Stress Triggers
To know them is to manage them!
It's been chaotic lately. Everywhere you turn, a world event or local news is challenging your sanity and, most important, triggering all kinds of responses from your nervous system. It even makes you doubt your meditation efforts or ditch your journaling prompts. All in fair response, because the world is beyond heavy at this point.
It seems useless to try to control something that always finds a way to get back up and hunt you. Unfortunately, stress triggers are everywhere! Even for those with many years of stress management experience - triggers are always present and (if left unattended) ready to create unleash chaos. It is overwhelming and discouraging, yes! But it shouldn't be a reason for you to forfeit the ability to strive for balance or calm in your life. Because while right now it seems far-fetched, it is possible to unlock the power of calm within you.
The first route is to reframe stress because it's not a state of mind like the masses have popularized - but a survival response. If you feel you are ready for this, check out this blog post from a few months back. Now, if you need to go back a step and evaluate/understand your triggers, keep reading this post. It intends to provide some perspective on why connecting to the world seems like entering a stressful bubble you can't escape.
Explore Triggers with compassion, not judgment!
To start on neutral ground, Stress Triggers are any factor (events or conditions) that create an overwhelming demand in you; anything that makes your body react as if living is unbearable if it's been on life threat! Here is the issue, sometimes stress triggers are overlooked. Stress triggers are rarely acknowledged, as nothing of notice or importance.
A piece of murder news from a distant place shouldn't create a life threat response in you right away, so you proceed to read all the details with attention. Heck, maybe you even read 2 or 3 news like that one back to back. Then, you experience a few setbacks at work, nothing major, simple inconveniences. Let's add to that 20 minutes of traffic that mess up your perfect schedule to squeeze in a workout in before the house responsibilities. In none of those scenarios, your life is in danger, yet you feel stressed and wire by the time you hit the bed.
While you may 'know' there is no real danger to those events, your body interprets all of that as a constant stimulus or trigger in the nervous system. Calm and security take a hit to many degrees and your body assumes a guarded response. Creating an ongoing and ignored persistent uncalibrated stress response. Because you wouldn't expect those simple events to be triggers that drain your resilience - you don't address them head-on. You shake it off and move on. But they do add up and matter.
It doesn't make you weak to experience them. It is by no means a reflection of your strength or power. But leaving it unattended (lack to bring awareness to the triggers of all magnitudes) makes you an active advocate of the stress state and a traitor to your sovereignty over your calm and energy.
Therefore the first and most crucial step in managing your stress triggers is to explore their existence. Don't ignore them just because they seem inoffensive. Be proactive about the process to keep your nervous system calibrated with the current circumstances.
Head-On! It’s the only way.
Stress triggers are part of your life. It's not something you can easily avoid. While it can be tempting to stay away from the trigger's path, doing so does not provide a sustainable solution. To the same extent, it would be unrealistic to ram through them. But one thing that is of complete disservice to you is to ignore them or wait until it's incapacitating to live.
It can bring some discomfort to get vulnerable with your stress load. It's no fun to embrace our responsibility in the problem. But it's the best way to create effective and tailor-made solutions that can design a harmonious coexistence with your stress triggers.
Here are three steps that can lead you on a healthy path of exploration & management of your stress triggers:
IDENTIFY EVERY POSSIBLE TRIGGER WITHOUT JUDGMENT
Sit down and write down all the events or conditions that bring discomfort or negative emotions to the surface. Think of things that make you angry, sad, frustrated, powerless, tired, and such. Get as specific as possible. For example: is not just 'your job' - it's the numerous meetings that take too much time from your production time, or the unrealistic expectations from your role, etc.
OBJECTIVELY MAP OUT A DESIRED & SUSTAINABLE RESPONSE
Now, write the immediate response from you to those triggers. What's the consequence, what's the reaction, what's the result. Give some thought to how you would like your response to be instead. Craft out a simple modification that suits your life goals and circumstances best. Is that modification doable? If so, that is your goal. Not to avoid the trigger but be mindful of the reaction.
DESIGN A PROACTIVE PLAN TO EXPERIENCE TRIGGER MANAGEMENT DAILY
Having that goal in mind, create moments in which you cultivate that response to the trigger. Let's say the trigger is the constant meetings in your job. Try to start the experience with a calm mind and level expectations. Afterward, give yourself 5 minutes to acknowledge its load on your nervous system. Recalibrate as needed. Don't wait until the weekend when you are off the clock to address the emotional & physical drain. Damage control sooner than later so it doesn't pile up, and you can keep tabs on your responses in a manageable amount.
The problem with stress triggers is not that they exist, is that they are left unattended for too long, and their impact on our nervous system lingers longer than desired. The management tactics, whether meditation, journaling, or breathing, are activated late in the process.
Imagine you could have a realistic grasp on your triggers and be intentional-mindful with addressing them before they become chaotic. Wouldn't that be less overwhelming? Finding that sweet spot requires effort, yes, but it's always better than letting those stressors control the quality and the intensity of your life. Don't you think?
If you are looking for a way to calibrate your nervous response or gather your balance after experiencing a trigger here is a video with some breathing exercises to help you out.
Shifts to Improve Management of Stress Triggers
Try these shifts when you are clear on what are you triggers. Be as specific as you can to your circumstances and preferences for better results.
If you need a little extra support with stress management or stress triggers reach out! Ignoring your stress load is detrimental not only to health but to quality of life. Let's jump into a Discovery Session and explore all the possibilities to sustain your health journey even when the context is less than ideal.
From my journey to yours
Managing even one trigger makes the difference!
I have experienced anxiety and depression since High School. My father's cancer diagnosis during sophomore year forced my nervous system to respond beyond my capabilities of management or understanding. Sadly, I didn't know this was my trigger until I turned 31 and became aware of how my body and nervous system respond to stress.
I had been trying to make sense of my unrealistic and unfair nervous response to the world for 15+ years. It was discouraging, frustrating, and draining. Every effort came without long-term results to showcase. Every and any trigger seemed to put my body & mind in overdrive. Why? Because I didn't acknowledge that single but main trigger. Once I was able to give my body safety around it, I was able to calibrate my nervous response better. It’s actually when I started to see strides in my healing journey.
Stress triggers are still part of my life, but the overwhelm is less than before. I still struggle at times but the helpless feeling is not the protagonist anymore. For me that is a WIN I always celebrate BIG!
Just to show it's possible to manage stress triggers given the opportunity to discover them with compassion and proactive measures. Dare to try it?
Until Next One!
Stay happy, stay healthy, Stay BALANCED,
