Emotional Triggers...May be the Path to AHA! Moments
By Kris Loomis, MSW, SWLC
Emotional Triggers … May be the path to AHA! Moments
There isn’t a human on this planet that has missed out on the experience of being emotionally triggered. What does that mean? To be emotionally triggered is to suddenly feel a very different emotional state because some influence has triggered us. It can be a person, object, place, certain words, or even our environment. Something causes our mind and body to react. Triggers can be identified by categories such as
Anxiety triggers
Anger triggers
Trauma triggers
Various triggers linked to
Grief
Relationships
Abuse
Substance use
Chronic pain
The above list is certainly not exhaustive, as people are unique and can be influenced by many factors. (Identifying Emotional Triggers and What They Mean). There are various ways to work through an emotional trigger and often include noticing the body sensations and labeling the emotion we are feeling. We can also use coping skills such as mindfulness, deep breathing, or a body scan to manage the emotion in a healthy way. But we also have the opportunity to learn something important about ourselves in these moments.
What if we explore the MEANING we make of the situation? What if we let curiosity guide us to understand why we were triggered in the first place? Why do some people feel triggered by uncertainty, while others handle it with ease for example? When we question what it means about ourselves to be met with uncertainty, maybe we find that uncertainty means we have no control. What does it mean if we have no control? The meaning we make is influenced by our experiences and perspectives, which are unique. It’s part of the human experience to be emotionally triggered. But can we identify what meaning that person, place, object, word, or environment mean to us or about us? We might just find ourselves transitioning from, “Oh no” to “AHA!”
Baton Rouge Behavioral Hospital, (2022, May 6). [web log]. Retrieved July 6, 2022, from https://batonrougebehavioral.com/identifying-emotional-triggers-and-what-they-mean/
