Dallas Bragg breaks down four ways to handle emotional triggers: reframe them as growth opportunities, express rather than suppress the feeling, build a relationship with the emotion by asking what it's protecting, and use that insight to teach your body the situation is safe.
Hey, if you've been triggered a lot lately and having trouble managing them, I want to share 4 tips that I use to successfully manage my triggers. So first of all, what is a trigger? I like to call them emotional activations. It's when an intense emotion is activated by something outside of you. For instance, a person, a situation, could be an image, could be a word, could be a thought of your own. If gone unmanaged, these triggers can cause you to respond in an impulsive way. You might regret what you say or do. They can also affect your well-being and cause you to go up and down all day long. They can damage relationships. They can damage relationships outside of yourself, but also the relationship you have with yourself. The first step is to reframe the trigger, and and what I mean by that is. Don't look at it as is, as to say, oh no, I'm angry. Instead, oh yes, here's an opportunity for me to learn, to grow, and to heal. Because every emotion is a gift from God and the universe to guide you back to healing and guide you back to wholeness. So anytime that emotion is there, we don't need to look at it as a negative thing. If we can reframe it and look at it as this is an opportunity for me, then that will set you up for success. Number 2 is to express the emotion instead of suppress the emotion. And what I mean by that is express the emotion. Let's say it is anger. Allow it to be in your body. Allow it to run its course. Observe how you feel. Where in your body do you feel it? Allow it to just be for a while until it passes. Because when you try to suppress an emotion like that, you're putting pressure on it. You're making it build like it's in a pressure cooker. So the next time you're triggered, the next time it shows up, it's going to come back even stronger. Number 3 is to create and build a relationship with the emotion. And what I mean by that is ask the emotion, when was the first time I felt you? And it's not the first time you felt anger, it's the first time you felt this nuanced version of anger. It has its own frequency. When you ask that, the first memory that pops up is the right one. That's the one that you want to take, and that's going to point you in the right direction of healing. The other question to ask is, what are you trying to protect me from? And listen, go inside, quiet your mind, listen for the answer. The answer is going to come. All the answers you need are already inside you. You just have to listen. And number 4 is flip the script. And what I mean by that is whatever answers you got in number 3, You're going to do the work to help your emotions, your body, your brain know that you are safe in these situations so that the next time it comes around, there's— it's going to be less, it's going to be softer. You're going to start teaching and showing yourself that you're safe in these particular situations, whatever activated that emotion. That's the real work. It takes some self-awareness, It takes some meditation and it takes some intention. Like I said, emotions are guiding you toward your journey home, back to self, your journey to wholeness. If you'd like more information about this, I'm going to be sending out quite a bit over the next few weeks. All you have to do is subscribe. Go to my profile. The link is there. It's a Linktree link. Subscribe to me for my newsletters, for my ebooks. There's courses coming out. I'm going to be really focusing in on this in the next few months. If you're interested to learn more, Please subscribe today or comment down below or send me a DM.
