Being Triggered: A Gift or A Curse?

Triggers are actually a gift. Including this one in the picture 😉

But seriously, they ARE a gift. Why?

Because when I’ve been triggered, that means there is something within me that I still need to heal. It means there is a previous experience or memory that a part of me (will get on to parts of us another day) has gone through and created both an emotion and a limiting belief about, and my trigger radar is alerting me to that.

My mind, body and soul are working together to help me heal, they are doing their job perfectly!

So How Do You Deal With Them?

Awareness is the first step. Notice when you have been triggered. Normally this is some kind of emotion that is deemed negative: anger, grief, frustration, resentment, etc.

Instead of reacting and creating a bigger fire than there already was, step back and do this next step.

I ask myself reflective questions like:

What are my thoughts about this situation?

What does it all mean to me?

You may find yourself with an intermediate belief – an attitude ( e.g. all men cannot be trusted), a rule (e.g. I must get it right), or an assumption about the situation, a person, yourself, etc. (e.g. they did that on purpose)

I gather my thoughts and normally there’ll be one that pops out moreso than the others.

Digging Deeper Into Core Beliefs

Ask ‘If this (happens), then what does that mean about me?’

Because this last question gets to the core limiting belief – ‘it means I am….’ And whatever word you would put after that that is a quality vs a feeling e.g. powerless, helpless, versus scared or upset.

E.G. If I get it wrong, then I am not good enough.

You can sit with the emotion, hold the space for the part of you that has experienced that previous event, and just see what comes up for you – a thought, a picture maybe, of something that relates.

Personally, I work with Parts, NLP and CBT and I get the energy out of me, because it is no longer serving me, it comes from way back, and I just want it out, so I can move forwards with my body clearer energetically.

But it’s not always easy to do this with yourself. Sometimes you need extra help to do it, and I am no different to you in that respect.

Once you understand your core limiting belief, even awareness can create shifts, and then you can either choose to release the energy of the belief/emotion or you can choose a new empowering belief and use that as an affirmation to say daily, and when you feel you have been triggered.

The techniques above I use with my clients all the time to help them release limiting beliefs, whether they are from this life or a past life – and yes that happens frequently that we have brought in experiences from past lives to heal in this life!

A Personal Example

I was triggered recently with I’m not good enough.

I felt the emotion first – anger – for several days.

It was actually so bad, that I struggled to breathe with it some of the time.

I used various self-care measures.

Still there.

Then something jogged my mind and I realised I held the belief above. In several areas of my life.

So I used my different therapies to release this layer of belief and the emotion, and created a new belief ‘I am good enough as I am’.

I am grateful for the trigger, because each time, it allows me to peel away another layer of the onion, that is, our healing journey, back to the real, authentic, true soul that we are before we received all the wounds in this lifetime and others.

So, where and when do you get triggered? Reflect and ask yourself the questions above.