What is the Window of Tolerance and Why is it important?
The window of tolerance is a subjective concept originally created by Dr. Dan Siegel to describe the “optimal zone of arousal” that a person requires to cope and function with day to day life stressors. This zone is characterized by a person’s emotional flexibility and ability to remain grounded when presented with stressful situations. When someone is within their window of tolerance, they are able to notice their thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and impulses and mindfully respond to them. This is not a stress-free state, but rather a state where a person can “ride the waves” of daily stress without becoming too overwhelmed. This is because when we are within our window of tolerance, we have access to our prefrontal cortex and executive functioning skills - the part of our brain that is responsible for emotional regulation, organizing, planning, and prioritizing complex tasks.
On either side of our window of tolerance are two other zones: the hyperarousal zone and the hypoarousal zone. Too much arousal can lead to hyperarousal. You may feel things that make you want to fight or run away. This can result in you becoming more reactive and impulsive rather than reflective. When there is too little activation, this can result in hypoarousal - causing feelings of extreme fatigue, numbness and lethargy. If you move into a hyperaroused or hypoaroused state, it becomes more difficult to process information around you. That is because when we exceed our window of tolerance, we lose access to our prefrontal cortex and executive functioning skills.
There are a number of factors that may influence our window, this includes: our personal histories and whether or not we came from childhood trauma backgrounds, our temperaments, our social supports, our physiology, among others. No two windows will look exactly the same. Mine may not look the same as yours and yours may not look the same as your friends.
For people who have experienced trauma, it is often difficult for them to regulate their emotions and stay within their window of tolerance. When someone has experienced trauma, the past is more vivid and intrusive. These people are primed to detect threat and enter into that state of defensiveness when triggered. That means they generally have a very narrow window of tolerance. The stress of a traumatic memory or trigger may cause them to be pushed out of their window of tolerance. Even seemingly minor stressors can cause a person who has experienced trauma to dissociate, get angry, or feel anxious – leading to states of hyperarousal or hypoarousal. Being in a state of hyperarousal or hypoarousal can not only make it difficult to cope, but it can also make it challenging for someone to progress in therapy.
Thankfully, there are a number of strategies that can help to regulate our emotions and bring us back into our window of tolerance. The first step in doing so is becoming aware of when you are experiencing emotions outside of your window of tolerance and evaluating how it makes you feel and the impacts it has on your body. Setting a timer throughout the day to do a simple check in and body scan can help with this process. From there we can introduce strategies for regulating our emotions when we are feeling overwhelmed – some go-tos that I often share with clients are box breathing, the five senses (5,4,3,2,1) and calm place. Sometimes a walk in nature or other forms of exercise can be helpful. Alternatively, you can do a simple Google or YouTube search and find other examples – some that are guided too!
The biggest thing with any of these strategies is finding something that works for you and practicing it daily during times of low stress. Like any new skill - it takes practice to learn. Allowing our bodies time to practice these skills during periods of low stress makes it possible for us to recall them during periods of high stress.
References:
Wall, S., Nguyen, P., Hughes, L., & Hershler, A. (2021). Looking at Trauma: A Tool Kit for Clinicians. University Park: Penn State University Press.