340: How to Work with Triggers
The Adult Chair Podcast with Michelle Chalfant
Michelle Chalfant
4.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2022
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We all know the feeling: someone says or does something, and we feel our heart rate go up, the heat rise in our body, and the anxiety or anger take over. We just got triggered!
A trigger is an emotional reaction that we have to someone else's words or actions. They often catch us off guard and can flood us with "negative" emotions, and if we're not being conscious, our first reaction is usually to blame the person who triggered us.
But triggers aren't about others; they're always about us! And after years of working with my own, I can honestly say that triggers are a GIFT!
Triggers reveal unconscious beliefs to us – limiting, untrue beliefs that shape our reality and hold us back in life – and give us a chance to heal them. When we have the tools to work through them, we can harness the healing and awareness they hold for us instead of shoving them down, spiraling into negativity or lashing out at others.
In this episode, I'm giving you the scoop on what triggers are, how they form and what they can tell us about ourselves, plus my go-to, hands-on steps for working with them.
Listen to discover:
- What the heck a trigger is – and why triggers are a gift
- How triggers get formed
- Why your triggers and unconscious beliefs affect your life and your reality
- The role of projection in triggers
- Practical steps to work with triggers
Triggers are never fun, but we don't have to get swept away by triggers or let them hijack our emotions. When we develop the skills to work with them, we can live with more peace and balance in every part of our lives…and get to know ourselves a lot better along the way.
"[Triggers] are really key to our growth." - Michelle Chalfant
"Our triggers are our responsibility." - Michelle Chalfant
"Triggers belong to ourselves." - Michelle Chalfant
"If someone outside of you is acting like that, it will not bother you unless you have the same quality inside of you." - Michelle Chalfant
"The more we work on our stuff, the less we get triggered." - Michelle Chalfant
"That's why I love triggers: because when we're triggered, it's like this belief that's been in the dark gets lifted out of the dark and into the light." - Michelle Chalfant
"They help us to know the unknown that's deep inside of us." - Michelle Chalfant
"When we get in touch with these unconscious beliefs, our lives begin to change." - Michelle Chalfant
"You have to go into what scares you. That is how you transform it." - Michelle Chalfant
LINKS & RESOURCES
Happy Birthday, Michelle! Review The Adult Chair® Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-adult-chair/id941317634?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
2023 Adult Chair® Coaching Certification - Doors Open Now!
https://theadultchair.com/certification
MORE ADULT CHAIR
The Adult Chair® Website
The Adult Chair® Membership
https://theadultchair.com/membership/
The Adult Chair® Events
https://theadultchair.com/events/
The Adult Chair® Coaching Certification
https://theadultchair.com/certification
STAY CONNECTED
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themichellechalfant
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMichelleChalfant/
The Adult Chair® Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theadultchair/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Michelle Shelfand, psychotherapist, holistic life coach, and human just like you, |
| 0:09.4 | learning to navigate life challenges. |
| 0:11.8 | With over 25 years experience, I teach people how to get healthy using the adult chair model. |
| 0:17.6 | The adult chair model is where simple psychology meets grounded spirituality, and it teaches |
| 0:23.0 | us how to become healthy adults. |
| 0:26.2 | From anxiety and depression to codependency and relationship issues, you can use the |
| 0:30.5 | adult chair for just about anything. |
| 0:33.7 | Each week, I share practical tips, tools and advice from myself and a wide range of experts |
| 0:40.0 | on how to get unstuck, how to live authentically, and how to truly love yourself, all while |
| 0:45.8 | sitting in your adult chair. |
| 0:48.8 | Welcome to the adult chair podcast. |
| 0:51.9 | I am Michelle Shelfand, happy to be here with you talking about one of my favorites, triggers. |
| 1:06.8 | I love talking about triggers, love them, love them, love them. |
| 1:11.6 | They are really key to our growth, key to emotional regulation, transformation, living |
| 1:21.9 | with more peace, having better relationships, shall I go on because when we can learn how |
| 1:29.7 | to work with triggers, our triggers, no one else's, our triggers, because our triggers |
| 1:35.0 | are our responsibility. |
| 1:36.7 | When we can learn how to do this work, it really, truly can change our lives. |
| 1:41.0 | I say that from experience in my 20s, I was someone that was very much out of balance |
| 1:48.5 | emotionally. |
| 1:49.5 | I was triggered a lot. |
| 1:51.0 | I was high, I was low, but triggers were just very common in my life. |
... |
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