Planning for Triggers
For a month’s worth of posts, I (Scott) am critiquing my own past blog posts. I’m viewing this as an experiment in being willing to admit when I’m wrong, change my mind, and to do so publicly.
From yesterday: In order to learn something from our outbursts, we need to be willing to rigorously examine ourselves in the aftermath.
This includes: making a mental note of the things that trigger us. What kinds of things create unnecessarily large emotional reactions within us? Is there a pattern? When have I reacted this way to this kind of situation before? Have my reactions to this kind of situation always been this strong? Why or why not? If not, what has changed?
Perhaps today you can reflect on a situation you have some emotional distance from and try asking yourself these questions.
If we can answer questions like this then, hopefully, we gain some insight into what kinds of things are likely to send us spiraling out of control.
Scott’s thoughts in 2021:
Being able to identify triggers and recognize patterns is crucially important. We may need help with this- we may need to ask the people “in our hut” to help us recognize patterns of acting “too big” for what the situation requires.
Once we’re aware of triggers, we can start to plan out what to do about them- and this will depend on the circumstances. It is important to process the things that create the triggers, it’s also important to learn new actions in response to triggers…perhaps this is a good topic for a future Saturday night class?
