The Window of Tolerance: The Full Picture
We all experience moments where we feel challenged to keep our cool. Unexpected situations have the potential to take you out of your comfort zone. Certain people or places can make you feel uneasy, even if you’re not sure why. Your ability to handle these ups and downs while maintaining a sense of control and relative calm is called your window of tolerance. The “window of tolerance” is a term coined by Dr. Dan Siegel, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. The term “window of tolerance” refers to a person’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances and emotions while remaining balanced, calm, and alert, which can change depending on experiences of chronic/traumatic stress, adverse childhood experiences, and unmet attachment needs. A powerful tool for awareness and healing, the window of tolerance model is applicable to a wide array of people and experiences, and transfers well across philosophical lines from clinical psychology to polyvagal theory and yogic Samkhya philosophy.
According to the idea of the window of tolerance, every person has their own range of emotions, body sensations, and external stimuli that they can tolerate. This range is the window of tolerance. For some of us it’s a large, open window with lots of space. To people like that, it’s possible to move from discomfort to ease and back again without too much struggle. The ebb and flow of daily life with its procession of different personalities, conflicts, and pleasures, is taken in stride. There’s a high level of resilience in people like this, and a healthy level of everyday stress feels manageable. With a large window of tolerance, one is always able to access the rational, “thinking” brain (prefrontal cortex) in making judgements and decisions. This person’s responses are congruous to the situations at hand.
However, windows of tolerance only come in what I call “custom sizes.” Just as no two people are the same, neither are their experiences or their nervous systems. When people experience traumatic or chronic stress due to adverse events, childhood experiences, unmet attachment needs, or institutionalized racism and sexism (from now on I’ll just say “trauma”), it can be incredibly difficult to maintain a sense of personal safety, control, and calm. For people like this, the window of tolerance can become quite small. Past experiences often prime people’s nervous systems to react disproportionately to the situation at hand because after trauma, essentially, the “on” switch for the stress response becomes very sensitive. When we leave our window of tolerance, the prefrontal cortex is bypassed and our brain operates solely in survival mode. In this condition, rational thinking is not possible, everything aside from survival is secondary, and actions are out of proportion to the situation at hand.
Dysregulation 😟
As a person drifts away from their calm, alert, resilient state, they go into a state of dysregulation. This can be a feeling of agitation, irritation, anxiety, feeling revved up, or angry. On the other hand, dysregulation can also feel like you’re beginning to shut down, feeling a little spacey or sluggish. In dysregulation, a person’s nervous system has not been fully activated yet, but they’re on their way. Dysregulation is a middle-zone between alert calmness and loss of control. Occasionally people find that they are chronically dysregulated and that they’ve actually been living outside of their window of tolerance for quite a long time. This can mean they’ve been staying in a state of heightened reactivity, a state of being shut down, or alternating between the two. When this happens, it’s common and understandable for people to seek to regulate their systems with coping mechanisms that end up causing more harm, such as substance misuse, thrill seeking, codependent relationships, etc.
Hyper- and Hypo- Arousal 🤯
The window of tolerance represents the optimal level of nervous system arousal. As we move away from the window and into dysregulation, we’re headed for either hyperarousal or hypoarousal. In both of these states, there's a sense of being completely out of control. A person may report a sense of splitting away from themselves, saying something like, “It’s like I was watching it happen from the background and I knew I didn’t have to act that way, but I couldn’t stop it either.”
Hyperarousal is associated with the “fight or flight” response. This state is associated with anxiety, rage, violence, combativeness. Think of a deer bounding away from a mountain lion or a cornered animal lashing out with its claws. Think of a baby deer hiding in the brush, lowering its breath and heart rate to undetectable levels as a predator prowls nearby.These states were necessary for our ancestors to survive the many perils of life in the wild. In a non life-threatening situation, our bodies can use more nuanced versions of these states to give us instinctual signals about our level of safety with the people and places around us. Sometimes, though, because of trauma, a person’s nervous system loses this nuance and thinks everything is a threat.
Polyvagal Theory
Poly-what?
Don’t worry, I’m going to keep this section as brief and simple as possible. My intention is to provide the average Jane a basic understanding of polyvagal theory and how it ties into the window of tolerance. You won’t have to be a neuroscientist or anatomy geek (like me) to understand.
