🔼: [[💡 Somatic Experiencing]], [[Turn Toward]], [[Turn Away]] ##### 🕯️ Pendulation An element of [[💡 Somatic Experiencing|Somatic Experiencing]], pendulation couples with [[🕯️ Titration]] as an essential skill. We move our attention from something unpleasant (such as a somatic sensation, [[⭐️ Emotions|emotion]], thought) or potentially [[💡 Overwhelm|overwhelming]], to something pleasant or at least neutral (a [[🛠 Pendulation Anchor]]), get re-centered, and then go back to the unpleasant thing — like the pendulum of a clock swinging back and forth. We feel what we feel within our [[💡 Window of Tolerance|Window of Tolerance]], bit-by-bit. For example, we might begin by focusing on a pain in our back which becomes distressing. So we then move our attention somewhere comfortable or neutral, like our arm resting on a chair or our hand stroking an animal’s fur and re-center, and then turn back to the pain. Everyone pendulates, this is just a term somebody made up to point to it from a therapeutic perspective. Other examples of what we might call pendulation: - Dipping our toe into water and then drawing it back out so that we can slowly immerse ourselves as our body adjusts. - Working on a difficult problem until we start to feel agitation and then taking a break by doing something else or in [[⭐️ Rest and Restoration]] before coming back to it another time. - A child exploring outside, coming back to their caregivers to recuperate, and then setting back out into the world again. ![[Combining Pendulation and Titration]] <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W-QPafyd4JY?feature=oembed" height="113" width="200" style="aspect-ratio: 1.76991 / 1; width: 100%; height: 100%;"></iframe> ![[🛠 Pendulation Anchor]] ![[🛠 Pendulation Toolkit]] [^1]: