What causes us to be triggered and how can we stop it?
In order to understand triggers, first we need to understand emotions.
Our emotions are similar and connected to our feelings.
Imagine a symphony and all its different sections. There’re the strings, the woodwinds, the brass and the percussion. Our feelings are like the different sections and our emotions are the sound that the symphony plays.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
E…motion…. energy in motion.
Emotions are meant to be a beautiful part of our experience of being human.
Much like playing in the ocean's surf…riding the waves and frolicking in the sea.
The waves come and they go…. bringing us endless delight.
Emotions are meant to be a similar experience in energetic form.
So, what happened? Why don’t we have this beautiful experience with our emotions?
We’ve been conditioned to ignore our feelings.
To push away our emotions. To disconnect from our guidance system.
Ignoring our emotions puts us on auto pilot, weakens our bodies, shortens our lives, and puts us in the back seat of our own lives.
Suppressed and denied feelings don’t just go away.
They become stored in our subconscious minds which are held in our physical bodies. Sub conscious, meaning below or beneath our consciousness.
Our subconscious mind is invisible to us and because it is unknown to us,
it holds power over us... essentially steering our lives without our awareness.
Have you ever tried to hold a beach ball underwater?
It’s so hard to do, isn’t it?! Imagine holding 2, or 5, what about 10?!
This is what we do when we ignore or push away our emotions.
Guess what causes those beach balls to pop to the surface,
often smacking us in the face….you got it…triggers.
A trigger is an opportunity for us to see the unseen. To acknowledge those trapped emotions, to feel and release them and put us back in the driver’s seat.
For example, what happens when we are driving in traffic, and somebody cuts us off?
We have a knee jerk reaction, right?
We likely blame the other driver and offer some colorful words and insights into their driving skills…
all the while missing the opportunity to release our trapped emotions.
So how can we put ourselves back in the driver's seat?
How can we stop being triggered?
To take full advantage of the healing opportunity a trigger represents, we must first become aware that we are being triggered.
This awareness will take us out of knee jerk reactions and allow us to respond instead.
We can pause, take a deep breath and focus on the emotions bubbling up, allowing ourselves to feel the emotions fully. By simply becoming aware and allowing ourselves to feel our emotions fully, we allow them to pass through us.
This simple, not easy, but simple and powerful process will allow stuck emotions to be released from our body, putting us back in the driver's seat of our own lives.
Ever have a popcorn hull stuck in your gum? Would you ever consider just leaving it there? What would happen if you ignored it? The pain would be maddening and the longer it’s there the higher probability of it becoming infected, right?
When repeated triggers fail to get our attention, our body will alert us through pain and discomfort.
Our bodies weren’t designed to hold emotions, just like popcorn hulls don’t belong in our gums. The longer they are there, the more they will fester.
Pain is our body's last resort, begging us to release trapped emotions.
Am I saying all physical pain is caused solely by trapped emotions?
Of course not.
Our bodies are like a road atlas…. full of highways, byways and expressways.
If you travel at all, you know how easy it is for these roads to become clogged with accidents, slowdowns and road construction. Our trapped emotions contribute and play a part in the clogs, accidents and slowdowns but they aren’t the only reason.
They are, however, something we can heal once we tune into them.
Now, you might be thinking…but Jen, I pushed those feelings away because they’re too big, too scary to face. You don’t know what I have been through.
And you’re right, I don’t know what you have been through, but I do know that you have already faced the hardest part….and you survived! The worst is truly behind you, light warrior!
You are stronger than you think, and you are definitely strong enough and brave enough to truly face those painful emotions and allow them to wash through you for good.
You deserve to be free and in charge of your own life.
If you allow yourself to fully feel your stuck emotions, just like a wave, they will pass through in 30 - 60 seconds...tops. I promise, you can do it.
And you don’t have to face every emotion you’ve buried all at one time.
Remember the symphony analogy?
You’ll experience waves of percussion, waves of strings, of woodwinds, of brass and combinations.
Some will be loud and shrill and others gentle and short.
Once you master fully experiencing your emotions, instead of pushing them away, you may even begin to enjoy them and marvel at the miraculous experience that they truly are.
Remember light warrior, you did not come here to take the easy path.
You came to reclaim your sovereignty.
To remember yourself as the light.
To awaken to your divinity.
To light the way for others.
I believe in you.
Until next time be gentle with yourself and remember, you are so much more than you’ve allowed yourself to believe.