Dr. Siegel’s window of tolerance fits very nicely within the framework of Polyvagal Theory, pioneered by Dr. Steven Porges. Polyvagal theory has become a very important lens through which to view trauma and nervous system regulation. By giving a physiological explanation for psychological, physical, and emotional symptoms of trauma, polyvagal theory demonstrates the foundation of the kosha model of wellness. This is a yogic framework that asserts that every part of a person is interrelated. Polyvagal theory describes the nerves and processes involved in optimal arousal, hyperarousal, and hypoarousal, and outlines the characteristics of a well balanced nervous system in contrast to a traumatized one.
Polyvagal theory describes three nervous system states. Each state reflects the activation of two of your body’s nervous subsystems: sympathetic and parasympathetic. These two systems are actually two branches of the same system in your body- the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system regulates all the things your body does automatically without you ever needing to think about such as breath, heart rate, blood pressure, pupil dilation, saliva production, digestion, and more.
Sympathetic nervous system activation is associated with increased breath rate, heart rate, blood pressure, pupil dilation and decreased saliva production and digestion. Blood flows away from your gut and into your muscles. Muscle tone increases. The sympathetic nervous system is associated with the fight or flight response, and prepares your body for a battle for survival.
The parasympathetic nervous system does pretty much the opposite of the sympathetic nervous system. When activated, it creates an atmosphere in your body that is conducive to “rest and digest.” Saliva and digestive juices will flow. Breath and heart rate will be slower. Pupils will be smaller. Blood flows away from the limbs, into the gut. Muscle tone is softer. This state is also referred to as “feed and breed,” which indicates the importance of the parasympathetic nervous system in social interaction.
OK…one last layer of complexity, and I SWEAR this is going somewhere. 😉
The parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and digest? It’s coordinated by one nerve called the vagus (sounds like Las Vegas) nerve. It’s a very long, very important nerve but I won’t get super deep into the anatomy (you’re welcome). The vagus nerve has two distinct branches…which means the parasympathetic nervous system has two states…hence polyvagal theory. There’s the dorsal vagal branch, which activates the freeze response, and the ventral vagal branch, which activates the happy, relaxed, calm, friendly response.
Contrary to the oversimplified popular understanding of polyvagal theory, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activation is not an either/or scenario. The two systems (with three distinct colors) often coordinate and activate in different combinations to create a wide range of nervous system states. This makes sense given the repertoire of human experience, activity, and emotion. We truly need all of these colors to coordinate the symphony of human experience. The dorsal vagal, or “freeze” part of your body helps you fall asleep at night. It also helps you relax enough to enjoy vulnerable intimacy with a loved one. The sympathetic response assists us when we exercise or enjoy friendly competition. In the chart below you’ll see how each of the autonomic nervous system states- sympathetic, dorsal vagal, and ventral vagal- fit into the window of tolerance model.
Samkhya Philosophy- Finally we get to Yoga
The Samkhya Karika, a text representing a foundational philosophy found across yoga, describes a scientific creation story which includes a description of the constituent parts of all existence. The Samkhya philosophy shares uncanny parallels to the theories of modern physics. In Samkhya philosophy, a distinction is made between the material nature and spirit nature of all things. In short, everything that has mass is of material nature. In people, the body, mind, and thoughts are seen as material (prakriti). That which has no mass, can not be seen, touched nor born nor die is of spirit nature. The Divinity that lives within a person is their consciousness (awareness, attention) and is seen as spirit nature (purusha). Even though we can differentiate material and spiritual aspects of people, we actually can’t separate the material from the spiritual. Every molecule in our universe contains both material and spirit nature, since the entire universe itself is seen as a manifestation of Divinity. It’s like every coin having two sides: heads is heads, tails is tails, but the coin is both.
Prakriti (material nature) is constituted of three basic building blocks known as the gunas. The gunas- rajas, sattva, and tamas- are subatomic particles smaller than protons, electrons, and neutrons. Gunas make up everything in physical existence including every atom and all the types of waves such as sound, light, and thought. Each guna has its own set of qualities. Rajas is associated with movement, heat, inspiration, motivation, anger, and irritation. Sattva is associated with pleasure without attachment, lucidity, joy, illumination, lightness, openness. Tamas is associated with lethargy, heaviness, delusion, inertia, restraint, and sleep. Everything is a manifestation of the three gunas, which express themselves in infinite combinations to produce the world we know. This is an undeniable paralell to polyvagal theory. You can see how the gunas correspond to the vagal states in the diagram above.
