How I Move Through Outrage Before It Burns Me Out
Learning how to complete the stress cycle preserves our capacity for long term action
Dear friends
During my years living in Zimbabwe under the Mugabe regime, I functioned in a state of constant physiological arousal. When I saw the police harassing a street vendor or watched the state-controlled news broadcast blatant lies, my heart rate would rise and my chest would tighten.
I interpreted my distress as a badge of my own morality. I believed that if I were to stop feeling this physical heat, it would mean I had been broken by the system or had become apathetic to the suffering of others. I thought this physical reaction was a necessary engine for change.
I was wrong.
What I eventually learned was that hot rage is chemically expensive and strategically useless. When I acted from that heat, I was reactive. I made sharp comments that allowed my opponents to attack me and, more importantly, I burnt out long before the problem was solved.
This became painfully clear when I discovered evidence of corruption involving three national and transnational banks. I was incensed by the scale of the malpractice, sending out an email to my investment clients, which went viral throughout the Zimbabwe diaspora. Invited to a meeting with senior personnel at one of these banks, I arrived with no formal legal strategy or coordinated support — I was armed only with my righteous indignation. I expected that by confronting them with the sheer moral weight of their actions, I would force a change.
Instead, I was blindsided, unprepared for the clinical, rehearsed way they redirected the conversation. They framed my steely anger as a racist attack, and threatened to charge me with incitement to violence. Following that meeting, I was subjected to a sustained period of threats and harassment from Mugabe’s “secret police” that lasted for over a year. It was highly traumatic, and ultimately, changed nothing for the victims of the corruption. The only person whose life was altered was mine, and not for the better.
Living in a state of constant fury places a heavy demand on the biological systems we need for long-term civic participation. Rage incinerates our energy. It burns hot and fast, and will leave us too exhausted for the long, slow work of resistance.
Cold anger acts differently. It is quieter, sharper, and far more dangerous to those in power. It allows us to remain disciplined rather than reactive, and strategic rather than frantic. It is the state we must cultivate if we want to dismantle authoritarian overreach without destroying ourselves in the process.
When the spark of outrage hits, I no longer let it vent through my words or my immediate actions. These are the five key moves I use to cool that intense spark of outrage and bank it, so it can become a steady, sustainable fuel for the work ahead.
I’ll start by explaining the biological “why” behind these feelings before we look at what to do. Research shows that we are more likely to take action when we understand why it’s important. If you would prefer to jump straight to the practical steps, you’re welcome to scroll down to the final section.
What we’ll cover here:
The Biological Burden of Outrage
Completing the Stress Cycle
Five Moves for Tactical Recovery
The Biological Burden of Outrage
When we encounter an injustice or a systemic threat, the brain perceives a breach of safety. The amygdala — the area of the brain responsible for processing emotions and threats — alerts the hypothalamus, which starts a chain reaction that floods your body with adrenaline and cortisol. In an immediate physical crisis, these hormones are useful because they prepare our muscles for action. But political outrage is a unique burden; it keeps our physiological systems running on high revs, often while we are physically still.
Unlike a literal fight or flight scenario where our energy is spent through movement, when we feel this surge while sitting at a desk or looking at a screen, our bodies do not use the glucose and oxygen they have mobilised for physical exertion. This creates a metabolic debt. If this happens repeatedly, we begin to suffer from allostatic load — the physical damage that accumulates when our bodies are forced to adapt to chronic, unrelenting stress.
Under authoritarian conditions, our most important tool is our executive function. This refers to the high-level mental tasks managed by the prefrontal cortex, such as planning for the future, controlling impulses, and making logical choices. Persistent outrage creates a level of internal “noise” that makes it difficult to hear these clear “signals”. When our nervous systems are stuck in a state of high arousal, our brains tend to skip over the prefrontal cortex in favour of faster, more reactive circuits. This leads to binary thinking — seeing things in black and white — which makes us prone to errors in judgement. We might misunderstand the motives of our allies or react to provocations in ways that are predictable and easily exploited.
There is also a risk that outrage becomes a habit. Feeling morally right produces a spike of dopamine, a chemical in the brain's reward system. Expressing this anger can feel like we are taking action or bonding with our peers, which can lead us to search for more upsetting news just to maintain that feeling. This loop is a significant danger during long periods of political tension. It drains the limited energy we need for the quiet, difficult work of life — such as supporting our neighbours, performing our jobs with integrity, or providing a stable home for our families.
To help the people around us stay grounded, we must first manage our own physiological state. Humans influence one another through co-regulation. This is a process where our heart rate, our breathing, and the tension in our faces signal to the nervous systems of others whether it is safe to relax. If we are always in a state of high-alert, we unintentionally signal danger to everyone in our orbit. This triggers their own defensive circuits, which makes it harder for the group to think clearly or work together.
By contrast, if we can process information and acknowledge injustice while remaining physiologically settled, we provide a sense of stability for those around us. This allows them to use their own reasoning skills rather than reacting out of fear. This is not the same as being passive or indifferent; it is a practical way to ensure our own health is not broken by the very conditions we are trying to change.
True civic stamina depends on our ability to move between being active and being at rest. If our resting heart rate is driven by constant anger, we will eventually lose the capacity for deep recovery. Without that recovery, the nervous system cannot repair the damage caused by stress. This eventually leads to burnout — a state where the body shuts down to prevent further harm. When we reach that point, we can no longer help our communities or our cause. The most radical act of endurance is to protect our internal balance; it ensures that our decisions are guided by our values rather than our hormones.
