The Elevator Analogy
- The elevator model for nervous system regulation, and how it fits alongside breathing, meditation, and grounding
- The building as a spectrum of activation, low to high
- Regulation as noticing which floor you're on, then intervening or simply noticing
- What high activation looks like (racing heart, anxiety, scattered focus, irritability) and bringing the elevator down
- What low activation looks like (numbness, flatness, low motivation) and why meditation and grounding won't help there, what does instead (movement, safe social contact, stimulation)
- The optimal zone in the middle floors, where you feel like yourself and can respond instead of react
- Noticing which floor you're on, then deciding whether to go up or down
Sources:
Siegel, D. J. (1999). The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are. Guilford Press.
Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.
- The building as a spectrum of activation, low to high
- Regulation as noticing which floor you're on, then intervening or simply noticing
- What high activation looks like (racing heart, anxiety, scattered focus, irritability) and bringing the elevator down
- What low activation looks like (numbness, flatness, low motivation) and why meditation and grounding won't help there, what does instead (movement, safe social contact, stimulation)
- The optimal zone in the middle floors, where you feel like yourself and can respond instead of react
- Noticing which floor you're on, then deciding whether to go up or down
Sources:
Siegel, D. J. (1999). The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are. Guilford Press.
Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.
There are a lot of nervous system regulation tips out there, which are all fantastic and ones I personally use, like deep breathing, meditation, and grounding. But one I like to teach is to imagine your nervous system as a building with an elevator.
Your nervous system operates across different levels of activation, from low to high. Using this elevator visualization, the building represents that spectrum. And all day, every day, the elevator moves up and down automatically, influenced by your environment, your thoughts, and your body.
In this analogy, regulation is noticing which floor you're on, and then intervening, or just simply noticing. Up when you need it. So if you're on a lower floor, maybe you need to go up a level. Or down, if you're highly activated, might be a time to notice, okay, I need to go down to a lower floor.
So here are some examples. Let's say you have a hard conversation coming up. For some people, the elevator shoots up, like New York City skyscraper heights. Your heart's racing, you're anxious, you're scattered, you can't sit still. Maybe you're really irritable, and you can't focus. This is where you might need to notice, okay, I need to bring the elevator down. I need to do something that brings the elevator down. I am on a high floor right now. I need to go down to a lower floor.
For others, hard conversations send people down to really low floors. Obviously, it's contextual, and obviously these two things are super nuanced, right, so it depends really on the circumstance and the context of what you're facing. But for some people, hard conversations bring people down to extreme, extreme lows. Let's say if that's you, maybe you're numb, you feel flat, it's hard to motivate you, and you're just kind of going through the motions. This is underactivation, and more relaxation, so the tips to meditate and ground yourself, won't really help here. In this case, your elevator needs to go up floors, which might mean movement, maybe some social interaction with people who are very safe for you, or other forms of stimulation so the nervous system can respond.
In these two situations, we're talking about extremes, extreme high and extreme low. But really, neither of those are where you want to be all of the time. The optimal zone lives, going back to this elevator analogy, in those middle floors. This is where you'd like to be optimally the majority of the time. Here you feel like yourself. You can think clearly. You can respond without any reaction and handle what's in front of you.
So really, the next time you feel off, get a sense and notice which floor you're on, then decide, do I need to go up or do I need to go down?
Your nervous system operates across different levels of activation, from low to high. Using this elevator visualization, the building represents that spectrum. And all day, every day, the elevator moves up and down automatically, influenced by your environment, your thoughts, and your body.
In this analogy, regulation is noticing which floor you're on, and then intervening, or just simply noticing. Up when you need it. So if you're on a lower floor, maybe you need to go up a level. Or down, if you're highly activated, might be a time to notice, okay, I need to go down to a lower floor.
So here are some examples. Let's say you have a hard conversation coming up. For some people, the elevator shoots up, like New York City skyscraper heights. Your heart's racing, you're anxious, you're scattered, you can't sit still. Maybe you're really irritable, and you can't focus. This is where you might need to notice, okay, I need to bring the elevator down. I need to do something that brings the elevator down. I am on a high floor right now. I need to go down to a lower floor.
For others, hard conversations send people down to really low floors. Obviously, it's contextual, and obviously these two things are super nuanced, right, so it depends really on the circumstance and the context of what you're facing. But for some people, hard conversations bring people down to extreme, extreme lows. Let's say if that's you, maybe you're numb, you feel flat, it's hard to motivate you, and you're just kind of going through the motions. This is underactivation, and more relaxation, so the tips to meditate and ground yourself, won't really help here. In this case, your elevator needs to go up floors, which might mean movement, maybe some social interaction with people who are very safe for you, or other forms of stimulation so the nervous system can respond.
In these two situations, we're talking about extremes, extreme high and extreme low. But really, neither of those are where you want to be all of the time. The optimal zone lives, going back to this elevator analogy, in those middle floors. This is where you'd like to be optimally the majority of the time. Here you feel like yourself. You can think clearly. You can respond without any reaction and handle what's in front of you.
So really, the next time you feel off, get a sense and notice which floor you're on, then decide, do I need to go up or do I need to go down?