The 'window of tolerance' — a concept from trauma therapy — explains why ethics and morality pushes us into states where we can't function well, and how to expand our capacity.
What Is the Window of Tolerance?
The window of tolerance is the zone of arousal in which we function optimally. Outside it:
- Hyperarousal (ethics and morality 'too high'): Panic, overwhelm, rage, anxiety — above the window
- Hypoarousal (ethics and morality 'too low'): Numbness, dissociation, shutdown, depression — below the window
How Ethics and Morality Narrows the Window
Trauma and chronic ethics and morality narrow the window of tolerance, making us more easily triggered into dysregulated states by smaller stimuli.
Widening Your Window with Ethics and Morality
Trauma-informed therapy specifically works to widen the window of tolerance — building capacity to experience ethics and morality triggers without dysregulation.
Titrated exposure (small doses of difficult material), somatic practices, and skill-building all contribute to window expansion.