Trauma Triggers

by | Our Struggles, Personal Development

Trauma Triggers

You did your healing work years ago.

Or maybe you never felt the need to do healing work.

Everything has been going fine until:

  • You were in a car accident
  • You last child left home for college
  • You changed jobs
  • You got a new boss
  • You marriage or relationship ended
  • There was a traumatic event on the news
  • You moved
  • The location of your office changed
  • You were mugged
  • Your home was burglarized
  • Your car was vandalized

All of these and more can trigger past traumas.

You will know you have been triggered if:

  • Your reaction seems out of proportion to what happened.
  • You can’t stop thinking about this new event.
  • Your upset and agitation don’t subside

The other day I was talking to a store manager.

I had received poor customer service.

The store manager told me he didn’t believe me.

He said he had no reason to doubt his employee.

Strangely this made me angrier than I expected.

Then I realized I was triggered.

As a child no one believed me when I said I was sexually abused.

Not being believed by the store manager was a trigger for me.

Another time my work cubicle was moved.

At my new location I could not see out a window.

This triggered a panic attack.

In both cases I had done my healing work long ago.

Here is the important part:

  • My anger was not caused by what the store manager said.
  • My panic was not caused by my cubicle moving.
  • My anger and panic were caused by my own thoughts.

Do you understand that no one can affect how you feel?

All your feelings come from your thoughts.

This is good news!

This means when your past trauma is triggered:

  • You, not the past, not the trigger, are in control.

When you remember that, you can stop and:

  • Slow and deepen your breathing.
  • Ask what thought is causing you to feel how you feel.

Often, just realizing that a thought from the past has triggered you is enough.

In the case of the store manager, I realized my thought was:

No one believes me.

As soon as I realized my thought,

I knew it came from my past abuse.

That one thought was causing all my anger.

I simply changed my thought to:

It doesn’t matter if he believes me, I know the truth.As soon as I changed my thought all the anger vanished.

Cindy Esch
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