Manifestation of triggers in the body

Your trauma or triggers are felt in your body

Apart from understanding cognitive distortions, you benefit from exploring the felt sense when you are triggered.

Although, you might not be conscious of this most of the time, when you get worked up, you can feel sensations in your body. Most common ones include a racing heart, shaking, clenched fists and hotness of the face.

Some people can have chest pains or a funny sensation in the abdomen.

It can sometimes be a challenge to put a name to your sensations, but it is important for your healing to describe them, even if it is not in terms that are in the books. When you familiarise yourself with your sensations, mental, images, and feelings, you might begin to breathe in when you start experiencing the bodily manifestation of your trigger.

It is helpful to practice deep breathing during your morning routine daily, as well as any time of the day, so that whenever you feel triggered, that is the first thing you do as a habit.

When you regulate your emotions and practice objective evaluation or SIFTSEM daily, you can shift your reactions to responses gradually.

As you notice your sensations and feelings, you also have an awareness that your deep breathing, cathartic shake, hugs and words of affirmations have the potential to shift your bodily responses.

Sensations, Images, Feelings and Thoughts are not permanent fixtures. They are fleeting, which is why it is important to learn tools to ground and soothe and reframe, create solutions and shake off the bodily manifestations of your trigger and associated thoughts.