Knowing And Understanding Emotional Triggers

Knowing and understanding what causes you to feel a certain way will help you to respond better to the situation

- Kim Arendse

We've all had good days that turn bad in a split second. It could be anything – a comment from a friend that you think is snarky, feedback from your boss that you see as criticism, a look from your mother that you perceive as disapproving.

Irrespective of what the other person’s intention was, it throws you off balance and ends up making you feel angry, anxious, worthless or insecure. These negative feelings may linger and colour the rest of your day.

Why does it happen? Because something about it sparks an intense emotional reaction in you.

We all have personal emotional triggers – because we’ve all had intensely emotional experiences, often during childhood, that have shaped how we res pond to things.

It’s important for your emotional and mental health to know and understand your personal emotional triggers.

Here’s how to identify them so you don’t end up being held hostage by them and how to make a conscious choice about how to respond instead.

WHERE DO TRIGGERS COME FROM?

An emotional trigger can be an experience, an event or a memory that sparks an intense and negative emotional reaction.

Since it’s rooted in our formative experiences, it differs from person to person. For some people negative feedback from their boss, while not pleasant, isn’t a reason to doubt their own worth.

But for someone who was frequently criticised by a parent for not achieving good results at school, it could take them right back to what they felt like then – which was “never good enough”.

Common situations that trigger intense emotions include feeling rejected, betrayed, unwanted, excluded, ignored or unjustly treated.