"What triggers you?"

What triggers you?

What is a trigger anyway?

A trigger can be an event, a specific comment, a specific experience, an action by another person, it can be a particular sight or sound, a sudden flash of a past memory, a tone of voice. Triggers (usually or always) regularly ignite immediate, strong and largely automatic over-reactions or bring on feelings of extreme pain, discomfort, fear, confusion, disappointment or devastation.

Examples: yelling, fighting, hitting, screaming, panic, running, hiding, total surrender, freezing. It can be anything that repeatedly brings on similar strong feelings such as extreme anger, rage, confusion, terror, worthlessness, devastation, emotional pain or extreme discomfort.

What most often triggers you?

What kind of comments by others, what specific events or actions, what situations, sounds or tone of voice, what kind of touch, or emotion, what kind of music or even smell can trigger a reaction like these in you?

If you are competing the first Core belief Work sheet 4a try to describe some specific events that you can remember having this affect on you, for example: ‘When Kim blamed me for losing the money’ Avoid general or vague examples such as When I am blamed for losing things. Try to include events from throughout your life starting with recent ones and working back in time.

Suggestions: When ... said .. to me; When ... criticised me; When I had to do ... to stop ... getting angry; When ... ignored me; When ... made me do...; When I was left alone by ...; When .... (who I love) is in pain. When no one even noticed me... When ... complimented me about ..; When ... yelled at me and lectured me about ... When I had to ...... in front of everyone ..When .... told me I didn’t understand; When I hear ... playing on the radio; When I smell the aroma of ...When .. was so unfair about ..

Some of your triggers have been with you all your life, many have been there since early childhood. Usually, they will set off and is similar reaction each time, particularly if what happens reminds you of had a similar situation that you experienced in your childhood.

All it may take to trigger you is an event (Example: being ignored) that reminds you of your childhood wounding and your core pain when you were being ignored, hearing a familiar phrase (‘you are so helpless’), being touched somewhere on your body, an emotion (someone else’s fear or anger) hearing a piece of music, even a particular aroma (familiar perfume.)

Even just talking about a painful past event can trigger you.

If you would like to find out more about your particular triggers there is a copy of one of our worksheets on this site. Go to Core Belief worksheet 4a.

LAST UPDATE Saturday, 15 November 2008 13:10

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