwhelm, reclaim their focus, and find the courage to connect and engage in a world that feels uncertain.

This is for Activists

Who are committed to directing their drive and energy to creating meaningful impact guided by clarity, vision, and grounded presence.

This is for Professionals

Who are determined to build resilience and maintain impact while juggling multiple responsibilities and witnessing abhorrent injustice.

What You'll Learn

Understanding Stress & Trauma

Learn how the nervous system carries the weight of grief and injustice, and how it impacts energy, mood, and overall sense of safety.

Finding Strength in Regulation

Learn practices to regulate your body, ease tension, and restore moments of safety and resilience, even in the face of heartbreak.

Healing in Community

Learn to stay open and connect with others carrying similar experiences and draw support from shared humanity and solidarity.

Why the Body Matters

Stress Lives in the Body

Rapid heartbeat, tight shoulders, shallow breathing. These are all signs that the nervous system is under strain, affecting focus, sleep, and overall well-being.

Unprocessed Energy Gets Stuck in the Body

When fight, flight, or freeze responses aren’t released, this trapped energy can accumulate over time, showing up as tension, exhaustion, burnout, chronic pain, or a sense of numbness. Memories are stored in the body, not just the mind.

Regulation Starts with the Body

Simple body-based practices help the nervous system find more regulation, fostering a greater sense of safety in the body and creating space for clarity, presence, and connection.

Why the Heart?

The heart is more than a pump. It’s a center of intelligence that communicates continuously with the brain and body. When we bring the heart into a coherent state, our nervous system regulates, our mind and body align, and we create the foundation for greater clarity and presence. This alignment isn’t just a feeling. It translates into practical benefits: ✦ Sharper focus and clearer decision-making ✦ Improved communication and social connection ✦ Greater emotional resilience and empathy ✦ A stronger sense of inner ease and stability By learning to work with the heart, we can access this powerful, integrative resource to navigate stress, engage meaningfully, and act from a place of grounded clarity.

Nadia Qasmieh Embodied Leadership & Somatic Practitioner

I’m an Embodied Leadership & Somatic Practitioner devoted to guiding people to reconnect with their bodies, presence, and resilience. My work is grounded in the belief that transformation is not just a mindset shift. It must be deeply felt and embodied. As a Palestinian whose grandparents were dispossessed of their homes in Haifa during the Nakba of 1948, I carry a personal awareness of how displacement, loss, and colonialism leave marks not just on communities, but in our bodies. This awareness shaped my path into somatic work, where I discovered how much of life we experience “from the shoulders up,” disconnected from the body’s signals of stress, safety, and connection. Before this work, I spent 15+ years in Executive Branding. Behind polished success stories, I often saw exhaustion, disconnection, and the quiet struggles holding people back from fully stepping into their potential. I now integrate HeartMath coherence practices and Somatic Parts Work to help others reclaim resilience, presence, and wholeness, restoring what colonization is designed to strip away.

Tala Sammur Yoga & Meditation Facilitator for Activists

I’m a Palestinian yoga and meditation facilitator from Deir Yassin devoted to supporting activists and changemakers in sustaining their wellbeing. My journey into this work began after leaving a career in law, where burnout led me to seek balance and healing. Through yoga and meditation, I discovered practices that not only restored me but also offered a way to stay grounded and compassionate while engaging deeply with the causes I care about. In my classes and circles, I hold space that honors yoga’s roots while inviting playfulness, gentleness, and self-reflection. These practices become a way to release what the body carries, meet uncertainty with steadiness, and build the resilience needed for long-term change-making. Beyond individual practice, I work with initiatives like The Resilience Project to support climate activists, weaving together mindfulness, embodiment, and community care. This collective approach helps prevent burnout and strengthens the inner and outer resources required for creating a more just and compassionate world.

Rafiq Qutub Moderator & Environmental Consultant

I'm an environmental engineer by training, driven by a passion for developing water infrastructure for communities in need. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to confront the lasting injustices of colonialism, particularly how it has denied Indigenous communities access to their ancestral lands and water resources. As a Palestinian from Jerusalem, where my family lived for centuries before the Nakba, I am deeply rooted in the land’s history, geography, and spiritual significance. I have a strong interest in history and believe that understanding the past is essential to making sense of the present. My exploration of somatic practices began as a way to navigate stress, cultivate healthier relationships, and find clarity in an increasingly complex and chaotic world. This journey led me to Aikido, a martial art that deepens body awareness and supports emotional regulation. I also practice traditional Palestinian Dabke, not only as a form of cultural expression and resilience, but as a way to preserve and pass down Palestinian identity for future generations.

Participant Guidelines & Disclaimer

Due to the content and nature of the sessions, this group is intended for participants who are on a second- or third-degree of separation from genocide and ecocide, such as members of the diaspora, rather than individuals experiencing these events on the ground. By joining this session, participants acknowledge that the speakers are not licensed therapists and that this program is for educational and skill-building purposes only, not a substitute for professional mental health care. Participants agree to respect the privacy and confidentiality of others, follow community guidelines, and understand that all content is for personal learning only and may not be shared publicly without permission.  The sessions will NOT be recorded. The practices will be made available to participants post-event to support ongoing daily practice.

Reserve Your Spot

No experience needed.

Join us online for free and leave with practical mind-body tools to release tension, regain presence, and reconnect with your grounded, resilient self.