The T word: TRIGGER ... and how to navigate them powerfully

I say random , crazy shit , which is why I called this podcast the way that I did , and I really hate long drawn out intros , so let's fucking go . Well , yesterday on the podcast , I told you that because it was minus 3,652 degrees Celsius up here in Canada . I'm just joking , it isn't , but I do not like frostbite .

So instead of walking outside , I did choose to walk the walking track , the indoor walking track , and yesterday I was so ballsy to say that I find meaning in almost everything and I had such an awareness and such an intrigue to the people that were on the walking track with me and I wondered how much did they overcome to get there ?

And who was working the hardest was the person that overcame their own bullshit thoughts and excuses and showed up anyway . Who fought through the pain , who fought through the excuses and the rationale and showed up anyway . So yesterday I thought man , I'm on fire , I love this . And when I went today , I thought the same thing was going to happen .

As it turns out it did not . I felt like , as I was walking , I had two functioning brain cells . They were not at all close together , they were not generating heat . I didn't have a good thought in my brain , but yet I think it did start to get the brilliance going in me , because after my walk I was speaking with a client .

She's been navigating something that was really particularly hurtful for her in the past and she didn't want to be constantly reminded of this horrible situation . But yet several times a month , or numerous times a month , it's sort of placed in her face and she feels like she's triggered and she doesn't want to feel that anymore .

What she said to me was want to feel that anymore . What she said to me was at what point am I going to feel nothing ? I just want to feel nothing . How long will it be before I feel nothing ? And my response was this if you are searching for feeling nothing , you are chasing the wrong thing . Our emotions are tied to a situation in the past .

We're going to feel them . It's going to be an emotional response that our body feels first . I mean , if you think about it , even when my son was young and we had a fireplace and he put his hand on the fireplace . He pulled his hand back , he reacted , his body felt the pain , he reacted , stood there for a moment and then he cried .

Then his brain registered that it hurt , right , but the initial I touch the fireplace and I recoil my hand , that initial response was a body response . That , my friend , is normal , and if you're feeling something , you see someone or you do something , or you see a situation , or you read a Facebook post , and you have an emotion to it , it's fucking normal .

It's normal to have that emotion , and so to expect that you're not going to have that is probably chasing some monk-like state , and that probably does take years and years and years and years . I don't even know if I could ever get to that place . How many of us do get to that place ? How many of us do Not ?

Initially , anyway , but we can control our response . So our first emotional reaction to something that happens in the split second we cannot control that it's an emotion , it's immediate . Our body feels pain and has a bodily reaction to it . What is your choice , though , is how you respond . It's the second reaction that is within your control .

So in her case I mean my client was feeling the emotion and feeling she was failing , feeling the emotion and feeling she was wrong when actually she wasn't , because she could see the situation , recognize that it's caused an emotion she does not like and choose . The choice is the power .

If someone hurt you deeply in the past and you see that person again today , I will guarantee you will have an emotion to it Doesn't mean you're not healed .

Eckhart Tolle talks about pain body , your pain body , and I remember feeling triggered by something like feeling this flush in my face , like having the physical reaction , and I physically said , whoop , my pain body was triggered . And what that does is it completely separates out your feeling from who you are .

When our pain body is triggered , it is literally just an accumulation of old emotional pain that lives in us and it's like separate from who we are . It gets triggered by situations that feel similar to past wounds and then , when it takes over , we feel it and we react emotionally like maybe explosively , irrationally , with deep , deep hurt .

The pain body thrives on that . It's like , ooh , yes , here we go . Drama , conflict , suffering . It's like you feed it with that . But our pain body is not who we are . When it gets activated , it feels like it takes over and it makes us feel like we are that pain . But we're not .

And Eckhart Tolle talks about when we can observe our pain body without getting consumed by it , we dissolve its power . And that is absolutely what I felt . I felt as though bringing awareness to it , even just saying , oh , my pain body was triggered , we interrupt the loop .

