19/10/2025
The Window of Tolerance.
Credit : Lindsay Brahman.
We always stand a much better chance of staying on course if they pay close attention to our nervous system.
This is especially true for those with a history of trauma.
Learning about fight, flight, fawn, and freeze can be helpful, but learning how these responses manifest in our bodies is where the magic really starts.
When we understand how fight, flight, freeze, or fawn show up for us, we can develop an internal template to refer back to in moments where we are feeling a lot of (or beginning to shut down and feeling no emotion at all) that alerts us when it’s time take steps to soothe our and return to our window of tolerance.
No one has an innate ability to pause during a conflict and reflect “Gosh, I think I might be moving into a freeze response.”
Instead, this realization tends to be something we recognize as we reflect on an experience later.
Growing the capacity to check in with ourselves and notice, in the moment, when we are slipping into a response is one key to learning how to self-soothe, expand our , grow emotionally, and build .
That’s where my new comes in: it’s a tool specifically for helping us recognize when we are moving out of our window of tolerance (where we can listen, learn, and respond thoughtfully) and into a reaction state.
Like the Emotion Sensation Wheel, the Fight, Flight, & Freeze Embodied Wheel is a tool to prompt conversations and build awareness by showing how each of these responses *tends* to show up through physical sensations.
It's not prescriptive- it's a conversation starter. It's meant to teach, to stir, and to prompt conversations that build awareness, connection, and experience through awareness.
Download a digital copy of this art via Lindsay Brahman's website
