Triggered

Why do you think Jesus so often stressed the importance of the heart? That “man looks at the outside, but God looks at the heart”? That our internal worlds are either a firm foundation or a house built on sand? As we have been learning through our season in “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality,” the heart is the engine of all spiritual life. Lose your heart, lose the kingdom. For our hearts are the resting place of God.

“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” – 1 Corinthians 3:16

Recognizing our Triggers

As we dive into emotional health, one of the most practical ways we can begin to practice wholeness is by noticing and identifying our triggers. Triggers are so important to notice because they are like the fumes from the fire that lead back to where wreckage in our lives may have begun, and where it may be continuing to block or wreak havoc on our internal and external lives.

Triggers occur because our nervous system has flagged an experience as a threat sometime in the past when we didn’t feel safe. Often, we walk around w/ unhealed pain that keeps us in a self-fulfilling experience loop where we run from anything that looks remotely familiar to that original source of pain. Unfortunately, this rips us off, as well as the closest relationships around us who then have to constantly tiptoe around our landmines.

You know the moments I’m talking about? Those moments when your emotional and physical state gets unexpectedly hijacked by intense emotions flooding your body. And usually the emotions you are feeling are clearly disproportionate to what the scenario calls for. In psychology we call these “disproportionate responses”. Triggers can be anything- seeing someone and feeling a strong emotion, someone’s word choice, objects, memories, a facial expression, a response from your kids.

Do you recognize these moments in yourself? When the reaction emotionally doesn’t match the situation. You may get hot, anxious, angry, fearful or frozen. You’re pulled out of the present and into non-productive past/future thinking. The thing that triggered you is NOT the culprit, 9 times out of 10. The trigger is always pointing back to a moment in your story where you experienced pain that marked you in some way.

If we allow them, triggers will be clues to our story. They can serve us as emotional blueprints that lead us back to the buried parts of our authentic self. These are the places in us that Jesus died for: for us to be freed, and whole and able to move forward in life unhindered by the lies about our identity and the wounds we have received throughout our journey.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” – Proverbs 4:23

Triggers are telling you something VERY important- if you will listen. These emotional landmines will lead you back to a source of pain in your life that is asking to be acknowledged and healed.

Prompt

This week, notice your triggers (even small ones). Take a moment to stop, breathe, and pray. Ask yourself and the Holy Spirit this powerful question:

“HOW OLD IS THAT FEELING?” or “WHAT AGE AM I WHEN I FEEL THIS?”

Most often, the first experience of that feeling was in our early attachment years of childhood. Don’t be surprised if when you ask yourself, you are able to perceive a feeling of being a 3, 4, 5, 7 or 10 year old, etc. Take time to notice what emotions and core beliefs have been formed in this place of pain. Then take some time to acknowledge that young boy or girl inside you and, with Holy Spirit’s help, ask them what they need. The ability to see our child selves in our own bodies and psyches nurtures healthy self compassion, a major key in the journey of healing our triggers.

Once you have identified a trigger and spent some time discovering what is underneath it and validating that “younger self,” ask the Holy Spirit: “Lord, is there anything you want to say or give to this part of me? Is there anything this part of me needs to know or hear?”

Listen and take in what He says! Let it reform your memory and rewire your heart.

May you be empowered to continue to deepen your inner life- emotionally and spiritually!