How to Deal With Emotional Triggers Effectively

Step 1

1

Pay close attention to your reactions. Sometimes strong emotions come up, and you may have no idea what triggered them. However, by paying close attention over time, it’s usually possible to learn what your triggers are. This makes it easier to work with them.

Take time to reflect after an incident involving strong emotions. Where did those feelings come from?

Step 2

2

Use a journal to identify your triggers. Write down what you felt, your reaction, where you were when the trigger took place, who you were with, and what you were doing at the time. Journaling like this is a great tool for keeping track of your triggers. Review your list and identify those emotions that evoked strong and intense reactions, otherwise known as the “fight or flight” reaction from feeling threatened in some way.

Step 3

3

Recognize what emotions are for and how they work. Emotions help us communicate to others. They prepare us and motivate us for action, and they can be self-justifying. Sometimes emotions arise in relation to an outside event, but they also happen in relation to internal events, like thoughts and even other emotions.

Following are six of the major emotions:

Love

Happiness

Anger

Sadness

Fear

Shame