Completing the Stress Cycle
Physical movement is a practical necessity when our nervous systems are caught in a cycle of constant outrage. This process is often described as completing the stress cycle. Without a physical outlet, the HPA axis — the system comprising the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands — can stay active indefinitely. This results in a state of hypervigilance, where the mind continues to scan the environment for threats because the body still feels as though it is in the middle of a crisis.
When we use our muscles for movement, our bodies process and clear away stress hormones. This sends a clear signal to the brain that the danger has been dealt with or avoided, allowing the nervous system to shift from the sympathetic branch, which governs our fight-or-flight response, back to the parasympathetic branch, which allows us to rest and recover.
Regular movement also helps to reduce systemic inflammation, which often increases during long periods of social or political tension. Furthermore, certain types of movement can help synchronise the left and right sides of the brain. This is particularly useful for breaking the circular, obsessive thoughts that often come with civic distress, allowing us to think more clearly.
Movement also triggers the production of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. This protein helps to keep existing brain cells healthy and encourages the growth of new ones, especially in the hippocampus. This is the part of the brain we use for memory and emotional control. In a climate where information is being manipulated, a healthy hippocampus is essential. It allows us to keep an accurate record of what is happening and helps us resist gaslighting — the attempt to make us doubt our own perceptions of reality.
By making movement a priority, we are maintaining the biological hardware required for sound decision-making. It ensures that when we return to our work or our communities, we are doing so with a mind that is no longer clouded by the chemical leftovers of yesterday’s outrage.
Five Moves for Tactical Recovery
When we are dealing with the kind of chronic outrage that comes from the current political environment, moving the body is less about fitness and more about basic maintenance. The goal here is to help the nervous system step down from that high-alert state so that our brains can get back to doing their best work.
These five movement strategies address the metabolic and neurological effects of civic outrage, and help us stay steady.
Burn off the initial spike
When outrage causes a hot, sharp surge of adrenaline, it is priming the body for a massive burst of energy. Trying to “just breathe” when your heart is racing can feel uncomfortable if not distressing, especially when the muscles are screaming for action. If we can, we need to give them what they want.
A sixty second, high-intensity burst of movement like sprinting on the spot, performing rapid star jumps, or pushing against a wall with maximum effort mimics fight or flight completion. This provides a physical outlet for the “charge” in our muscles, burning through the sugar and hormones that were just dumped into the bloodstream. Once the burst is over, the parasympathetic nervous system can signal to the heart rate and blood pressure to begin their descent back to normal.
Break looping thoughts
There is something deeply settling about bilateral movement — the alternating use of the left and right sides of the body. Walking, cycling, and swimming are the most accessible forms. From a neurological perspective, when we move the left and right sides of the body in an alternating rhythm, it helps the two halves of the brain talk to each other again. This is particularly helpful for stopping those “looping” thoughts associated with outrage, and moving towards an integrated perspective.
When we do this outside, the simple act of watching the world move past our eyes — what scientists call optic flow — sends a direct signal to the fear centre of the brain that we are moving through the world safely. It de-escalates that sense of immediate, suffocating crisis.
Get grounded
Outrage often produces the feeling of being “untethered”, as if we are spinning off into an abstract space of anger. We can counteract this by stimulating theproprioceptive system — the sensory system that brings us back into the room.
Slow, deliberate movements that involve weight or resistance — such as lifting heavy objects, slow-motion push-ups, or even wearing a weighted vest — provide intense input to the joints and muscles, forcing the brain to pay attention to the physical body. This acts as an anchor for the nervous system. It pulls our attention out of the abstract space of political anger and back into the present moment — a prerequisite for making calm, rational decisions.
Shake it off
If we watch animals after they have been through a predatory encounter, they often shake their whole bodies. We tend not to do this because it looks odd, but that shaking is a natural way for the body to let go of muscular tension — to “discharge” residual nervous energy. When we remain static, that stress gets “stored” in the body — particularly in the psoas muscles and the jaw — leading to a heavy, aching exhaustion.
Stand with your knees soft and gently shake your arms, legs, and torso for a few minutes. This tells the nervous system that the period of high tension is officially over, allowing muscles to release stored tension and relax.
Stop scanning
When we are stressed, our vision tends to narrow — we focus entirely on the source of the problem, whether that is a screen or a person. This “tunnel vision” is physically linked to the muscles in the neck and shoulders, which stiffen to protect the throat and head. To break this pattern, we can use slow, mindful movements of the head and neck combined with “orienting” to your environment.
Slowly turn your head to look over one shoulder, and let your eyes settle on three objects in the room — let your eyes really see the objects. Then do the same over the opposite shoulder. By intentionally widening your field of vision and loosening your neck, you are signalling to your brain that it is safe to stop scanning for threats. It moves you from a state of reactive panic to one of calm, situational awareness.
Moving from hot rage to cold anger is an act of biological discipline. It is the process of taking a high-arousal state — which clouds your judgment and exhausts your capacity— and refining it into a concentrated, mental fuel. This transition does not diminish your conviction; instead, it ensures your conviction is backed by the executive function of your brain rather than just your adrenal glands.
By cooling that internal heat, you move from being a target that is easily baited to a strategist who is difficult to derail. This steady state allows you to wait for the right moment to act, ensuring that when you do move, your efforts are precise and sustainable.
It is how we transform a fleeting impulse into the kind of endurance that outlasts the systems we seek to change.
In solidarity, as ever
— Lori
© Lori Corbet Mann, 2025
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