Our Window of Tolerance

I’ve made a promise to myself to post a blog each day until after the Presidential election. Putting my fingers on the keyboard grounds me. I am choosing to widen my window of tolerance.

Trauma can narrow our window of tolerance, and human life inherently exposes us to trauma (admittedly, some more than others).

I recently was listening to a Sounds True podcast with Liz Stanley and Tami Simon about stress arousal and the way past trauma relates to our ability to think creatively, solve problems, and access choice in any given situation. The podcast is where I heard the phrase “window of tolerance.”

Whether or not we consciously know it, humans have both a “survival brain” (bottom-up processing) and a “thinking brain” (top-down processing). Even without knowing the terms, you do how good it feels when these two processing systems are collaborating.

We have been expertly trained at powering through situations — often ignoring our body’s emotions, sensations, and physical pain. Stanley refers to this common phenomenon as “thinking-brain override.”

“Survival-brain hijacking” is when the heavy emotions trigger stress arousal and impulsively drive our behavior, sometimes with horrific results.

Meditation (training in mindfulness) can help “widen” our window of tolerance and assist us to react more skillfully and to avoid destructive extremes.

Here is a simple tool for any time you notice yourself feeling stress: Move your attention to the information coming from your senses. “Feel your feet on the ground, notice where your butt is touching the chair; pay attention to the breath coming in and out through your nose; notice the air is cool on inhale and warmer on the exhale; listen to the waves or the wind or the motor of the refrigerator.”

Notice… notice… notice.

Smell some essential oils.

Slowly dissolve a lozenge or small piece of hard candy in your mouth. Perhaps that is why the ones with holes in the center are called Life Savers!

Just looking out your window helps….

Here are the east and west views from my window this morning during yoga.

Over these next two weeks, let’s each intentionally widen our window of tolerance….