Pendulation

All natural systems pendulate. They swing between poles, like the pendulum of a grandfather clock.

Carl Jung called this phenomenon “enantiodromia”—the tendency for things to change into their opposites. Jung’s views on the topic were influenced by the ancient Greeks, including Plato, who said “Everything arises in this way, opposites from their opposites."

Early Chinese philosophers came to a similar conclusion, framing it as “Yin becoming Yang, Yang becoming Yin.”

Our bodies are no exception to this rule. Fullness becomes hunger becomes fullness. Inhale becomes exhale becomes inhale. Ovulation becomes menstruation becomes ovulation.

So too with the nervous system: It alternates between sympathetic and parasympathetic states, between mobilization (an “up-wave”) and immobilization (a “down-wave”).

“Mobilization” (the up-wave) encompasses all our activity in the world, from waking up to getting dressed to eating breakfast to going outside. “Immobilization” (the down-wave) represents the Yin to arousal’s Yang; this is our capacity to rest and digest, to sleep and dream, to “down-shift” our experience. Here’s a visual model of the waves of the nervous system, continually rising and settling:

Now, the nervous system also pendulates between “connection” and “protection” modes.

In connection mode, we feel relatively safe. Here, our physiology operates within a “window of tolerance,” where we’re not overly stressed. In the window of tolerance, we have access to our inner resources—resources like clear thinking, creativity, compassion, playfulness, and the capacity to rest and restore.

When we’re in connection mode, mobilization (our up-waves) and immobilization (our down-waves) alternate without getting too high or too low, which makes life feel manageable. You can see these waves occurring within the window of tolerance here:

Sometimes, however, dangers arise, and we need to leave connection mode. We move beyond our window of tolerance into protection mode.

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“Protection mode” refers to the survival states we experience when we’re faced with danger. Our up-wave of activation zooms out of our window of tolerance.

There are two primary categories of protection mode: hyper-arousal and hypo-arousal.

In hyper-arousal, energy floods into our bodies so we can act with speed and power. This is the fight-or-flight response.

Say a car swerves toward me; my nervous system recognizes the danger, activates protection mode, and I quickly dart out of the way in order to survive. Fight-or-flight has kept helped me survive!

Now, if hyper-arousal doesn’t get us to safety, the nervous system automatically moves into hypo-arousal, where we freeze. There are several ways the freeze response manifests, including states of numbness, dissociation, and even loss of consciousness.

Say that car that swerves toward me pins me underneath. Fight-or-flight is going to help very much, so it gives way to freeze. Pain-numbing chemicals are released, and my consciousness drifts from my body, making an overwhelming exprience more tolerable.

Here’s a visual representation of protection mode:

So, the nervous system pendulates between connection and protection, inside and outside the window of tolerance. If we feel safe, we stay in connection. If a survival response is required, we shift into protection mode.

But what if the nervous system continually perceives danger?

In this case, the pendulum gets stuck in protection. The nervous system swings into survival mode and it doesn’t swing back. It continues to operate as if our lives are being threatened, even when we’re objectively safe. This is trauma.

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In trauma, the nervous system has “forgotten” how to shift back into connection mode. This is a problem because our survival states are only designed to last a short amount of time. When we get stuck in protection, life becomes miserable.

When we’re always in survival mode, we chronically feel “too up” (hyper-aroused, like in anxiety, panic, insomnia, or rage) and/or “too down” (hypo-aroused, as in depression, dissociation, or withdrawal).

This can make life feel like it’s not worth living.

So, how can we restore smooth pendulation in our nervous systems? How can we find our way back to connection mode, to our window of tolerance?

Well, first, I want to note that protection mode is not the enemy. In fact, our survival states are superpowers! They help us survive, and we want to honor them. But we also want to reserve protection mode only for when we really need it. And we want to be able to leave protection mode when it’s no longer necessary.

Now, a primary way that I help clients restore their capacity for pendulation is by guiding them in “tick-tocking” between autonomic states—between connection and protection. Even if we feel stuck in protection mode (outside the window of the tolerance), micro-pendulations are still happening. We still have access to little morsels of safety and comfort, momentary glimpses of connection mode.

So, in my online and in-person somatic sessions, I support your exploration of these moments of contact with your window of tolerance. And I help you bring your awareness to your swings between connection and protection.

This practice is done in a titrated (gradual, gentle) way, so that it’s not overwhelming for you. I help you bring curiosity and tenderness and patient attention to shifts in your nervous system.

Awareness is the magic ingredient here. Our inner processes want to be witnessed; our body wants to feel felt. When you attend to your own aliveness, healing happens. Amazingly, your nervous system starts to remember how to be flexible. It remembers how to return to connection mode.

This practice of pendulation helps you restore your innate natural rhythms. And you gradually learn that it’s safe to feel safe.

As clients develop this skill, their window of tolerance widens, and their old traumas begin to discharge. They start to build a home in connection mode. (Check out this video for Peter Levine’s description of the process.)

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As Alaine Duncan writes, when you’re practicing pendulation, you’re “restoring the dynamic and life-giving movement, relationship, and tension between yin and yang.”

You’re starting to reconnect with the breath of life—in and out, up and down, opening and closing, expanding and contracting, activating and deactivating. You’re synching with the larger life-rhythms that are pulsing around us and within you.

Through this practice, you begin to discover that you don’t need protection mode as much as you used to. It’s still there, of course. Still available for you to shift into when necessary. But it’s no longer your default mode. You’re no longer stuck there.

And when you do land in protection mode, you find that you now have familiar and reliable pathways to travel when you want to leave it, pathways to swing back into connection mode.

In the process, you’re strengthening your resilience. You’re developing nervous-system harmony. You’re deftly surfing your waves of aliveness.

Header Photo Credit: https://kriswilliams.medium.com/how-life-is-like-a-pendulum-8811c4177685