Triggers, Trigger Warnings, and Self-Awareness
How you handle your triggers will impact everything you do
Trigger warning – this might be controversial, but I think it needs to be addressed.
Some people will do everything in their power to avoid their triggers. But this becomes problematic because avoiding triggers allows them to continue to trigger you.
Avoiding your triggers will leave them the ability to trigger you.
Life is seldom easy or painless
You can’t deny that sometimes life sucks. No matter how much you try to avoid or dodge this, you can’t.
You will experience pain. Mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical hurt cannot be avoided – unless you sequester yourself away from the world. And even then, there are no guarantees of safety.
Many of the awful things that happen won’t be your doing or your fault.
If you refuse to recognize and address what triggers you – you will always be the victim. And you cede control that would otherwise be yours.
Do you control triggers or do they control you?
The power to overcome something that triggers you is wholly, entirely, yours.
But this might appear impossibly difficult, painfully challenging, and utterly unfair. Truth it – it damned well might be.
So long as you avoid things that trigger you – they will always trigger you.
Accountability and mindfulness
The first aspect of dealing with triggers is being accountable for them.
That is NOT the same as taking blame or ascribing fault for them. What it is, instead, is recognizing and acknowledging them.
Once you’ve accepted and taken accountability for your trigger – now comes mindfulness.
Mindfulness is active, conscious awareness of what triggers you. Specifically, in the here and now. Because only in the now can you do anything to work out your triggers and take control over them.
When you do the work to address your triggers – and strive to take control over them – you’re empowered.
When you have triggers, they are not something to ignore or downplay. But how they impact you, and whether they will always control you is a choice. Knowing that you have the power to be accountable for your triggers, and get to know how they impact you, you can choose to address them rather than avoid them – even if you need professional help to do so.
This week’s Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool:
Because of the nature of triggers and the traumas they can represent, there is no mindfulness guidance tool I’m comfortable offering on this topic.
However – I’d like to address becoming actively, consciously aware via mindfulness.
To make that happen, ask yourself - preferably aloud – any or all of the following questions (or questions like these):
· What am I thinking?
· What am I feeling?
· How am I feeling?
· Where is my mind?
· What am I thinking about?
· What am I focused on?
· What are my intentions?
· What am I doing?
That will make you consciously aware and mindful, here and now. With that mindfulness you can choose to work on any triggers or other matters – in and of the present – for your greater good.
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