What are Emotions and What are Triggers?

 

What are emotions?

Emotions are a physiological interpretation or reaction of the world around us and the experiences we go through. They belong to the body. There are a very specific number of types of emotions you can have. Then, the intensity of these same basic emotions can vary in intensity.

What are emotions meant to do?

They are meant to give us hints as to what to move towards and away from. But in order to do this we have to acknowledge them authentically. Emotions teach us how we would prefer to act, or what we would prefer to do or who we would prefer to be with. The problem with this though is that, instead of living in a society which teaches us to be authentic and follow our emotions, a lot of us have come from authoritarian parenting households, where we are taught that we must overcome our emotions and simply follows the rules of a group. By the part of the parents, this usually isn’t malicious, because maintaining group cohesion is also an important part of survival.

But in certain cases, it’s bad. The knowing which we derive from our emotions is shoved into our metaphorical trunk in order to get through an experience which we can’t escape. But energy cannot be created or destroyed, meaning that energy will continue to try to move through us until it is finally seen and utilized. This is what happens to people with PTSD in extreme cases, but can also happen to the average Joe in to lesser degrees, causing us to be more reactive or adverse to simple neutral experiences. A trigger is when something that happens subconsciously reminds you of the memory of that traumatic experience, or simply, that moment when you were told not to follow you own internal guidance.

To get over these overreactions which limit you in life, you have to learn to start giving space to them to be seen for what they are. They are a bread crumb trail of thoughts, memories and insights that should be followed back to their roots, not only the memory itself but what the experience made you believe about yourself and others and the world.

Do the triggers go on forever? Can I ever trust my emotional reaction to things again?

No, they won’t go on forever. The more truth and understanding you find in them the lighter you become. You systematically leave behind the unnecessary baggage in your trunk and you start to be able to do the same process for situation which are right in front of you, learning from it and using your emotions as a reliable guide again. It takes time though.

The more you have been through, the more time you will need. It can be quite scary to revisit something painful and to begin to question your beliefs. On top of that basic fact, it seems like the information on how to do these processes is not widely known. Going to therapy isn’t an affordable experience for everyone and sometimes therapists don’t even know how to help their patients effectively. But it’s not up to a therapist, it’s up to you. Ultimately, it’s YOUR life and your experience, and only you can go through these processes and come to these realizations.

We can ask others for help, but they can’t do it for us. Healing is always an internal and personal process. But in the end, it’s completely worth it. The ability to feel lightness and free from the painful anxieties tied to our past is worth all the effort and courage it takes. To be able to trust yourself and your own feelings is priceless.