The Orienting Response

At any given moment in time, your senses are bombarded with a vast amount of data. To effectively filter and prioritize what you pay attention to – or orient toward – you must, therefore, select some environmental cues to the exclusion of others. This process is correlated with your internal state, and thus, an important aspect of self-regulation and the maintenance of mental health. 

All mammals, including humans, have a reflexive instinct to orient toward novel stimuli so that safety can be quickly determined: a loud noise, the sudden presence of a stranger, odd smells, physical pain, or an unexpected touch can all but demand instantaneous and focused attention. Once safety has been assessed and confirmed, this involuntary orienting reflex yields more readily to conscious choice, potentiating greater agency. Over the course of your life experiences, the polarity between the orienting instinct versus the orienting response intersect to create a range of habitual patterns that subconsciously drive how you pay attention. 

To better understand the relationship between your internal state and your orientation, try the following experiential exercise: 

1. Figuratively step into your observing mind and begin looking at your immediate surroundings through that mindful lens. 
2. Now, pick something in your environment that elicits a pleasant internal state. Perhaps a sunset, your beloved pet, a soft blanket, or the smell of a good meal. Linger there for as long as you reasonably can. 
3. When you are ready, shift your focus. This time, orient toward something that is mildly unpleasant. Perhaps your to-do list, traffic, a stain on the carpet, or a smelly trash can. Linger there for as long as you reasonably can. 
4. Lastly, return your focus back to something pleasant and note the impact on your internal state. 
5. Come back to your thinking/analyzing mind and reflect on your experience. 
6. For the remainder of the day, take note of the relationship between your internal state and what you are oriented to, jotting down any personally meaningful insights along the way. 

Studying your own habitual orienting patterns is a valuable skill for improving your overall well-being and fostering a more enjoyable existence. This is because your orienting habits, like most other conditioned patterns of behavior, are often directly related to past trauma or attachment deficits. Habits do not easily update by their own accord, especially if they are connected to our survival instincts. It is not uncommon, for example, to predominantly orient to potential threats while driving in the wake of an automotive accident. If, however, sufficient time has passed and these orienting patterns remain, hypervigilance, stress, and fear may also become coupled with the act of driving, making the experience aversive, even when conditions are favorable for safe and comfortable travel. In essence, learned coping strategies that originated from past trauma, or relationship wounds, can keep you oriented to reminders of the past even when circumstances have changed. 

An important part of healing, therefore, involves becoming curious about, and mindfully aware of, how you pay attention. It is one of the first steps you can take toward gaining a greater sense of competence, empowerment, and life satisfaction after adversity. Then you can choose, with intention and purpose, to change your orienting habits toward what feels “good” or “safe,” instead of what feels “bad” or “unsafe.” This will allow for different responses and meanings to emerge, while cultivating new and updated patterns, thus paving the way for a shift in how you experience the world around you.

References:

Ogden, P., Fisher, J. (2015). Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for trauma and attachment. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.