“So many of our efforts to address inequities, and violence, and hatred, and dead and broken bodies in our streets, have been conceptual—and they have failed. If we’re going to make any progress, we need to start with the body.” Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands, Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
The Window of Affect Tolerance
"Window of Tolerance" a term coined by psychologist Dr. Dan Siegel is often used to explain body and brain (sympathetic and parasympathetic) reactions to trauma or adversity. Â (Great brief video explaining Window of Tolerance) The following tips for using the Window of Affect Tolerance in racial justice spaces have evolved in a collective process, originating from the work of Dennie Butler-MacKay, LICSW and Abigail Ortiz, MSW, MPH of the Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center in Boston, MA and the Racial Reconciliation and Healing Project www.racialrec.org. Â Â
Using the Window of Affect Tolerance in Racial Justice Space
Introduction:
Integrating intellectual understanding with emotional intelligence is required to really advance equity. Said another way, to engage in transformational and radical racial and social justice work, we must connect the experiences of the head and heart. Our intellectual understanding of racism must be connected with the embodied lived experience of engaging with the system of racism (power, advantage, oppression, internalization). The first language is the body, and it can only be accessed when we give ourselves permission to listen.  The importance of honoring energy and feelings has been central to Indigenous and other communities and cultures over time and has been recognized as essential in racial justice work  and has also been adopted in the fields of leadership development  and economics more broadly.  Tapping into heart space allows for deeper engagement, accountability, and truer relationships. It is essential to name the energy in the room, and create a culture shift where relating in this way is norm and not exception or reserved for outside of the workplace. “The system of racism, is among other things, a form of trauma, and trauma thrives when people are not given space to feel.”  This is typical in professional settings where we are trained to think intellectually and analytically. In spite of powerful data about the impact of racism on health, if individuals are only required to intellectualize, they are unable to hold onto the data in a meaningful way and cannot engage in a long-term commitment to racial justice. “You have to feel, to heal, to deal.” Â
Use the Window of Affect Tolerance if there is an explicit commitment to honoring the energy and feelings in the room. Our culture, especially “professional code” tells us to take our feelings to the bathroom, take a walk, and “get it together” so be prepared for possible resistance to shifting the culture to explicitly invite the body back into the room. Don’t spring this tool on a group that hasn’t talked about how doing racial justice work requires us to engage differently.
This tool is a small piece, one way, towards a larger commitment of integrating the head and heart. You may start this by using another check in question, pausing with intention at the start of a meeting or process, to ask folks how they are feeling, encourage sharing, ask how their energy is at the start of the meeting or process. After a few weeks of increasingly being explicit about checking in, all the while inviting conversation and reflection about what it’s like to share this in that space, you may want to share the window and have a conversation about experimenting with using it. We have found it helpful to offer it as a tool we are trying on and seeing how it goes. Pay attention to the resistance, with an eye to power and the dimensions of people’s identities that create more or less risk (real or perceived) to engage in this conversation. Â
Why we use this tool in our work:
When we deeply engage in understanding power and inequity, and position ourselves in the analysis, not focusing on “other communities” our bodies tend to have a sympathetic response — the nervous system prepares the body to react to the stress of threat or injury by contracting muscles and increasing the heart rate. The question is, can I be in relationship here, still engaged in thinking, and in the window, while I’m experiencing some hyperarousal?
Too often we act like (and believe) that feelings should be left at the office door, or at best, we just don’t/shouldn’t acknowledge them, especially in “professional” settings. (This is an underpinning of White supremacy culture). Using the Window of Affect Tolerance in a workshop, meeting or other “professional” setting offers us a tool by which to measure and name our energy and opens up the possibility of allowing ourselves to be moved by the energy of others.
A practice of using the window in group settings allows everyone to have a foot in the door to name their energy and the sensations in their bodies. A commitment to this kind of container invites people to describe the subtle things they are experiencing in their bodies. (e.g., I am experiencing a tingling in my belly. I am experiencing my heart race. I am experiencing tension in my jaw... fluttering in my chest, etc.
And it creates a shared language for colleagues to acknowledge how they are showing up to work together at any given moment. Â As such, it can offer a simple way of saying what you need from the group to help you feel more regulated.
The model:
The Window of Affect Tolerance or “the Window” is used to describe the zone of arousal in which a person is “able to function most effectively.” When people are within this zone, they are typically able to readily receive, process, and integrate information and otherwise respond to the inputs of daily life without much difficulty. This optimal window was first named as such by Dan Siegel.  Simply, the window represents a range of energy, and your place in the window at any given moment is about how regulated your energy is.
Moment to moment:
It’s important to keep in mind that this is a measure of our internal thermometer at this very instant. You are welcome to assign feeling or value (e.g., good, bad, scared, anxious) but we also know that is one way that White supremacy manifests - the notion that you have to know what you are feeling and name it. In this way, we can unintentionally prioritize people who feel the agency and comfort to articulate their feelings, and we overshadow and do not create space to honor the body’s response.
