Triggers are things we experience that cause us to react. Sometimes triggers create positive reactions, but more often they have negative reactions. Our reactions are generally on autopilot – they are unconscious decisions, and so it feels as if we have no control.
In reality, you always have control – either consciously or unconsciously. The key to feeling like you’re in control is to make conscious decisions about your reactions. This is done with awareness – specifically on what triggers you.
What are some common examples of triggers?
- Rejection – the fear of rejection is a big trigger that generally leads people to the limiting belief of “I’m not good enough.” This belief has very disempowering feelings like frustration, overwhelm, fear, and anxiety attached. The trigger is so powerful that we don’t even need to feel rejection to create negative emotions…we simply have to imagine it!
- Questions – many people associate asking questions with feeling dumb, and being questioned can trigger trust issues.
- Words – so many words can be triggers, especially harsh & demeaning words like stupid, lazy, irritating…you get the idea.
- Focus – related to words, focus triggers are what we latch on to. For example, saying “Don’t forget” triggers you to forget because the mind only understand images & action words…it ignores the “don’t” part.
- Songs, Smell, and Symbols are all triggers as well, with smell being one of the strongest triggers we have. There is no limit on what can be or become a trigger.
Why do you have triggers?
Whenever the unconscious mind experiences something negative that is significant or emotionally charged, it looks around the environment and tries to make a connection. This connection is rarely a cause-effect relationship, because the unconscious mind does not work on logic. Instead, it observes what it sees and assumes that what it sees is somehow connected to how you are feeling. When this connection is repeated over and over again or coupled with a highly emotional event, a trigger can be created.
Once created, it is best to remove triggers instead of resist them, because it is very challenging to logically resist emotional triggers. But removing or avoiding triggers is often out of your control, since triggers are based on your experiences which involve other people & things beyond your command.
Since you can’t remove them, you should generate awareness around negative triggers. Observe your thoughts, emotions and actions that seem to be triggered by events. Then fix or dissolve the triggers so they have less impact on you.
With conscious awareness, you can start replacing your usual reactions to triggers with something else. For example, if you start to feel nervous, do something that will make you feel confident instead. Listen to an uplifting song, read an affirmation or repeat a mantra. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as it’s something different and will replace the nervousness.
Hopefully having awareness on what triggers you will help you disrupt the unconscious reaction and create new, empowering triggers instead.
