Experiencing trauma can affect our tolerance for internal and external life stress and other stimuli. We may experience triggering memories switched on at seemingly random times by smells, sights, sounds, touch, spacial awareness, which transport our consciousness away from the present day, and into a time and place, when we were overwhelmed and affected by an original trauma. When we are triggered, our bodies react, as if we were experiencing our past, in the present moment. Our window of Tolerance can greatly influence how we may react to the stimuli when triggered.
When we are within a regulated state of tolerance, our heart rate is steady, our breathing calm and we may feel a sense of personal safety. As indicated by the NICABM chart, we can see that trauma minimizes the size of the Tolerance Window. We may feel an intense experience of being out of our comfort zone or being un-ground or off center. Sometimes we may try so desperately to scramble back to our window of tolerance, that we undertake behaviors that are not beneficial to our health, eg: consuming alcohol and other drugs, taking our emotions out on others. It may be at these times that we might need to ask for help from a professional counsellor to create a tool kit to help re-calibrate our self-regulation, or to refresh or upgrade the tool kit that we already have. Your tool kit may consist of these eight practices and other safe techniques that work for you.
- relaxation techniques,
- grounding exercises, strategies for managing negative self talk,
- exercises disperse dissociation and bring us back into the body,
- gratitude techniques,
- strengths based practices and
- practices which instill hope
- bringing creativity into every day life
- bring nature into every day life
As suggested in the diagram above, people who have experiences trauma may slip across the threshold of tolerance into dis-regulation much more easily than non-traumatized people. There may be less room to move around within the window of tolerance to escape, or deal with pressure,
whether that be from exterior (loud noises, heavy traffic, other people's stuff) or internal forces, (inner critic, illness). For this reason, it is important to listen to our bodies, treat ourselves with kindness and take a break when we need to in order to replenish those tool kits and keep ourselves well. It is also important to remove judgment from the behaviours of those around us and replace it with curiosity and compassion. You can never truly know the inner world of another person.
(abuse by another person is never acceptable) People may label us as over sensitive. So be it. We have had to be for our own survival. Our sensitivity may make us empathetic, caring and understanding. We may be highly tuned to the world around us which, when looked through the perspective of
mindfulness, is a great gift.
Lap it up and live your bliss.
Mairead
Honouring Children’s Rights.
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