Today's episode is all about neuroception and the window of tolerance. Don't worry if you've never heard these terms before! I'm going to break them down for you.
What is neuroception?
Neuroception is your nervous system's ability to scan your environment and label cues and behaviors as safe, dangerous, or life-threatening. In response to this, a level of arousal is activated that is best suited for the circumstances. Essentially, your nervous system is trying to scan your environment and promote the best adaptive response.
As listeners of this podcast know, things don't always work out the way they were intended. You can have faulty neuroception or false alarms. We may perceive neutral cues as dangerous because they remind us of traumatic experiences from the past (e.g. a certain smell, rude behavior, loud noises). As a result, our arousal can either be too high or too low based on how our body falsely perceives the danger. This can lead to problems in our daily lives and our relationships.
There are many common triggers for neurocepting danger, such as a history of physical and sexual abuse. We can have poor attachment in our early lives, with attachment figures failing to help us regulate our emotions or being the source of much of our anxiety. Important people not paying attention to us can be a trigger. Other triggers may include: people being angry with or disappointed in us, criticism, feeling pressure to excel, receiving messages that we aren’t good enough, or various types of loss (e.g. divorce, abandonment, death). Being sensitive to these triggers and having false alarms can affect our window of tolerance.
What is the window of tolerance?
The window of tolerance is the zone where we feel safe, at ease, socially engaged, and comfortable. This is the ideal place to be, but if you struggle with faulty neuroception, your window of tolerance is narrow.
Based on your neuroception responses, you may vacillate between hyperarousal and hypoarousal. They sound similar, but the response is very different!
In hyperarousal, we can feel super activated and overwhelmed. In hypoarousal, we can feel distant and disconnected. Let's get into the details about what these states look like as it's important to be able to identify which state you're in. Remember, awareness is a skill!
If you're in a state of hyperarousal, you'll notice several things. You may be easily distracted or have difficulty with concentration, racing thoughts, and intense rumination or obsessive thoughts. You may feel easily overwhelmed, distressed, anxious, panicked, or nervous. You might also feel anger, irritation, or rage, and a sense of uneasiness, discomfort, or lack of safety. In your body, you may notice that you feel restless or fidgety, wound up or tense, easily startled or jumpy, and have a hard time...
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