It is enough to say “I’m experiencing a sensation right now, and i don't know why or what it is.”
Our energy shifts quickly - a missed bus, a sweet text, being early to a meeting, spilled breast milk. (Of course the experience of any of these can linger, and when we have been out of the window, we may feel that energy and sensation in the body for hours as we re-regulate.) This tool is not about gauging how you’ve been feeling in the last two weeks of this cold weather, or since an election, or since your baby was born.
Your energy may change from when we start this check in to the time it’s your turn to share.
Some people’s window may go up just having to speak or to share this type of check in. Others’ may come down once they name how they are doing and discharge something. Always remember, the question is about this moment.
This is an invitation to pay attention to and honor that the body is in the room, our bodies are in the room, and we are a We. The energy in between two people, is as important as the two people themselves. Â
The diagram:
When facilitating this activity, you should draw this diagram on chart paper, including at least the lines and the words hyper and hypo-arousal. The numbers, subjective units of disturbance or SUDS, were added by Dennie Butler-MacKay to help youth identify with the window. They can be used to help people who are looking for a more concrete way to check in with the tool. Use them if it’s helpful, they are not there to make people feel like they have to assign a number to their bodies. What we want to know is 1) are you in the window? and 2) if you are feeling high or low in a way that impacts your presence and effectiveness right now, and 3) of course, as we aspire to be in deeper relationship and community with one another, is there something you need from this group or otherwise to get more regulated in this moment (stretch, cup of tea, need to say something)?  On the last page we have included other images of the window, some with slightly different context, which some have found helpful.
There is no zero, the mid-point is 1. You are alive, in an energy state, so there is some thinking and/or feeling happening.
Hyperarousal:
Between 1 and +10 your energy in your body is moving faster, and you are increasingly less critically thinking as you approach +10.  Sweaty palms, bubbles in your belly, heart beating fast are all embodied expressions of hyper arousal. Outside of the window on top (above +10) is characterized by extremely heightened energy, it’s almost like you are all feeling, and no thinking. What are the sensations in the body when we are all the way hyper-aroused? What does someone look like who is hyper-aroused? (Facilitator note: this is when it’s ok to ask about observing this behavior in others, versus asking someone to share what they personally look like when hyper aroused. Answers you are looking for or prompting: crying, shaking, hollering, wailing, punching, turning red, sweating, hard to speak…)
We often ascribe feelings or emotions to these feelings to be able to make sense of them or communicate them with others.
Hypoarousal:
Below the midline, or below 1, is considered hypo-arousal and is characterized by increasingly less feeling and less critical thinking. Between 1 and -10, the body may be experiencing a quietness, stillness, exhaustion. Outside of the window or below -10 people show up as despondent, lethargic, checked out, glazed over, numb, “dead inside”, passive, disconnected, shut down, “not there”.
As humans, we want to stay in the window. It doesn’t feel good to be out of the window on either side and we will work to get ourselves back in the window (sometimes with maladaptive behaviors.) Even when in the window, our bodies want to get regulated. What techniques might someone use to get back in the window?
There is no good or bad value associated with above the mid-line/positive numbers and below the mid-line/negative numbers. You can be -2 because you just had a great meal, finished your work early, and are headed to the beach after this meeting. You can be +4 because your sister just had a baby this morning and you are excited. You can be +4 because you are heading into a hard meeting after this or someone you love is sick.
You can be both high and low at the same time - rising sensation of excitement (maybe +3), but also feeling a little sick (so maybe a -2). Â
If you check in towards the edges of the window (high or low), we are not just going to pass you by. The purpose of this is to know if you are regulated so we can work together in this moment. So, as a group of people committed to this working relationship, we will ask if there is anything you need in order to feel more regulated. Please don’t let the check in or attention stop you from naming if you are very high or very low.  If someone checks in out of the window (it will likely be evident) care should be taken to make sure that person is safe from harm (to self or others) and to identify someone, possibly someone with clinical training, to help them regulate. Ask them what would help them and change the plan to meet that need.
Baseline:
While some people may spend their days hyper or hypo aroused, everyone has a regulated state. This means we each have to think about equanimity for our bodies.
You should not “diagnose” others with this, or start assigning people numbers based on how they show up. As we deepen relationships, we begin to track people and we know by looking at someone if they are super high or low or out of the window.
In some cases, relationships have grown to a place where they can ask each other “how is your window? You seem [a little flustered after that phone call.]” (Facilitation note: Who are the trackers among you? They have been there all along, and tend to check in with people during or after the meeting. Now you have a language and can check in with the trackers during the meetings when you are facilitating to know how things are going for them and the room.) Â
Always remember, one person’s expression of being high or low in the window may look different than someone else’s but the signs of being out of the window are not ones that we can hide, it’s clear when someone’s energy is very dysregulated.
Who gets to express when they are high?
Like all things, this tool does not exist outside of systems like racism, sexism, gender oppression, and other systems of advantage and oppression. Â (Facilitation note: Who is facilitating and sharing examples matters. Always mindful of roles in facilitation of the window activity. Â It may not always be facilitated in mixed race dyads, but as with all things, be mindful of what space people of color (facilitators and participants) hold when asking for examples relative to POC emotions and what space White people should hold when talking about White emotional reactions. This is as true when asking participants for feedback as for who is facilitating.)
Given the often over-disciplined, sometimes fatal, consequences when a young man of color expresses their heightened energy (behaviors that are often perceived as threatening and hyper-masculine), how might some young men of color have been trained or socialized (by White supremacy), to show up in spaces, even when they are high in the window? We could imagine they might work really hard to hide this energy. This may look like arms crossed, head down, shrinking, being quiet, because the negative consequences of showing up and expressing what they feel in their bodies are omnipresent. (Facilitator’s note: Can we have a feeling about this right now? That men of color can’t express their body’s energy?) How about White women? Generalizing here again: how have White women been socialized to act, or given permission to show up, when they have a feeling? (Facilitator prompt: It’s been my experience that a white woman crying centers the rooms attention. Ask: Is that fair to them or others? I know/I am a White wome/an who can talk through their tears and who want to be able to express their energy and not center the room.) A key element to remind people of, particularly those who are White, is that listening to and sharing out our energy is not the same as being “unsafe.” Often White folks are trained and shown that their feelings are a priority and that when the they have them they can shut down a process and claim they are no longer safe. (This again is an underpinning of White supremacy culture). We are committed to co-creating safer spaces (no threats, no screaming, etc), but we encourage the explicit naming of the ways our energy goes high or low and to acknowledging and addressing when that is a result of what’s going on in the space. Imagine that you can feel dis-regulated and even uncomfortable and still be safe.
Facilitator guide:
We are going to go around the room as part of our introductions and share where our energy is relative to the window.
Remember
● this is a measure of your internal body thermometer at the moment when it’s your turn, so take a breath and tune in before answering
â—Ź pay attention to how your window changes as a reaction to what others are saying
● you can share just whether you are “in the window” or not
â—‹ You are welcome to layer that with the SUDS numbers
â—‹ You are welcome to layer it with feeling words, and or context about why
○ And as we aspire to be in deeper relationship and community with one another if there’s something you need from this group or otherwise to get more regulated in this moment (stretch, cup of tea, the need to say something) you can share that too.
When to use the Window:
Any time you are together! It can be a quick go around at the opening of a staff meeting or part of a more in depth introduction in a workshop setting. You can also make space for it in the middle of something - like after watching a film clip, or reviewing new mortality data, or receiving good news. Sometimes it’s as easy as naming for yourself, “wow, I feel a shift in my window (up or down) as a result of [what you just said/what we just saw/etc.) Modeling that you are listening to your body gives permission for others to do the same. You don’t always have to go around and share, sometimes it’s ok if the facilitator of the meeting/space just pauses and invites folks to check their window and perhaps invites a deep breath or other practice to help people regulate. When you begin to use it regularly and you drift away from the in-depth explanation of how to use it, it might end up feeling like a quick, maybe meaningless go around. That’s ok. When the greater context of why it’s used is understood and there is a shared commitment to reintegrating the heart, the check in may happen more quickly. When it starts to feel like just a task to start the meeting and is void of the depth of welcoming the body and heart, it's always good to revisit the intention of using it. You might revisit the whole explanation of it periodically, even with groups who have been using it for a while, just to re-center so everyone remembers what it means and can hold the intention and not just casually rattle off numbers or report out feeling words and not body energy.  And it's also ok to rattle off numbers if the space remains true to the fact that feelings are welcome and we can hold the hard stuff when (not if) it’s in the room. Â
Challenge by choice:
People don’t have to share more than they are comfortable about and may not be ready to ascribe feeling words to the sensations in the body. However, if someone asks to “pass” that is a sign they are having a feeling! If the group is in agreement about the heart being required and welcome, then there may also be an agreement to be explicit to at least let folks know if you are in or out of the window so they can know how/if the conversation/meeting can proceed and/or if there is support needed in another way.
Forthcoming edits:
â—Ź What if someone checks in out of the window?
â—Ź Why this is not an icebreaker
â—Ź Why is it important to acknowledge the heart in the room?
From the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine
https://www.nicabm.com/trauma-how-to-help-your-clients-understand-their-window-of-tolerance/
https://www.attachment-and-trauma-treatment-centre-for-healing.com/blogs/understanding-and-working-with-the-window-of-tolerance
