Emotional triggers and ways to deal with obsessive feelings

emotional triggers What are they and how to deal with them?

We all develop useful internal tools and strategies to deal with the challenges faced by people, events and circumstances along the way. While some of us are lucky enough to have these tools and strategies from birth, for some of us, controlling our emotions can become a debilitating process. Unless we can improve our self-regulation skills and learn how to deal with difficult emotions, our whole life must move in the direction of emotional triggers. At this stage, another issue, as important as the control of emotions, is to prior to the occurrence of emotional reactions. learn to deal with emotional triggers.

Our emotions are an integral part of our personality, our behavior, how we perceive the world as a place, and how we react to external stimuli. If we can manage the emotions that accompany us from the very first moment of our lives, emotional triggersIt requires the ability to recognize.

Some special psychological and spiritual tools, which we can call our internal resources, help us to give “correct answers” to triggers, and not “impulsive answers”. This can provide emotional regulation without the need to suppress our emotions, without feelings of resentment or anger, without aggressive reactions that we later regret.

What are emotional triggers?

emotional triggersWe can define it as certain sentences, events, memories, or other stimuli that evoke strong emotional responses. Emotional reactions to emotional triggers can lead to behavior that can harm both you and your relationship, such as overly aggressive behavior.

emotional triggers It is extremely difficult to give concrete examples of what these triggers might be, as they are often linked to our past experiences.

“I don’t think you qualify for this job.”

“So when’s the wedding?”

“And you’re exaggerating too much.

For example, any of the suggestions above might be an emotional trigger for you, but not for someone else. Emotional triggers usually consist of many situations, events, or comments that do not match our value judgments, damage our egos, make us doubt ourselves, and make us feel judged and inadequate. If you are aware of your true worth, individuality, competence, and have high self-confidence, you may not be affected by emotional triggers. However, we all have an unhealed wound in the past, and anything that salts these wounds, peels them off and bleeds again can be an emotional trigger for us.

Especially people who are emotionally sensitive and have a strong sense of empathy can be more easily swayed by emotional triggers. They may experience feelings that are too strong and painful to handle. Many things, such as rejection, being treated unfairly, challenging your beliefs and values, restricting your freedom, being ignored or excluded, facing difficult situations that we cannot control, can act as emotional triggers.

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Ways to Deal with Emotional Triggers

The first thing you need to do to deal with emotional triggers is to keep the faith that you can change. Moreover “I’m not smart enough” or “I’m very sensitive” A compassionate attempt to replace stereotypical beliefs imposed by family or society, such as When you heal that initial trauma or false belief that gave you an emotional trigger, you may feel much more emotionally free.

1. Identify Your Emotional Triggers

It is also important to reconsider the relationship of its source to a particular event, traumatic experience, or transference in order to avoid emotional triggers as much as possible. When you encounter something without knowing what triggers your emotions, you cannot anticipate how you can control your reactions. When you encounter these triggers, your emotions increase in intensity, making it difficult for you to focus on the trigger. Therefore, finding out what is bothering you will not be so easy.

So, first, list what compelling emotions you experienced. And take a short trip to the time when you first experienced these feelings. Which of your childhood memories can trigger these feelings? Have you recently had a tense situation with a friend or partner and felt unwell? Determining which situations trigger your emotions at a time when you feel comfortable allows you to notice your triggers. And it helps you buy the time you need to control your emotional reactions.

2. Take notes on your emotional triggers

Write down your triggers in a notebook along with your usual reactions to each one. How to describe the situation in detail, and note step by step how your mood changed at each stage of the experienced situation; This will allow you to predict, albeit more or less, what process will occur when you encounter these triggers. In addition to writing down your emotional triggers and accompanying emotions, be sure to save your ideas and plans for how to act when faced with a similar situation.

When you write down your emotional triggers and moods in their clearest form and check your notes from time to time, you will find yourself acting out of the ordinary and feeling safer trying out alternative responses.

3. Remember Your Sources

While the most effective way to regulate emotions and behaviors in the face of emotional triggers is to access “feel good” resources, recalling and using these resources can be much more difficult when we are activated.

Since emotional triggers stimulate the autonomic nervous system, that is, the area of ​​the unconscious in which responses to danger are regulated, the resulting responses are usually not responses that we can control at the cognitive level. So you need to use strategies to remind you to access your resources in situations where you have no control over your reactions and can be provoked. For example, on points that are constantly in front of your eyes. “If you’re emotionally aroused, wash your face with cold water.” You can try to develop strategies to make it easier for you to access your sources, such as posting notes to guide you to your source, daily meditation, and breathing exercises to develop the habit of shifting your attention when your emotions run high. intensive.

4. Share with loved ones

Emotional triggers can be reinforced by our belief that we are alone in the face of these triggers. Knowing that our loved ones we trust and love can be triggered by certain situations and events in the same way that we are can help us feel more secure.

By sharing your triggers with a trusted friend and listening to their opinion, you can reduce the impact of triggers on you.

5. Be kind to yourself

One of the most important sources of emotional triggers can be your inner voice that constantly criticizes you, tends to see the glass half empty in any situation, has a habit of focusing on the worst and judging you more severely than anyone around you. You.

When you realize that your inner voice amplifies the emotions you evoke, don’t try to be stubborn and resist it. Instead, try to take your inner critic’s comments and judgmental attitudes towards you as a signal that you need to show yourself more compassion and love. your inner voice “This time, as always, you will fail. When you say “I have full confidence in myself that I will do my best.” Try to cheer yourself up by using your mind and logic. When you feel powerless because of your out-of-control responses to a trigger, try to console and show understanding instead of “blaming and criticizing” yourself.

6. Give yourself time to process your emotions.

Emotional triggers often cause exaggerated and unwanted reactions. Emotions, like muscles, can develop in a healthy way only when used properly. If you make an effort to recognize your emotions and learn how to express them, you will learn to control your reactions to situations that trigger them.

When emotions are triggered, you can lose an objective perspective. Therefore, in order to “correctly” evaluate events, you must provide space and time for processing the emotions you experience. Try to calm down and respond after waiting at least 20 minutes using your internal and external resources such as breathing exercises, meditation, communication with loved ones. When you give yourself enough time to process your emotions, you can convey the impact of the other person’s disturbing behavior without judgment and demonstrate a more constructive attitude towards your relationship.

Being aware of your emotional triggers and developing emotion regulation strategies when those triggers arise is the key to mental and spiritual release. When you get to know your emotional triggers better, you will find that you are less influenced by other people’s comments and behavior, you don’t waste your energy, and you can manage your reactions without getting tired.

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Resources: positive psychology, Mind Body Green, modern psychology.