Are you anxious, defensive, stressed, or get 'triggered' easily?
Posted on October 22, 2021 by Christine Cuthbert, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Does a certain activity trigger a mood or stressors leaving you feeling uneasy or angry? We can learn to be intentional and control our mindset.
Do you TRIGGER easily?
What do I mean by that? Does a certain encounter, activity or environment trigger anxiousness, defensiveness or another ‘stressors’ leaving you feeling uneasy or angry in any way? Do you get your back up or lash out?
Being intentional with Identifying and controlling your triggers takes a strong mental state and an opened mind to acknowledge a sense of increased cortisone levels that affects your mindset. Each person has triggers specific to their own experiences and Identifying your own triggers is not always easy. There may or may not be a direct physical element to point to, but there are a variety of commonalities that indicate the situation you are in and contains a trigger.
Stress, inferiority, being overwhelmed, making mistakes, constantly being challenged by environment or people, feeling insecure or not good enough, being around negativity, exclusion, or maybe it is as easy as working with high-performers and you don’t operate within their capacity and you are just trying to keep up? Not asking for help and feeling frustrated because you are too afraid of showing vulnerability?
Frequent stress of all kinds afflicts about 68% of all North Americans. I actually find this stat low based on the many clients I work with. Stress is something you can’t expect to avoid all the time, but monitoring and recording your actions when feeling bouts of stress can help you get a feel for when you react and when that coincides with anguish, hibernation (or cocooning) and lashing out moments with negative thoughts that impact your mindset. And your mindset matters!!
Relationships with all types of people are filled with ups and downs that can wreak emotional havoc and have you thinking differently, throwing you off your game and positive vibes. One way to counteract this common trigger is to seek and develop healthy, supportive relationships based on a positive mutual mindset. Having a supportive ear when you need to talk through how issues are affecting your performance will help. Self awareness is a huge part of overcoming your reaction struggles and difficult to admit!
Take Action & Do Something, engage your super powers: Triggers can cause a quick mental spiral. To break free of this cycle, it’s important to have a few fall-back activities you can turn to for distraction and to reset. An activity for you may look like: yoga; quiet space to meditate; a quiet moment to read yourself an affirmation; or simply recognition of a sudden change of mood or thought process can be enough. Share & Say something: Talking to a supportive person can help you process the trigger and reduce its impact right there in the moment, as well, in the future. Refocus & Challenge Your Thoughts: Challenge your triggers by remembering why you have chosen to change your thought processes, and refocus on the many positives of your life and be mindful how a positive situation can change the outcome to a more favourable experience.There is no foolproof way to beat every trigger but testing out new strategies and using what you learn in coaching your mindset will make you better equipped to handle moods, thoughts and outcomes.
If you really want to dig deep, a mindset coach or someone you trust can help you discover what your past experience was that set you down a path of personal triggers in the first place. We all learn behaviour from people that we let influence us whether it be positive or negative and many of our experiences lay in our subconscious and affect us in our future lives without us knowing.
A simple example is when I was learning to read, and not great at it, my mother made me read to her out-loud. If I paused or made a mistake she made me start the sentence over. If she was getting frustrated with my efforts, I had to start the paragraph over. Her intention was good in trying to help me, but never being good enough for her, made me have an inferior complex and a fear of failure. Forty years later with coaching, I discovered my “trigger” and have overcome some challenges – sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successfully – but whatever the outcome is now, I can deal with the fact that I tried something new and that alone is success for me and I don’t care what others think. I no longer compare my experiences and where I am in life to others around me, and what a relief that is!
If you have emotional triggers that affect your business, goals and progress, let’s work together and help you feel and explore what a more balanced mindset is like! Thriveship Coaching and mentoring services are focused with helping you. Give Christine a call or email to discuss how we can work together changing your emotional triggers.
