Originally posted: December 27, 2023
Becky Swan was talking about Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in the office a few weeks ago. She commented that it was similar to the Window of Tolerance (WoT). It is? That got my attention.
I am familiar with WoT because three years ago Becky and I took trauma resilience training with Wounded Warrior Canada and learned about it.
What Becky was saying is that heart rate variability is basically the same thing, just seen through a physiological lens. These two diagrams helped me understand it a little better.
The WoT, seen through a psychological lens:
This is the WoT, seen through a physiological lens:
Becky said, “HRV (a monitoring system which is on many watches now) provides an objective measurement of someone’s nervous system – how the systems are balanced. HRV is used in the strength and conditioning world as it helps to determine how much physical stress to apply in a workout to elicit a growth response – if your system is very stressed (for whatever reason), applying a lot of physical stress will not necessarily have a good outcome.
HRV can be used by individuals to start to learn how their body responds to different types of stress by reviewing their HRV after a stressor and reflecting on it.
There is a book called Widen the Window, by Dr. Elizabeth A. Stanley, that is really great.
It describes how the window expands and narrows and how some people are born with wider or more narrow windows due to their parents’ trauma or adverse childhood experiences. There is also a mental health professional, Matthew Bennett, that talks (has a podcast – Heart Rate Variability Podcast – and HRV app – optimal HRV) about using HRV to support trauma recovery. He actually learned a great deal of his HRV knowledge from a Vancouver guy – Greg Elliot – who is a leader in the area for HRV. He is actually open to coming here and doing a lunch and learn to teach people about HRV and how it can help health from a biopsychosocial perspective – just thought I would plant that seed.”