How To Deal With Emotional Triggers

“Everything you do is triggered by an emotion of either desire or fear.

- Brian Tracy

An emotional trigger can be words, a person, a situation, or an experience that incites an almost immediate reaction in an individual. Negative triggers that stimulate anger, pain, stress, and sadness can be hard to deal with.

However, with some simple steps, you can control your reaction to those triggers. And by the time you reach the sixth step, you’ll be able to know your triggers by the sight of them and control your reactions to them.


  • Catch yourself after a trigger happens
    When you find a situation or something triggering you to be angry or sad, or feeling anything extreme, first of all, try to understand what caused it. By knowing your trigger, you have fought half the battle. Next up is how to tame it.


  • Acknowledge your feelings
    Whatever feelings you get when you face an emotional trigger, accept them. Ask yourself why that word or that person made you feel that. Know that it’s okay to feel those emotions at that moment.


  • Deep breaths and compassionate words
    To control your reactions to a trigger, perform deep breaths. Talk to your inner child with compassion.


  • Meditate
    Regular meditation can help enhance focus on your soul. So, you can find your trigger points faster and combat them.


  • Catch yourself in the process of getting triggered
    Practicing the above four steps over and over again, you’ll start to spot triggers the moment it happens.


  • Catch yourself before a trigger happens and avoid it
    With time, if you continue the above steps, you’ll be able to know spot a trigger before it happens and control your reactions to situations.

Affirmation:
My emotional triggers teach me to grow beyond them. I accept them for they are and promise to face them head-on.

Samantha Penn