Hi, this is Natalie Hoffman of Flying Free Now, and you're listening to the Flying Free

podcast, a support resource for Women of Faith, looking for hope and healing from hidden

emotional and spiritual abuse.

Welcome to episode 101 of the Flying Free Podcast. Today I'm going to be answering three

listener questions. One question has to do with how to manage triggers.

Another question has to do with finding safe people

after we have been, had relationships

with a lot of unsafe people.

And the third question has to do with how to help churches

be better at ministering to abuse victims.

So let's listen to our first question.

Hi, Natalie. I would like to ask if anyone has a good suggestion as to how to manage and cope with triggers. They're unpredictable, they're painful,

they bring me right back in a flash to abusive episodes. For me those triggers can be audio,

visual, tactile, they can be aromas, it can be music.

And I just am not sure if there's any better way

to handle it than I've been handling it and I'd like to hear from

others. Thank you. Bye. Okay this is a great question and one that I think really a lot of listeners will be able to relate to.

So here's the thing about triggers. We are emotionally triggered by thoughts in our brain and those thoughts come from our programming.

So for example, if you were programmed to believe that wearing the color red was evil and anyone who did that had sold their soul to the devil, you know, like if you'd believe this from the time you were a small child.

And if that belief was hardwired into you with traumatic associations like maybe getting

hit or called names or deprived of water or warmth or maybe it was

associated with being molested then that programming is going to get triggered in your brain if you see red clothes.

...