Our Triggers Have a Purpose

Triggers are meant to serve a purpose. It’s those things in life that set us off that have the most to teach us. While it may seem natural or instinctive to react by going on the defensive, self-prescribing our favorite numbing remedy or choosing to ignore and shove down how we feel, we actually stand to learn important lessons when we pause and ask: What is causing this craziness within me? Why is this person triggering me? What is making me so pissed off? Why am I still allowing this to affect me? Or, what can I get out of this experience?

Imagine what our lives would be like if we asked those questions! What if, rather than reacting from impulse, we consciously allowed ourselves to feel the emotion and breathe through the uncomfortableness? Or what if we wrote about it in our journals with the intent of releasing it word by word onto the page? One thing is for sure, we wouldn’t still be stuck in the pattern where the same things continue to trigger the same reactions from us over and over again.

I hope that you will try this new approach. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? Instead of adding another brick to your wall, it might actually result in feeling more empowered and in control of your body and emotions! It's not easy. It’s actually crazy scary to allow yourself to be vulnerable, but, I have been practicing it for some time now and WOW! I have made it through and I am feeling better, lighter, more approachable and, most of all, more alive in my body.

I want to make it clear that working past or releasing a trigger doesn’t mean that now you have to do, hear or tolerate things that you don’t want to. I still say no when I need to without feeling compelled to explain myself. I can’t say that those same emotions don’t still come up, but I continue to work through them, and take comfort in the progress I’m making along the way.