While the word “trigger” has become more prevalent, it shouldn’t cloud how you view the wide-ranging effects of emotional discomfort. Triggering events can be all-consuming, leaving many people wondering how to heal them and ease the mental burden they cause. But there’s hope, as there are many ways to heal emotional triggers and take back control of the way you think and feel.
What Are Emotional Triggers?
Triggers are anything that causes you to remember a traumatic event or moment in your life. Your mind perceives triggers as threatening to your safety, security, and stability — forcing you into overdrive to protect yourself. People respond differently to triggers, and it can take some time for your nervous system to recover from the effects. Healing from traumatic events that cause emotional triggers doesn’t happen overnight, and knowing what your triggers are is a major step in the recovery process.
How to Identify Emotional Triggers
Most people have a decent-sized list of triggers — even if they all don’t cause intense emotional reactions. Identifying every single trigger is overwhelming and complicated, so instead, it’s important to focus on recognizing the triggers that cause you the most discomfort. When you become triggered, you can write down your thoughts, feelings, and observations of your behaviors.
How to Heal Emotional Triggers
To heal your triggers, you must deeply dive into how and why you think and feel the way you do. It’s vital that you don’t ignore or avoid how you feel. Emotional triggers can be healed, and you can use the following strategies to find the best path to healing.
Learn to Recognize Signs of Emotional Discomfort
Journaling is a great way to help recognize signs that you’re triggered or any emotional discomfort you might be feeling. You may not recognize all the signs immediately; however, over time, a thorough analysis will give you a better understanding of the thoughts and behaviors you exhibit as you’re becoming triggered.
Relax Your Body and Mind
We hear it all the time — it’s important to prioritize resting your mind and body. Constantly thinking about your triggers or dealing with stressful emotions can seriously affect your physical and mental health. Whether you’re working on healing or dealing with a trigger in the moment, it’s helpful to remind yourself to relax and try to isolate your mind and body from the situation. A relaxed mind can provide you with clarity and help you make better decisions.
Practice Different Thoughts About Your Situation
It’s helpful always to remember that your thoughts control your emotions. So, when you’re triggered, your mind may wander to thoughts that aren’t helpful. You can practice by thinking positive thoughts or by picturing a giant stop sign to stop any damaging thoughts. When in doubt, you can turn to a professional, like members of our team at Pasadena Villa, who can help you with conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or co-occurring conditions that make adjusting your thoughts difficult.
Don’t Avoid Your Triggers
Trying to avoid triggers is common, but it can actually lead to having the opposite effect. By addressing your triggers, they become easier to deal with over time, making the healing process more manageable.
Set Boundaries and Limits
Family and friends can be some of the best support groups. However, they also know precisely how to push your buttons — and not always in the best ways. Setting boundaries and limits and ensuring that people stick to them can help you avoid traumas and triggers from occurring when you least expect them to.
Don’t Be Afraid to Get Professional Support
Asking for help can be difficult when you feel emotionally clouded and when you’re fighting to rationalize your thoughts and feelings. However, medical professionals like the ones at Pasadena Villa provide effective treatment programs that can help heal your emotional triggers for good. Treatment methods like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you eliminate your destructive thoughts and improve your quality of life.
Don’t let your thoughts consume you. Call us or fill out our contact form to get help today.
References
https://www.ipeccoaching.com/blog/how-to-heal-emotional-triggers
