Skills to Heal: Knowing Your Triggers
A trigger is simply something that reminds you of the trauma and pushes you to the point where your survival system kicks in. It doesn’t have to be flashback level - it can be something as simple as something that alerts you and reminds you of the original incident.
I want to mention that while some people make fun of triggers - they are real and the more aware you become of your personal triggers, the more you’ll be able to recognize the patterns and work to bring your nervous system into alignment with your healing process.
Not all of your triggers are going to be the big bad incident. They can be mundane and small too. They can be smells…. for instance, the cologne or after shave of a tyrant boss. It doesn’t matter that you’re decades away from that job - the smell can take you back there.
Triggers can also be things like muscle memories… like bumping an old injury and re-experiencing the accident which caused it.
Knowing what sets your nervous system off will help you to overcome it in the moment. You won’t always be able to overcome it instantly, but with practice you will be able to sometimes convince and calm your nervous system and get your survival system to calm down.
This takes practice, but it spills over into every day occurrences and helps control emotions during high intensity moments. Regulating emotions also allows you to have reserves of survival systems to help take control of situations if you need to.
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