Master Your Emotional Triggers

Emotional triggers can happen just like that! One minute you’re feeling great, the next you’re down in the dumps. Have you ever experienced this? You read something, have a conversation with someone, see a colleague who’s doing something that you wish you were, see a couple laughing or a woman dressed really nicely, and all of a sudden your energy and joy decreases.

You may not even realize you’ve been triggered. But you know you feel off and out of alignment. Perhaps you become anxious, jealous, fearful or simply shut down.

It is really not about the other person, what you read or what you saw. Triggers take you back to an unpleasant event in your past, which is what stirs up the unpleasant feelings. However, being triggered is a great opportunity to heal, learn, grow and fully become more YOU.

One negative emotional trigger can lead you down a painful path to feeling powerless if you don’t know what’s going on. That’s why it’s so important to become fully aware of the things that trigger you.

Negative triggers can have the following manifestations:

• Physical: You are depleted of energy, eat more junk food, and become sleepy.
• Emotional: You lack motivation and feel helpless, overwhelmed, angry, anxious or depressed.
• Mental: You are less aware; you procrastinate, and have repeated self-defeating thoughts.
• Spiritual: You have no connection to purpose, creativity or inspiration.

Everyone has emotional triggers. Here are some ways in which you can learn to master them.

1. Make a List of Your Emotional Triggers
   Understanding what your emotional triggers are raises your awareness so that you can create a plan for self-care, be well and not suffer when they arise. Also, it is important to recognize that when we are fatigued, we are much more susceptible to our negative emotional triggers.
2. Be Present to How You Feel.
   Remind yourself that you’re being triggered because of a connection to a past event and detach from the old story. Release it. Decide to not give your power and energy away to someone or something that is not serving you. The only way to move on is to empower yourself to let go. When you’re empowered and in alignment, you feel energized, happy and great. Stay connected to how you feel throughout the day.
3. Get Out of Reactive Mode
   You can learn a lot from emotional triggers – and growing from them takes you to a higher level in your life. Understanding our triggers teaches us valuable lessons about who we are and what brings us peace. From here, we get to create new options for ourselves rather than staying in reactive mode.

The next time you find that you are experiencing negative repercussions from a trigger, stop and realize that you have a choice in whether you react. If you know your buttons are being pushed, breathe and choose calm. Think, “What is the big lesson for me to learn here?” Asking questions like

• Do I want to react or grow?
• Is relinquishing my power to someone else in alignment with my desires?
• What do I know to be true today?

will help you move through the negativity and learn the lesson you are being taught by the experience. Learn to choose calm over chaos.