🔼: [[Turn Toward]], [[Turn Away]] ##### 🕯️ Titration >"The great thing, then, in all of education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy." >— William James, 1857 >”*Less is more.*” >“*Take baby steps.*” >”*Little by little.*” >”*Easy does it.*” >”*In your own time.*” >”*[[🔑 Go at your pace]]*” >”*Rome wasn’t built in a day.*” Titration is a term borrowed from Chemistry. If we take two chemicals and pour all of both into a new vessel, they’ll make a big mess. If instead we add them bit-by-bit, drop-by-drop, there’s a fizzle and then a settling, and then we can repeat until eventually the vessel is full and the chemicals are mixed. Outside of Chemistry, it refers to the practice of making small, tolerable changes. It’s staying within and expanding our [[💡 Window of Tolerance|Window of Tolerance]] by deliberately leaving our [[💡 Window of Tolerance#Comfort Zone|Comfort Zone]], entering our [[💡 Window of Tolerance#Challenge Zone|Challenge Zone]], and then falling back to our [[💡 Comfort Zone|Comfort Zone]] for [[⭐️ Rest and Restoration]] and [[🕯️ Resourcing]] while our bodymind integrates our experiences all by itself. Sudden drastic changes, positive or negative, are often highly destabilizing both internally and externally. Sudden temperature changes, when a warm front meets a cold front, results in a storm. %%Drastic political changes almost never happen without violence.%% Big changes in our life often do the same, as does toward our deepest wounds all at once. We can't grow in our [[💡 Comfort Zone|Comfort Zone]], but we don't want to be [[💡 Overwhelm|overwhelmed]] all the time — so we titrate to stay whelmed and couple it with [[🕯️ Pendulation]] as an essential skill. - Keep it simple. There's no use in overwhelming yourself with fifty books and YouTube channels and doom-scrolling through mental health posts on social media — one thing at a time, at your parts' pace. - What's the [[🔑 Do the next right thing|🔑 next right thing]]? - [[A therapist can help us learn to titrate]] - [[🔑 Recovery is non-linear and cyclical]] - [[🔑 Progress accumulates]] - [[🔑 Go at your pace]] ![[Combining Pendulation and Titration]] ###### Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast If we're [[🦮 How to Recover from Trauma|recovering from trauma]], it’s even more important to go slowly and softly. It's common for [[💡 Exiles|exiles]] to show up spontaneously after [[F5 — BeFriend the Part|we get to know and befriend]] our [[💡 Protector Parts|Protectors]].[^3] Some protectors step aside very easily. If that does happen, immediately [[🔑 Most parts can choose to not overwhelm us if asked|🔑 ask the exiles to not overwhelm]].[^4] ###### Related - [[🕯️ Pendulation]] - [[🛠 Containment]] - [[🛠 Exposure Therapy]] [^1]: [[📖 ✅ IFS Online Circle]] Month 2: The Protective System & Fears of the Protectors [^2]: [[📖 🟢 Self-Therapy - A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Wholeness and Healing Your Inner Child Using IFS, A New, Cutting-Edge Psychotherapy, 2nd Edition]] Ch. 16 Tips on Working with a Therapist [^3]: [[📖 ✅ IFS Online Circle]] Month 2: The Protective System & Fears of the Protectors - Month 2 with Richard Schwartz [^4]: [[📖 ✅ IFS Online Circle]] Month 3: Working with Exiles & The Trauma Behind the Rage - Month 3 with Toni Herbine-Blank