The Zone of Tolerance
The ability to experience cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat while maintaining ventral vagal stabilization is key to the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance.
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Previous articles have described the concept of flexibility of the nervous system. This concept reflects the extent to which we are able to experience internal, external, and relational cues and stimuli that may cause varying degrees of mobilization towards sympathetic states and, simultaneously, maintain ventral vagal stabilization or restore ventral vagal activation in situations in which we mobilize into sympathetic states or shutdown in dorsal vagal states. The importance of optimizing our nervous system flexibility lies in its importance in not only managing daily encounters, but optimizing our ability to push our performance limits, grow, and increase our capabilities.
A concept related to nervous system flexibility is variably termed the zone or window of tolerance. This framework was described by Dan Siegel, MD and has been discussed within a therapeutic context. It describes, in essence, the magnitude of cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat which we can tolerate without fully mobilizing into sympathetic states. Effectively, the more narrow an individual’s window or zone of tolerance may be, the more easily or readily that person will mobilize into sympathetic states. This may be reflected in an individual being more reactive, particularly in response to what would be considered to be lesser magnitude events or stimuli. Conversely, an individual with a larger window or zone of tolerance may be considered to have more poise on account of being able to tolerate higher demand situations or greater cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat without mobilizing into a sympathetic state.
While the concept of the window or zone of tolerance has been most commonly incorporated within therapeutic scenarios, particularly related to posttraumatic stress, there are also important applications within the pursuit of sustainable high performance. Importantly, the ability to widen this zone may have substantial benefits in our ability to consistently perform towards our potential and extend those limits. The application of this concept within this domain is the focus of this article.
Before exploring strategies by which we can extend our zone of tolerance, it is first important to more completely describe its determining factors. As discussed above, this concept pertains to the ability of our nervous system to maintain ventral vagal regulation in situations in which we encounter cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat. Such cues, as discussed in past articles, result in a tendency towards biological shifts into sympathetic and dorsal vagal states. Dependent upon the magnitude of the cue and our biological state at the time we encounter the stimulus, we either maintain ventral vagal stabilization, thereby staying within our zone of tolerance, or mobilize into sympathetic states.
This understanding informs the determining factors within our influence. We do not have direct control over the experiences we encounter, although we can influence them to a degree. What is more directly within our control is the extent to which we acknowledge our biological states and have developed skills and strategies to shift towards our desired states. Through the principle of state as an intervening variable, we can understand how we are able to influence our resulting biological state following exposure to various cues and stimuli. Each of these factors is enhanced through development and embodiment of the polyvagal informed toolbox.
There are two highly relevant scenarios pertaining to healthcare professionals. The first application is the overlap between the zone of tolerance and the principle of allostasis. The second is the implementation of this concept within the domain of burnout.
Allostasis is the situation in which we encounter high demand situations and cues of uncertainty, risk, or threat without becoming overwhelmed. In essence, allostasis strongly overlaps with the window of tolerance. In contrast, allostatic load is considered to be a scenario in which we become overwhelmed in response to demands we experience. This corresponds to mobilization into sympathetic states. The concepts of allostasis and allostatic load are discussed within the domain of stress management and, as can be appreciated, map directly towards the polyvagal informed consideration of the zone of tolerance. Within the domain of stress management, strategies are implemented to increase allostasis and reduce allostatic load. This strongly corresponds to the concept of widening the zone of tolerance.
Over the course of the recent three part series regarding the biological considerations of burnout, the polyvagal informed understanding of this important issue was discussed. The concept of the zone of tolerance can also be applied to the understanding of burnout. It should be recalled from the three part series that this consideration does not place blame on the individual who becomes burned out, nor does it fail to recognize the cultural and systemic issues related to healthcare professional burnout. Healthcare professionals work within a high demand, high stakes context. When these individuals experience cues of uncertainty, risk and threat and maintain ventral vagal stabilization they stay within their zone of tolerance. However, if these cues result in shifts outside the zone of tolerance, the biology of these individuals shifts into sympathetic states and the initial manifestations of burnout may result. From this understanding emerges the potential for widening the zone of tolerance to contribute to the management of burnout.
Another important consideration related to the zone of tolerance is that there are no fixed boundaries to the window. It is dynamic, much like many of the other attributes we seek to develop in the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance. The explanation for this emerges from a return to the previously described determining factors of the zone. Two of the predominant elements are the extent to which we embody and express the skills of the polyvagal informed toolbox and our biological state at the time we encounter cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat. Given these factors vary over time, there is little question that our resulting window of tolerance is dynamic as well. This manifests through the experience that we all share and can relate to in which we can have very different degrees of tolerance at different times in the face of similar cues.
Given the above discussion, we can now explore the means by which we can expand our zone of tolerance and the importance of doing so. Based upon an understanding of the predominant determinants of the boundaries of our zone of tolerance, we can deduce that training and developing the mind-based and body-based skills and strategies of the polyvagal informed toolbox will result in widening of the zone of tolerance. The explanation for this lies in the ability of these skills, when embodied and expressed, to increase ventral vagal stabilization. This prevents shifts into sympathetic states and also allows recovery from sympathetic states back towards ventral vagal stabilized states.
Expanding our zone of tolerance is important within the domain of sustainable high performance. In the pursuit of being at our best, we must, by definition, push our limits and extend our capacity. This process involves exposure to high demand, high stakes situations in which we encounter internal, external, and relational cues of uncertainty, risk, and threat. Without exposing ourselves to such situations, we are not able to increase our capabilities, develop our skills, and increase our level of performance. In order to experience this process in a fashion that does not overwhelm us, allows us to learn and develop our skills, and recover back to homeostasis it is essential that we maintain, and return back to, ventral vagal stabilization through extension of the width of our zone of tolerance. Without doing so, we will likely experience shifts into sympathetic states which are detrimental to the goals previously discussed.
It is hoped that the above discussion of the zone of tolerance and its application within the domain of sustainable high performance is informative. While this principle may not have been initially conceptualized with the goal of optimization of human performance, from my perspective it clearly has direct application to the pursuit of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance. The polyvagal informed Practices of the Healthcare Athlete provide the necessary mind-based and body-based skills and strategies to widen the zone of tolerance and promote the goals of health, wellbeing, and sustainable high performance. To learn more, including about polyvagal informed coaching for healthcare professionals, visit www.darindavidson.com.
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REFERENCES
Allison, M. The Play Zone: A Neurophysiological Approach to our Highest Performance. https://theplayzone.com.
Dana, D. Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory. Boulder, Colorado: Sounds True, 2021.
Dana, D. Polyvagal Practices: Anchoring The Self in Safety. New York: W.W. Nortan & Company, 2023.
Porges SW, Porges S. Our Polyvagal World: How Safety and Trauma Change Us. New York: W.W. Norton & Company; 2023.
Siegel, DJ. The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, 3rd ed. New York: The Guilford Press; 2020.