Emotional Triggers
Emotional triggers, like knots in muscle, are tensions that exist for the purpose of protecting us in some way.
Knots in muscle are there to keep us from extending into to stretched positions that we may not be strong in, and therefore might injure us. While this does protect us from that specific local situation to some extent, it ironically can cause further injury and dysfunction not only with that muscle, but with muscles and joints that seem far removed.
Our physical bodies are large systems, made up of subsystems, sub-subsystems, etc..
Individual subsystems are optimized for a specific goal but have limited data & influence, and under certain circumstances the subsystem’s local optimization can actually be working against the globally optimal route.
We know for a fact that our brains similarly operate as a system of systems.
Through our senses we perceive the world, and our brain pattern matches raw signals to abstractions and interrelationships, filling in the gaps of our perception and what to expect next all based on our lived experience.
Somewhere in here we have some system of the “gut”, our emotional experiences, our conceptualization of self/ego, and the mind full of our thoughts.
We tend to think of our physical and mental faculties as separate, but even from our lived experiences we know there to be causal relationships between the two (nervousness or anger can flush blood to our faces and raise our heart rate, while exercise and deep breathing can calm us down or elevate our mood). Whether or not you agree with the specific lines we draw between subsystems, it’s apparent from both science and lived experience that they exist and can have their own reactions to circumstances. If we assume that our brains evolved the way they did due to evolutionary pressures, it’s reasonable for us to assume that these subsystems are reacting according to patterns that, by some frame, are optimized for our survival.
By getting an emotional trigger to relax, we are allowing ourselves to explore possibilities outside of the boundaries set up by subsystems and consider them as real options.
This doesn’t necessarily mean we will take actions that sit outside of our original boundaries, but we will feel that all subsystems had their voice acknowledged and considered, versus one voice aggressively vetoing the group decision without any real discussion.
Digging into emotional triggers is a continual process, as a trigger can only be discovered by actually triggering it.
In decisions, how “real” an option and decision can also affect whether the reaction comes up, and so not everything will be able to be discovered purely through what ifs. That said, visualization can be an incredibly powerful tool.
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