Triggering Integration

In the last two articles, Triggering Times and Tools to use when Activated, we have been unpacking activation—what is ‘being triggered,’ and how to apply ‘first aid.’ 

Today, let’s look at how to transmute and integrate the old emotions that have emerged when we are in a reactive state. Two components are essential for something to heal, rather than just have a repeat churning in the mess.

1. Feel

Stuck feelings must be felt to be completed. Overwhelming feelings became stuck because we had to push them down to cope. They have been stored in the body, brewing away—often for years. Now they are the unpleasant emotions that demand our attention when triggered up to the surface.

To finish with them, we need to face and embrace them. Acknowledging them, finding a name for them, is the recognition they require. So sit with the anger, fear, guilt, grief, or whatever, as best you can.

I always encourage clients when processing old emotions, to notice the sensations occurring in the body. This helps to release the chemicals causing the emotions.

So feel the feelings, be curious about their somatic expression (in the body), and put a name to them if you can.

2. Understanding

The second critical component for healing release of old, activated feelings, is understanding what they relate to. What does this remind me of? When did I feel this way before? How young does this emotional state go?

We don’t need exact details—memories do not need to be precise. A rough awareness of how old we were, who and what the feelings were about, is enough for our mind to connect to the heart feelings and bodily sensations.

When emotions and cognitive recognition are in alignment, our psyche can finish releasing the stuck energies of the trauma. Body and mind are on the same page, and the block can be released.

Like finding the right key, the tumblers then fall into place and the lock opens. I call the resultant healing, the ‘cascade effect.’ The old energies move through in a cascade of correction and transmutation.

Once done, that layer of trauma is completed forever. You can’t unring a bell, as a therapist of mine used to say. There may be more layers that will surface in the next triggering episode, but that one is finished for good.

Please reach out if I can be of service to you in your healing journey.