Guided Practice for Resourcing, Titration, and Pendulation

In this episode, we’re shifting from learning to experiencing. Last week, we discussed the techniques of resourcing, titration, and pendulation and their importance in trauma healing. Today, I’ll guide you through a guided practice, allowing you to feel and embody these practices within your own systel..

This gentle, 15-minute practice will help you connect to a sense of safety, ease into challenging sensations, and learn to move between states of comfort and discomfort. By engaging your nervous system in this way, you show your system experientially that it doesn't have to stay stuck in moments of discomfort or activation.

Find a quiet, comfortable space, and hit play.

If today’s session resonates with you, remember that this kind of support is available in our membership and 1:1 coaching programs.

Website: https://www.riseaswe.com/podcast

Email: amanda@riseaswe.com

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Transcript

0:00  
Amanda, welcome to regulate and rewire an anxiety and depression podcast where we discuss the things I wish someone would have taught me earlier in my healing journey. I'm your host, Amanda Armstrong, and I'll be sharing my steps, my missteps, client experiences and tangible research based tools to help you regulate your nervous system, rewire your mind and reclaim your life. Thanks for being here. Now let's dive in. 

Hey and welcome back. 

So last week on the podcast, we explored the concepts of resourcing, titration and pendulation informationally, so learning about each of these techniques and understanding their essential role in trauma healing. But there is a difference between information education and experiential education, and so today, I want to do things a little bit differently and offer you an opportunity for experiential education of these three concepts. So today is going to be a simple and gentle guided practice that incorporates resourcing, titration and pendulation, to invite you into these practices in real time, to get some of this experiential learning on how these can help you regulate your nervous system. So these are concepts that should be organically woven into sessions with trauma trained practitioners, but these are also things that you can proactively practice and seek out on your own through guided practices like the one I'm going to offer today. 

And this is a practice that you could come back to 100 different times and have 100 different experiences in what feels resourcing, the depth that you're able to resource when you do titrate what feels like a little bit is going to change from day to day in different seasons of your healing. And what this pendulation, how wide that swing is is going to depend on your experience with these practices, the depth of your healing. And so today's practice is about connecting to safety first and then gently easing into a challenging sensation or emotion or experience in a way that feels manageable. 

And I want to invite you to come to the rest of today's episode, to come to this practice when you can do so uninterrupted, in a space that feels safe, in a place where you can close your eyes, if that feels good to you. So if you're not there, now, feel free to hit pause and come back to this episode another time. And with that context, we are going to shift into the practice. 

To begin, please find a comfortable position. This can be either seated or lying down, anywhere in any way that you feel supported,

and as you settle into this comfortable position, I invite you to take a moment to see if there's Any way you can make yourself even more comfortable.

And when you feel settled, bring your focus to your breath, just noticing breathing in and out, not trying to change your breath in any way. Just take a moment to notice this act of breathing.

Now gently shift your awareness to your contact points, the places of your body that are in contact with the surface below. Maybe that's your feet, the back of your calves, your hamstring, the back of your upper leg maybe your glutes or back as you lean against something,

maybe noticing where your hands have Contact with either your body or the surface below you. I'm just taking this moment to really sink into these contact points to this felt, sensation of being supported, of being held and. With your next exhale, releasing, relaxing, sinking a little deeper into the sense of being supported. Oh.

Now you'll begin with resourcing, which is about connecting to a sense of safety or comfort. I invite you to bring to mind a person, a place, a pet, a memory, anything that brings you a feeling of calm or warmth. This can be real or imagined, past or present, anything that helps you to feel grounded, entities take the next moment or Two to bring that image or thought to mind you.

As you focus on your resource, notice any physical sensations in your body? Do you feel warmth in your chest, a sense of ease in your shoulders? Maybe relaxation in your face. Allow yourself to fully connect to this experience of comfort, of support, letting it grow as you breathe in and out, take a few deep, gentle breaths, allowing your body to sink deeper into this feeling of safety you

and with this resource as your anchor, let's gently introduce titration, which means approaching difficult sensations or memories or Emotions slowly in small amounts, without allowing it to become overwhelming as you rest in this sense of safety, I invite you to notice now if there are any areas in your body that feel less comfortable, maybe a little bit tense or achy. Maybe it's an itch or a cramp, maybe it's a tightness in your chest or a pit in your stomach. Is there any sensation in your body right now that is a little bit uncomfortable, and as your awareness shifts there, we're just observing it for now. There's no judgment. And if you're able to notice any discomfort, imagine just gently touching into it. And then return to your resource, bring that image or that thought back to your mind, that sense of safety or comfort that you cultivated a moment ago, breathing in and out.

