What are Emotional Triggers?
Triggers happen when a situation stimulates a strong emotional response due to its similarities to a traumatic experience you have experienced before. The trigger stimulates your amygdala which then responds by sending signals to the hypothalamus, this stimulates the autonomic nervous system, preparing you to fight, flight or freeze.
Your body responds to the trigger as if the trauma was repeating itself, it doesn’t know the difference.
Triggers can be people, sounds, places, thoughts, smells, events, situations, objects, feelings or memories.
When we are triggered our right brain lights up. This is the emotional, intuitive and visual side of the brain, which communicates through body language and facial expression. On the other side, our left brain takes a back seat. The left brain is the rational and logical side of our brain, which communicates through words.
When a person is triggered they may get angry (fight), leave the situation physically or disassociate (flight), or perhaps shut down and turn mute (freeze). This is because the rational left brain is not able to put the situation into perspective as the right brain has taken the person right back into the fear state of trauma.
Understanding your triggers can be one of the most useful insights when healing from past experiences. It can help you gain more self compassion and awareness when reflecting on your initial armour reaction to a situation.
Understanding your triggers can help you improve your relationships and seek more support from your loved ones when you get that uncontrollable flood of emotion. It will help you resolve conflicts a lot sooner. When the trigger happens, take a moment to process it, and ask yourself, where has this come from? What is my body remembering which has created this physical, emotional and uncontrollable reaction.
The key is always you ❤️
“Listen to your Triggers. Follow them. They are your emotional messengers that will lead you to the deeper parts of yourself left unhealed.
Find that wound and seal it with love, compassion and understanding so that the only footprint left to follow is the path of self wisdom, not pain.“
Lily Gauri
Sensing naming and identifying what is going on inside is the first step to recovery.
Journaling questions to help you understand your triggers and where they have come from:
💫In which type of situations do I respond with my fight response? What makes you angry, Why? When have I felt this before?
💫In which type of situations do I respond with my flight response? Why did you think you respond this way, what emotion is underneath the action?When have I felt this before?
💫In which type of situations do I respond with the freeze state? When have I felt this before?
What activities bring me inner peace? Write down 10 self care activities that you can use to help yourself self-regulate and harmonise the central nervous system next time you enter fear state.
All my Love
Lily
♥️