You feel fine…and then out of nowhere you’re triggered. Someone says something or does something to you that has you spiraling. Often out of control.
Someone has hit an emotional trigger.
How did you respond? Did you say or do something you regretted that you can’t take back? Or did you feel it was justified because they hurt you?
What if I told you there is a way for you to handle your emotional triggers so that if someone said or did something that triggered you, you’d be able to recognize what is happening in the moment and create a different result?
What is an emotional trigger?
An emotional trigger is energy that you are holding onto from a past hurt. Someone said or did something to you that you didn’t like and energetically you are holding onto that experience or trauma.
It lays dormant in your energy until something reminds you of it and you find yourself angry, upset and often out of control. You are acting from that trigger energy.
The person receiving this energy from you often has no idea what is happening or why.
When you are triggered – how do you respond?
Do you scream, yell, throw things, run away. What is your response?
What is THEIR response? Were they shocked, hurt, upset, surprised?
Here’s the thing about triggers. People DO NOT know what your triggers are unless you tell them.
The majority of the population cannot read your mind. They can’t take hints. You have to tell people, I’m struggling with this, or healing this. Do not expect them to just know. You don’t know other people’s triggers, how can they know yours?
You can set a boundary if it’s a deep emotional trigger that you haven’t healed or started to work on yet.
How to Handle Emotional Triggers in Your Relationships:
1. Know your triggers.
You may not like it when someone takes your things, eats your food, makes a comment about your appearance, if you see any kind of abuse happening to another person.
What are your triggers?
If you don’t know what they are:
- What did you feel last time you were triggered? Uncontrollably angry or upset
- Why did what the other person do to upset you?
- What from your childhood are you still angry and upset about decades later?
- How does this affect your life today?
2. Tell your loved ones what your emotional triggers are.
Let those that need to know what your triggers are, how you’re working on it and how they can support you.
If they are truly there for you, they will support you and try not to trigger you.
If they intentionally go after your triggers, that is a relationship to re-examine. That’s not healthy.
3. Heal them.
Triggers are energy that you have specifically stored in certain areas to deal with later. The best way to start to heal them is to start to heal the energy you’ve been storing in that space.
This short video walks you through how to start to heal your emotional triggers.
Recognize triggers when they appear
It is your responsibility to keep your energy clear and aligned. No one else can do that for you. Emotional triggers are your SIGN that something has to heal and it’s coming to the surface so you can heal it.
You will find that this isn’t a one and done energy clearing. Emotional triggers are often stored in layers and they are removed in layers as it’s time for you to be free of them. How will you free your energy today?