Another important principle of Samkhya philosophy is change. This reflects the temporary nature of the physical world. Everything changes and nothing lasts forever, so the gunas are also always changing. We see change happening with lightning speed as our triggers send us into dysregulation in the blink of an eye. Suffering happens when we want something impossible, like the cessation of change. Sometimes people take extraordinary efforts to arrange their environment or the people around them so nothing can trigger their unhappiness. I’ll admit to this, as a recovering control freak. But because everything always changes, the perfect environment won’t last. Something will change and start the pattern of unhappiness again. Trying again and again to control external circumstances doesn’t work because what’s really needed to be happy is to be able to adapt to change and accept the parts of life and ourselves that are less than perfect.
If we strive to achieve one state and keep it forever we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment. I have struggled with chronic pain for years, for example. I used to think that I needed to achieve a state of painlessness and then stay there forever. If I was fortunate enough to have a day with little or no pain, I couldn’t enjoy it because I was worried that it wouldn’t last. The following day, waking up once again with pain, I’d be depressed and discouraged because I wasn’t able to hold on to the conditions of the day before. I was at the mercy of the gunas, which are always changing because that’s just what they do.
From the framework of the Samkhya philosophy, a traumatized person is over-identified with the gunas. Put simply, they can’t tell the difference between the gunas and themselves. When the gunas change and take a person into dysregulation, a traumatized person believe that this is a part of their personality. Or worse, they may not even notice that they’ve gone into dysregulation. Now, we know that all people are subject to this mistake. But for traumatized people the pull is much stronger. The key to breaking the cycle of dysregulation is observing yourself without judgment. After all, judgment will only make you feel worse. When you practice this long enough, you begin to see that you are not your thoughts, feelings, and reactions. You start to identify a space between the trigger and the reaction, and this space grows bigger until you have enough room to choose responses rather than reacting. By then, you’ve mastered a supernatural skill: slowing down time.
Using yoga therapy to heal trauma is a process of pulling yourself away from identifying with your trauma. You learn to become an observer, witnessing your sensations, thoughts, and actions. You learn that the observer is who you really are, and moreover, that your essential nature is purusha, which is sattvic.
How the Window of Tolerance Can Help
One of the ways that the window of tolerance can help traumatized people decrease their suffering is by serving as a tool for awareness and self reflection. Known as svadhyaya in Sanskrit, self-study is recognized in the West as well as the East as an essential skill for psycho/social/emotional wellbeing. It’s incredibly helpful to be aware, for example, of what your triggers are, how you react to them, and how long it takes you to return to your window of tolerance. At first, this only happens in retrospect. You may have an overreaction to a comment by a coworker, for example, and be unable to think about it rationally until after the fact. Please understand that this is how the process starts. We all have to start some time, and it’s better to be at the beginning of a journey than to never begin at all. Have compassion for yourself as you reflect on these situations, and avoid negative self-talk. Encourage yourself with kind words, and if you’re unable to think of kind words, just tell yourself, “I’m doing the best I can right now.” It’s also helpful to talk honestly about your experiences, reflections, and feelings with someone who will be unconditionally supportive of you such as a trusted friend, family member, or therapist. Gradually, you’ll notice sooner when you’re drifting away from your window of tolerance. Eventually, this awareness will create enough space for you to have time to consider your responses before reacting. At this point, you’ve expanded your capacity to tolerate a wider range of emotions, sensations, and triggers- you’ve expanded your window of tolerance.
When you’re healing trauma, it’s very important to work within your window of tolerance. This presents a particular challenge for some people, since any attention to the work of healing can be triggering. But what we know is that healing and learning only happen in the optimal arousal state. In fact, going into hypo- or hyperarousal during therapy can be re-traumatizing. Whatever modality you use, you’ll want to proceed gradually with great attention to the state of your nervous system. A good therapist will be able to identify when you’ve become dysregulated and will guide you back to your window of tolerance.
The window of tolerance is easy to understand, which makes it an excellent tool for teaching self reflection. It applies widely to a large variety of people and aligns with multiple theoretical frameworks.When I lead my Somatic Yoga Therapy class, I teach the window of tolerance on the very first day. All of my clients tell me that it’s very helpful, and it sets the stage for the class to be an exploration of mind-body experience in a safe and accepting atmosphere.
Somatic Yoga Therapy
Healing the body, mind, and spirit. In this 8-week course, you’ll learn skills to keep you grounded in your body, regulate your nervous system, and cultivate a sense of peace in difficult moments.
References
2019, April 19. Understanding the Window of Tolerance and How it Affects You. MindMyPeelings.com
Treleaven, David A. (2018) Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness. W.W. Norton and Company. www.davidtreleaven.com
