Triggers are our Teachers

Is this you?

• Saying "Yes" when you didn't really want to.
• Beating yourself up over tiny mistakes.
• Avoiding difficult conversations.
• Micromanaging others to feel in control.
• Defaulting to the worst-case scenario.
• Losing your temper and then feeling bad.
• Playing the victim.

Trust me. I get it. It's way easier to push challenging thoughts and emotions aside and "deal with them later". In the short term, this seems like a great strategy... But there's only so much denial, avoidance, and invalidation we can do until we find ourselves getting triggered again.

A trigger is a reminder of past experiences that we found distressing or disturbing. Instead of resisting or rejecting our triggers, we can get curious about the unresolved wounds that this situation is bringing to our attention.

Ready to transmute your triggers? Inner Work is a spiritual practice that helps us to master our thoughts, emotions, and energy. This means becoming aware of the underlying trauma that creates emotional blockages, limiting beliefs, and self-sabotaging patterns, so we can heal and reconcile them.

Here's an example: I used to get really defensive when someone gave me feedback on my work, ideas, or expressions of creativity. I was hypersensitive to the opinions of others and reactive to criticism. This trigger was a blind spot for many years. My knee-jerk reaction was to create stories about how I'm not good enough.

Even if it was constructive or helpful feedback, I would panic, take it personally, and feel the need to justify myself. However, internally, I would beat myself up for not "getting it right". My harsh inner critic would chime in and berate me, stirring up feelings of frustration, disappointment, and shame. To overcompensate, I set unrealistically high standards on myself in an attempt to eliminate the possibility of making a mistake, getting called out, or feeling wrong.

To heal this, I used our Inner Work framework to help identify the:

• Situations that triggered this reaction
• Emotions, feelings, and ego stories that arose
• Underlying fear that fueled this insecurity
• Root traumatic experience
• Various coping mechanisms that my ego had created to keep me feeling safe.

This clarity helped me to understand what the original wound was and how to resolve it.

Trigger Event
Receiving feedback from others

Emotion / Feeling
Anger, Frustration, Feeling "attacked"

Ego Story / Limiting Belief
"If I mess up, I'll be criticised or humiliated"
"I'm not allowed to make a mistake"
"My self-worth comes from the approval of others"

Root Trauma
Being shamed for doing something "wrong"

Coping Mechanism / Self-Sabotaging Pattern
Defensiveness
External Validation
Perfectionism

You can use the Inner Work framework to understand your triggers, heal your trauma, and unsubscribe from self-sabotaging patterns.

Some common patterns include:

• People-Pleasing
• Imposter Syndrome
• Codependency
• Hyper-Independence
• Savior Complex
• Self-Deprecation
• Catastrophising
• Comparison Complex
• Overcontrolling
• Self-Betrayal

Self-Healing Pro Tip: Your triggers are your teachers 🙈

A trigger is a reminder of a past event or experience that we found distressing or disturbing.

Triggers are extremely useful in self-healing because they illuminate our blind spots and past emotional wounds that need our attention.

When we become curious about our triggers rather than resisting or trying to avoid them, we open new doorways of perception that reveal profound truths about our relationship with ourselves and others.

This may sound weird but I used to consider getting triggered as something to celebrate 🎊😆

I saw it as the universe's way of telling me I was ready for my next phase of healing.

In fact, when I got REALLY triggered, there was a part of me that would be like:

"Nice! We got a big one this time!" 🎣

Finding triggers "in the wild" felt like Pokemon hunting 😂 and Inner Work became a game of identifying my unresolved wounds so I could heal them.

Tracking Triggers is one of the practices we teach in 'Inner Work – Foundations', our signature 8-week online course. 

🏛️ Inner Work Foundations 🏛️ Course Overview:
Week 1 – Ego as Individuality
Week 2 – Ego as Defence Mechanism
Week 3 – Ego as Inner Critic
Week 4 – Emotional Intelligence
Week 5 – Healthy Boundaries
Week 6 – Shadow Work
Week 7 – Building Your Practice
Week 8 – Closing Ceremony

What's included:
⭐ 8 x 90-minute live group sessions
⭐ Online via Zoom
⭐ Lifetime access to session recordings
⭐ Downloadable notes and resources
⭐ Dedicated online community platform
⭐ Q&A time after each session
⭐ VIP Option: Additional 1-1 session
⭐ 3-month payment plan available

Visit Inner Work Foundations to learn more.