The perception of a reward leads to sympathetic arousal in our nervous system. Similarly to flight/fight (run away/ approach to overcome) energy is released to approach and get the reward.
When a reward is overwhelmingly big we start to shut down. Think of people winning the lottery and fainting or hearing they won a prize and going numb.
The concept of the window of tolerance is not only valid for clearly stressful situations. It includes the reward system as well.
When we have a small window of tolerance, there is little room in our life for anything, not even the good. Kindness or gifts might be overwhelming. Big positive changes might cause serious struggles. Doing something nice for ourselves might backfire.
Our nervous system might not be able to tolerate it. Not even the good.
Sometimes we have to pace our therapy and slow down the improvements to be able to integrate all the good that is happening.
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