As someone who found great comfort in my daily routine, I was knocked off-kilter when I lost my job and everything shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The past year has felt like a bad case of vertigo. I know I’m not alone. I am among the many others suddenly forced to adapt and build new routines. Much of the workforce has shifted to full-time remote working while others are preparing to return to the office. Routines around the world have been disrupted and our nervous systems are taking the hit.

The Window of Tolerance

Maybe you have noticed that your fuse is shorter than usual, that you have racing thoughts, or that you feel like you just can’t take it anymore. When the nervous system is out of balance we can feel anxious or depressed. When it is within balance we feel grounded and adaptable. In this balanced zone, our ability to navigate stressful situations is more resilient. This balance is known as the “Window of Tolerance (WOT)”, a term coined by Dr. Dan Siegel to describe the connection between a healthy nervous system and mind/body reactions. I like to call it the “Go With the Flow Window”. Within this window, we are better able to handle stressful situations and emotional highs and lows. But this window is sensitive and internal and external factors can cause it to shrink. When we are outside of our WOT, thoughts and feelings can easily feel overwhelming resulting in a reduced capacity to “go with the flow”.

Shrinking of The Window of Tolerance

Shifts in The Window of Tolerance

Much has been written about how those who have experienced trauma or adversity have a consistently narrower WOT.  It is important to realize that trauma comes in many forms, big and small, and that most people have experienced some type of trauma in their lives. The pandemic is certainly a traumatic adverse experience that has challenged our Window of Tolerance. Many people are feeling pushed past their limits and prioritizing our physical and mental health is more important than ever. Understanding and monitoring shifts in our Window of Tolerance is the key to conquering emotional overwhelm and building resilience. 

When triggered by a stressful event, our hormones respond in one of two ways outside of our WOT: sympathetic hyperarousal and parasympathetic hypoarousal. 

Sympathetic Hyperarousal:

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) controls our fight or flight response. Sympathetic hyperarousal is characterized by intense hormonal activity often in the form of anxiety. In this state, we may feel angry, chaotic, and hypervigilant. This keeps our nervous system stuck in ‘fight or flight’ and inhibits our ability to relax, sleep, eat and digest food, and appropriately manage our emotions. Trying to stay super-busy and productive is a coping skill we often use in a state of hyperarousal, so we avoid the discomfort of overwhelming feelings.

Parasympathetic Hypoarousal:

The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the body’s rest and digestion response when the body is relaxed. Hypoarousal may occur when we have surpassed the pain/emotional overwhelm our brain/body is able to tolerate. In this state, our nervous system is stuck in ‘freeze’ and we may feel depressed, overwhelmed with shame, numb to emotions, or withdrawn in order to cope with the situation or trigger. If we are not present, we don’t have to feel the discomfort of the situation. This also negatively impacts our sleep, appetite, and digestion. 

Expanding The Window of Tolerance

Mindfulness practices are the most effective way to balance the nervous system. Mindfulness is simply our ability to be present and aware of our surroundings, thoughts, and feelings. Learning how to recognize triggers and shifts in our WOT is a powerful skill to build as we continue to face these unique and uncertain circumstances. With awareness and practice, we can widen our WOTs and be prepared for whatever 2021 has in store. 

Mindfulness practices to help build tolerance include:

Breathing & Meditation

Deep breathing is one of the best ways to lower stress in the body. What is great about the breath is that it is free and is always with us. There are various types of breathing techniques and apps that facilitate breathing and meditation are on the rise, like Headspace and Insight Timer. 

Headspace is an app that aims to improve the health and happiness of the world through guided meditations, articles, and videos. Check out their article on breathing exercises to reduce stress to learn what breathing technique is right for you. 

Insight Timer is a free meditation app that aims to calm the mind, reduce anxiety, manage stress, and enable deep sleep with 100+ new free guided meditations and sleep tracks added daily. 

Gratitude and compassion techniques

Compassion-focused techniques remove shame, focusing on promoting self-compassion and gratitude to build resilience. Repeating positive affirmations, gratitude journaling, and Metta Meditation are all common tools for practicing gratitude and compassion. Check out PositivePsychology.com’s article on gratitude exercises to learn more techniques and see a study on the effects of gratitude journaling in a group of students. 

I am personally a big fan of The Five Minute Journal: A Happier You in 5 Minutes a Day, which is a guided planner and gratitude list aimed at helping people build a gratitude practice. 

Yoga & Stretching

The benefits of yoga are two-fold. It aids in keeping our muscles and joints open AND it enhances our healing capacity by helping regulate the stress response and re-balancing the nervous system. Restorative Yoga and  Yoga Nidra are two popular styles that anyone can do in the comfort of their homes. 

Restorative Yoga is a form of yoga that uses props to comfortably support the body in poses held for 3-5 minutes that aim to gently open the muscles and re-balance the nervous system. Check out Healthline’s article on common restorative poses and their benefits. 

Yoga Nidra, commonly referred to as “yogic sleep”, is a form of guided relaxation that typically is done for 35 to 40 minutes at a time while laying directly on your back. Many report immediate benefits including reduced anxiety and improved sleep. Check out Yoga International’s article on the benefits of Yoga Nidra. 

TL;DR

We must be objective observers of our emotions and the sensations in our bodies. When we take the time to recognize and identify the shifts and acknowledge what’s going on within us, it allows us to find better ways to cope. Practicing mindfulness techniques is a great place to start. Working mindfulness into your routine and prioritizing it doesn’t happen overnight. There also isn’t a right or wrong way to approach mindfulness. You can start with the techniques mentioned here or maybe deep dive into the realm of mindfulness and find what works for you. The options are endless. Whether you decide to breathe a little more, a little deeper, or even decide to commit to unpacking past traumas, your nervous system will thank you.