TRIGGER X

What are triggers? Triggers are occurrences that turn on our sympathetic nervous system. Meaning we go into fight, flight or freeze mode. The sympathetic nervous system is in charge when there is acute dangers to our body, meaning there is a tiger in front of us. The fear is necessary for our survival this nervous system decides that we either run away, fight or duck down and freeze. At the same time the parasympathetic nervous system gets shut down and with that the part of the brain in charge for logical thinking. While this is very important for surviving an acute threat in modern human life this part of the nervous system can be malfunctioning and setting alerts in situations that we could resolve better using the parasympathetic nervous system and logical thinking.

Examples are when a little kid or baby can upset us in a way we lash out. Any situation where we freak out try to run away or shut down, (e.g. hide from somebody, ghost people,….) that lack an actual tiger (meaning an actual threat to our survival) in the room is a situation where our nervous system is malfunctioning. Triggers can be situations we experienced in the past where we were too young and vulnerable on our own or situations where we were severely traumatized by an event we did not have any control over or did not have the capacity to handle.

The only way to heal this condition is to address the underlying cause which is a toxic hyper stimulated nervous system. Nutrition and detoxification plays a big role in the healing process as well as emotional healing. Bradshaw has described in his book Home Coming a method (healing the inner child) to heal triggers caused by trauma (he calls them childhood traumas but I think the traumas that occur at any time in life when we experience situations that are too big to handle.The fear seems to stay imprinted into our nervous system and flares up with situations that remind us of the frightful event.

The tool I am offering here is for resolving daily triggers that make you go into fight, flight or freeze mode in situations where no actual tiger is involved. Find a quiet place and practice these steps as soon as possible after the event. Over time you can see trigger disappear or at least improvement in your ability to react.

If you have experienced what is called big t trauma (eg rape, emotional or physical abuse or major accidents) it is advised to work with a licensed professional.