This now brings us to a practice of pendulation, which is the process of moving between states of regulation and activation of relative comfort and discomfort. It is moving between our resource and a titrated amount of discomfort. This helps your nervous system learn to move through these difficult sensations. Rather than getting stuck with this pendulation practice, you choose the content, and you choose the intensity in which you work with that content, the discomfort or activating content. Could be a sensation in your body. It could be an emotion that has felt charged or difficult for you to move through lately. It could even be a more recent interaction that brought up some discomfort. So we'll begin pendulation by again, focusing on your resource first breathing in and out, allowing yourself to feel grounded and connected, if it helps, even taking a moment to refocus on those contact points or your breath,

and now shifting your focus to what feels uncomfortable or slightly activating. This could be a sensation, an emotion, a memory,

and allowing yourself to be with that you

not judging, just noticing. How does this discomfort feel? How does it show up? And we're able to stay in this discomfort, knowing that at any moment, if we need to, we can return back to our resource.

If you haven't done so already. Let's come back together to your resource, bringing that image or that thought to mind, allowing yourself to feel the safety and comfort once more.

Now we'll repeat this rhythm, moving from comfort to discomfort and back, using that same piece of content, whether it was a particular emotion or a memory or a sensation in your body. We're going to pendulate into a titrated amount of discomfort, and then come back to your resource. And as you repeat this rhythm of moving towards in a way, notice if the sensations change over time, perhaps becoming softer or less intense. And with this practice, allow yourself to find your own pace, moving as slowly or as quickly as feels right for you, taking another breath or two in this resourced place, and then pendulating Your attention towards the sensation or emotion that feels more charged or activating, allowing yourself to be with that experience and returning back to your resource when needed. Doing this on your own for The next minute or two, you

now, as we come. To the close of this practice, take another moment to rest in your resource, once more, breathing in and out, maybe bringing your awareness back to your contact points, noticing the sensation of being held and supported and in this space, notice how your body feels now, and Notice if there's been any shift in the sensations since you experienced them earlier, even small changes are really valuable to notice.

Now, take a deep breath in and as you exhale, let your whole body relax, letting go of any tension, slowly bringing your awareness back to the space around you, maybe noticing any sounds inviting, gentle movement into your body, and if your eyes were closed, gently open them, taking your time, and whenever you feel ready, looking around the room, taking in Your surroundings and moving into the rest of your day.

Thank you for joining me for this practice. This is just one of innumerable ways that a guided practice for something like resourcing, titration or pendulation can be put together. If this was a practice that felt supportive for you in some way, please come back to it. If this practice didn't feel like a good fit for you, that's okay. This is an example of one of the hundreds of different guided practices and recordings that I have put together for our clients and that are inside the membership over the last handful of years, and there are so many other practitioners with beautiful guided practices that may feel like a better fit for your system. What I wanted to offer you with this episode was an opportunity for you to tune into your own experience. So much of this podcast, so much of the nature of all of podcasts is intellectual education, intellectual learning, and yet so much of healing is about experiential education, experiential learning, learning how to be aware of your own nervous system, learning how to navigate your nervous system with agency, what particular things you find resourcing, what Things You Find Triggering, and at what pace your system has the most success in moving through the various content pieces of trauma, healing, of building capacities to be with uncomfortable emotions. And this looks unique and is a personal journey for every single one of our clients, and this is the work that we help our clients with on a daily basis, at rise as we so again, if this practice was helpful for you, save it come back to it. If you want access to more guided practices like this, I invite you to join us inside the membership. Or if you want to have personal practices created and led for you. That is what happens in many of our one on one coaching sessions with clients, and as always, I'm available to answer questions about any of these programs or offerings. All right. Again, thanks for joining, and until next week, I'm sending hope and healing your way. Thanks for listening to another episode of The regulate and rewire podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard today, please subscribe and leave a five star review to help us get these powerful tools out to even more people who need them. And if you yourself are looking for more personalized support and applying what you've learned today, consider joining me inside rise my monthly mental health membership and nervous system healing space, or apply for our one on one anxiety and depression coaching program, restore. I've shared a link for more information to both in the show notes, again, thanks so much for being here, and I'll see you next time you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai