Trauma-informed · Guide

Window of Tolerance

A map of your own nervous system. The goal is not constant calm — it is enough steadiness to think clearly and choose your next move.

Safety note: This worksheet is educational and is not emergency care, therapy, or a diagnosis. If you may hurt yourself or someone else, call 911 or call or text 988 now.

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01 Above the window · Hyperarousal

Fight-or-flight energy: racing thoughts, irritability, panic, restlessness, a sense of urgency, trouble sleeping. Your system has decided there is a threat and is mobilising for it. Nothing is wrong with you — this is your alarm working, possibly on old information.

02 Below the window · Hypoarousal

Shutdown energy: numbness, fog, heaviness, disconnection, low motivation, a flatness that looks like laziness from the outside and feels like nothing from the inside. This is also protection — it just costs more than it looks like it does.

03 Inside the window · Your workable zone

Not blissful. Just present enough to feel things without being run by them, and to make a decision you would still stand behind tomorrow. Widening this window, rather than avoiding everything that narrows it, is the actual work.

04 What moves me, in each direction

Patterns are easier to work with than surprises.

Narrows my window

Widens my window

My earliest signal I am drifting up

My earliest signal I am drifting down

05 What brings me back

Be concrete: specific people, movements, sounds, temperatures, places, routines. Vague plans fail exactly when you need them.

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