What is an emotional trigger? How can I heal a trigger?
How do I get in touch with my emotions?
If these questions have crossed your mind, then read on to find out more….
We are going to dig deep to give you a headstart on incising and draining your triggers.
If you remember, my wish for you is to be an Enlightened MD. And one of the strengths in her arsenal is the Emotional Rx which stands for knowing the anatomy of your emotions, I&D of triggers and manifesting ideal relationships.
But why is I&D of triggers important in healing from burnout?
- Because studies from different parts of the world have shown that burnout is linked with changes in the parts of your brain that process emotions. So the way we detox common everyday stresses may fall short when someone is in burnout.
- Burnout causes neurochemical changes in our nervous system, which is also linked to our emotional processing. So we need a well drafted approach to heal emotions when facing burnout, beyond our usual emotional coping mechanisms.
- Most importantly, burnout is the result of an incremental build up from multiple small stressors over a period of time. Some of them are not even big enough to be recognised as a stressor on their own. So good “emotional hygiene” as we may call it, is unavoidable in healing and preventing burnout.
In short, a person in burnout may need a well-planned fortified strategy for emotional healing to heal successfully from burnout.
I wish I could shout this from the roof-tops, I cannot stress the importance of this enough…
Especially having been through burnout, I can vouch for the importance of this:
Handling emotional healing when healing from burnout is comparable to learning to walk again after being paralyzed. We have done it before. We just need to be able to train those muscle fibers to fire in unison and in response to the neural stimuli, then strengthen them and finally gain the coordination. Any change in the load each muscle has to lift can be appreciated so well compared to a normal healthy person. It’s like we are at rock bottom and making our way up, so we are able to appreciate any minor change in the load we have to bear.
Similarly, when we heal emotionally from burnout, we want to make sure the load we are pushing through is a healthy challenge rather than an overwhelming one.
And more importantly, we need a maintenance system of “emotional detox” or good “emotional hygiene” so that everyday stressors are fully processed as soon as they happen or within a reasonable timeframe. So that any remaining effects from it do not tax the neuroendocrine system. And ultimately does not impair the brain’s emotional healing abilities. Because as we saw above, even seemingly minor trespasses can, over a period of time, add up to cause burnout.
And emotional triggers are speed bumps when it comes to emotional healing.
So what is an emotional trigger?
An emotional trigger is anything that significantly stirs up our emotional response, by causing extreme overwhelm or distress. It can be memories, events, even someone’s words or actions.
For example, when my father passed away, the last healthy memory of my father was him at my first wedding. I flew to the US on the night of the wedding reception. He went into a coma a few months later. He passed away after another eight months in India. A couple years after his demise, I was watching a TV show and it happened to show a wedding. As the father walked the bride down the aisle, I could not hold back my tears. Further, I could not stop crying that whole day.
It took me many years to be able to watch a wedding again without being triggered. To the point that it came to play at my second wedding 15 years later. My six year old son was the ring bearer and could walk with me (the bride) down the aisle. He would have preferred that than walking by himself. But he reminded me of my dad. And I was afraid I would lose composure at the wedding if he walked with me. So I arranged to have one of the event personnel escort him before I walked down the aisle.
I went out of the way to avoid an activity, as it could potentially upset me emotionally. That was a trigger for me.
A trigger can be a reminder of a past traumatic event or even an object that causes emotional upset. Other triggers can be less obvious: like anxiety or frustration related to covid. It can be something that makes you feel emotionally drained when you think about it.
What is a trigger trying to tell you?
It is showing you the places within you that are seeking peace emotionally. Places that are in need of emotional healing. Often it may be related to limiting beliefs as well, and for sure, with negative self talk.
It is making you seek healing so you can have clarity around it. And as soon as you identify the correct message in it, poof…the knot disappears and you find joy and peace. So it holds love, joy and peace on the other side, just waiting for you to discover.
How do I heal a trigger?
The three essential steps to heal a trigger would be:
- Identify the trigger
- Trace it back to its origin
- Find your breakthrough to love, joy and peace.
I am hosting a free zoom masterclass “Physician Heal Thyself From Burnout & Reclaim Your Life” on February 28th, 2022 and March 1, 2022 from 7 pm -08:30 pm each day where we discuss this more.
If you would like to know more, you may register by going to the home page and clicking on the ‘Secure my spot” button.
See you soon! Here’s to your freedom…
