Window of Tolerance by Amy Osborne

Transcript

program associate for Loyola Marymount universities graduate of yoga studies program that's a Masters of Arts program my graduate myself and I'm excited to be here sharing actually whatever my thesis on which is trauma-informed mindfulness methodology I've had the opportunity to develop weekend trainings and workshops around this topic as part owner at Northport yoga and wellness in Northport Florida and have been able to share this with social workers in Charlotte County and look forward to potential opportunities to share more with different social work organizations including substance abuse recovery and others so trauma-informed mindfulness is essentially how we process stress in the body and what tools can help us cope so today we're going to be learning about window of tolerance the window and if you haven't yet watched the first video I encourage you to go back and learn about the physiology of stress before you go on to kind of park to the window of tolerance so last time we discussed the physiology of stress understanding our nervous system as attempting to regulate through parasympathetic parasympathetic rest and digest and sympathetic nervous system fighter flight so equilibrium where we want to be is somewhere in the middle today talking about window of tolerance there is a threshold for each person and this changes given what else this person might be handling in their life at any given time so the more different stressors compound and built on each other the more narrow the window of Tolerance will get and so we all go through these cycles when we hit the ceiling of our window of Tolerance you might be able to think of we all have behaviors that come out that might not be our best side when we're really stressed out we may not always name it as stress and might come out in different ways but whether that's yelling crying you know whatever it is that is our reaction to moving outside of this window of Tolerance when we hit the bottom this is where we start to deal with real depression and at the top real anxiety and how that manifest is different for everyone or shows up in the body so understanding that this is our window tolerance I like to use this idea as a tool of how we can better promote our own health by self-regulating our are practicing things that cultivate self-regulation so if we're doing pranayama breathing techniques meditation yoga asana which is the movement mindfulness practices which come out of Buddhist tradition but are so popular now any of these techniques that helped bring us into a state of parasympathetic rest and digest will help to bring the body back to natural regulation where it wants to be so using this idea as a tool I have started to notice when my stress kind of Peaks and I feel less in control of my reactions and or my reactions are not maybe as nice or subtle or polished as I would like them to be because life is moving really fast always but right now is a very unique time so you know number one self-care cutting yourself some slack understanding this but then also acknowledging you know how can I notice before I get to that point what's happening in my body are the muscles tensing is the heart racing my feeling anxious so that maybe we can then determine what our coping methods or techniques are such as yoga meditation mindfulness but also playing an instrument going for a walk go for a run riding a bike doing art things that allow your body to naturally reregulate and de-stress quote so whatever those tools are for you it doesn't have to be the tools we're discussing here but you know your body best you know when you feel good and relaxed and kind of that peace and maybe creative and able to come up with new ideas and are excited and then there are times when we feel more depleted more withdrawn difficulty sleeping too much or too little eating too much or too little and we all have these ups and downs these cycles so by understanding our window of tolerance when we have a lot of stress it shrinks when we have less stress we can handle more so at this time being easy on ourselves being easy on each other and also considering what tools are in your toolbox what are your coping tools and you get to choose it could be a glass of wine it could be a pack of cigarettes it could be whatever else it could be a walk a hike maybe it can't be maybe it's painting an instrument yoga meditation audio book whatever brings you peace and allows you to feel that you're at rest rest and digest so this is our window of tolerance and that can help us understand you know not judging other people's reactions at this time maybe they have reached their couch and we don't know what else has contributed to that so bringing this awareness into our interactions in our day-to-day can help kind of keep ourselves calm to like oh I don't need to react to that because I understand that they're just on this which saw a mine so I see you I hear it you know it's all good and I'm not carrying that so there's my practice with the window of tolerance let's go ahead and learn a new pranayama technique which is a breathing technique so finding your comfortable seat pindy legs crossed are extended I have a chair sit on the edge of the chair ideally with no cushion so you can feel your sits bones you're a bony part of the bottom on the earth feeling supported that's where we get our grounding which is also a rest in digest function of feeling connected and solid stable so noticing where the body meets the floor or the earth and rest the hands on the knees are in the lab you can even practice meditation laying down or in bed or standing up so finding the position that best suits you there needs to be a straight tall spine so if you're laying down a straight spine as well and finding your comfortable seat drop the gaze toward the earth to close the eyes and draw the crown of the head take a big breath in and let it go one more time and your awareness to any sounds you might hear around you any potential distractions you can consider these tools as well because life is not quiet so if we can learn to be still and be quiet in the busy world and that will only serve us more so acknowledging naming any sounds any potential distractions even in your thoughts things that might come up you can name and acknowledge and go ahead and put each thing away you can imagine placing them out in the driveway or the neighbor's yard across the street you don't need them anymore you can pick up these thoughts distractions once again if you choose once we've completed practice the breath through the nose I'm bringing awareness now that we've acknowledged our outside what's happening outside ourselves let's bring awareness to the breath and just notice the qualities of faster slow taking a big breath in noticing the lungs fill up three-dimensionally front back body and the belly rises as the diaphragm lips exhale release to breath out the nose exhaling let it go on your next inhale breathe breathe in to the count of three full lungs watching as the chest expands back body and perhaps diaphragm the holding at the top exhale one two three next breath two four one two three four hold at the top exhale one on your next breath breathing whole own maybe four or five count all the way to the crown of the head full lungs on an exhale slow as you can go to twice as long we're going for 10 counts eight twelve even exhaling no air left in the lungs gonna do that one more time breathing in full lungs big big breath follows your lungs have been all day on an exhale slow as you can go eight ten twelve [Music] three more times inhale exhale slow as you can go competing with yourself each breath oh look a little bit longer than the last and you think stock stagnant releasing two more on your own extended exhales Wow if you have kids you can Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] not all the King letting go extractions be that noises or things outside of us or heart center respect for Indian tradition understanding of classical and traditional yoga term namaste I may or may not have been used it is just a traditional greeting means the light in you thank you for joining the next time we get together we'll be doing neuroplasticity and a meditative technique in western psychology called observational awareness in Buddhist tradition it's known as the pasta Naz meditation so we'll be taking a look at that technique paired with an understanding of your plasticity and our ability to change our own thoughts Amy Osborne with Loyola Marymount University and North Bergen wellness thank you so much for joining I look forward to you