So , instead of having that pain body triggered and feeling like a fucking failure for reacting or for having the emotion at all , the focus needs to be on changing the response . Whoa , I feel this intense fear . I feel this intense emotion of some type Huh , my pain body was triggered . As soon as we recognize that .

And for me , as soon as I say , oh yeah , my pain body was triggered . As soon as we recognize that . And for me , as soon as I say , oh yeah , my pain body was triggered , it was immediate where I could go . Oh , this is just old shit , this is not my current self , I am okay , I am safe .

If you were sitting that back and thinking that healing or being a hundred percent healed means never reacting or never feeling that emotional reaction , you're wrong . It's bullshit . Healing isn't about being completely neutral about absolutely everything . That's just not life .

You're not responsible for your initial emotional feeling or reaction , but you are responsible for what happens next . I'll give you an example . But you are responsible for what happens next . I'll give you an example . You post something on social and this is one that I've worked through myself .

So you post something on social media and someone comments some asshole comment online . Cause apparently that seems to be the thing nowadays , like we can just shit on someone online , like we give our own asshole comments in the comment section . I don't get it . I don't get it . I don't get it .

I could do a whole podcast on how much I can't stand the fact that people say stupid shit to others that they would never say to their face . Anyway , let's just go with the fact that you post something on social media and an asshat comments .

Your pain body might be triggered because of an old wound , of feeling you're not good enough or feeling like you're wrong , and that could come from , you know , like something from grade two , like we're not even going to analyze it . It doesn't even really matter what comes from .

I think that every single one of us to some degree has an I'm not good enough trip switch . But what happens is your pain body is activated by this comment . It reminds you of an old wound that you've got and immediately your pain body is triggered .

And it's not necessarily the thing that you saw , but it's the emotion , it's how it's attached to the old thing that happened to you , or the old belief , right the thing that's in the back of your subconscious mind .

Suddenly , you're not just mad at the asshole that posted the comment , but you're also feeling that , in addition to everything that led up to that , every time you felt like you've been judged , dismissed or not good enough , like all of a sudden that you are feeling the emotional reaction , not of the situation that was at hand , but you're also feeling what happened

in combination with all of the other past hurts and it's all coming together and the pain body is like come on , girl , let's just lose our shit on this person . Right now . This is what happens , and when we can just stay in awareness , we can notice whoa , this is my pain body . Once you recognize it , you have a choice React or respond .

Reaction is an automatic , almost like lose your shit kind of a comment . You are not in your power . Response is where you can take power in the pause . Take a deep breath and choose your next , best empowered way to act . Instead of saying to yourself why am I reacting like this ? Why am I feeling this ? What is wrong with me ? Why am I not healed ?

When you just say , oh , my pain body just got poked , oh , this reminds me of old shit , you create distance between yourself and the trigger . You recognize that the trigger is not you . So catch it in the moment .

Stop , take a breath , sip some water , touch something , ground yourself and give yourself that power of the pause so that you can choose an empowered response . You can walk away , you can respond with curiosity instead of defense . You can remind yourself that this moment doesn't define you .

You can literally sit and go oh , that's just old shit , I don't need it and move on . The shift happens in the choice that you make next . Healing isn't about never feeling triggered . It's about catching it faster and responding differently . Responding with empowerment , with emotional regulation . With emotional regulation , with emotional intelligence .

You've got better things to do than doubt yourself , and you've got better things to do than let your pain body run the show . You are a powerhouse . Don't forget

it . If you've loved this episode , make sure that you share it with someone that needs to hear it . If you want to dive deeper into mindset shifts like this , join us in the powerhouse membership . I promise you will think differently , feel differently , react or respond differently , gain emotional intelligence , and just life will be so much fucking easier .

We'll get you into leaning into your intuition , trusting yourself and just being the powerhouse that you are . I hope you have an amazing day and we will see you back here tomorrow . Thank you so much for listening .

I hope you've had some laughs , maybe some ideas , and that you've been inspired to take some type of action toward the life you've always dreamed of . If you feel so called , I would love it if you would share with your besties and leave a review down below . I look forward to bringing you along on this journey and I will see you in the next episode .