emotional triggers

Being a sensitive introvert like me isn’t always easy, especially when you struggle with emotional triggers.

To be honest, I have been feeling triggered a lot lately, which means certain situations have caused a strong emotional response in me that seems disproportionate to what is happening.

In other words, my buttons are being pushed! But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

My career forces me to constantly do my own inner work and healing as I help my clients and students with their transformations. I’ve noticed a painful, but necessary pattern in the transformation process.

If you want change, you’ve got to open the cupboard. Allow me to explain what I mean by that.

Read on to understand sneaky introvert emotional triggers and how to heal, or watch the quick video instead. 😉

What’s hiding in your emotional cupboard?

Being the artsy, INFP dreamer that I am, I have a tendency to be disorganized. Over the years, I’ve learned to keep my home and my work in order…for the most part.

Walk into my house, and it’s usually tidy, and clean. But if you open my kitchen cupboards, it’s a mess. Unlabeled bulk spices and five nearly empty rice bags threaten to tumble out.

As adult introverts, the way we handle our emotional life can be a lot like this. We present a put-together version of ourselves to the world, as we stuff our emotions into hidden cupboards.

We do our best to forget these emotions exist. Meanwhile, they grow and fester in the shadows. And then it happens.

You decide that you no longer want to live a life that isn’t yours. You don’t want to wear a mask and pretend like everything’s okay.

Your suppressed emotions are like, “YAAAAAAY, we can finally be free!” Emotional triggers open the dam, allowing your emotions to flood out with alarming force.

Here are some common emotional triggers for introverts.

Common introvert emotional triggers

1. Being criticized or underestimated
2. Rejection from an acquaintance or love interest
3. Having your ideas belittled, making you feel incompetent
4. Being interrupted, talked over, and made to feel unheard.
5. Bullying of any kind, even if it is disguised as playful teasing
6. Being abandoned by someone you care about
7. Failure of any kind

The reason emotional triggers like the ones above cause such a response in you is because they bring up times in the past when you felt similarly.

Maybe you felt abandoned as a child. Or perhaps, you were bullied. Maybe you had older siblings who constantly belittled you. These patterns repeated as you grew older, and the emotions in the cupboard swelled.

Whatever the cause, being emotionally triggered is incredibly overwhelming! It can also be downright confusing if you’ve been ignoring your emotions for years. You wonder if you’re going mad. Nope.

You’re just being a human.

How to heal emotional triggers

The next time you feel that uncomfortable flood of anxiety, anger, and utter emotional pain—DON’T do what you normally do.

In other words, don’t rush to fix, eat, distract, perfect, or Google the pain away. These are all coping mechanisms that keep you from actually FEELING the emotions.

All the distractions force your emotions back into the cupboard, where they keep you stuck in the same old painful patterns. Here’s how to break free.

Feel the emotions. Lean into them. Sit with them. Journal about them. Breathe into them. And then declare what you want instead.

When you free up the energy around what you don’t want (repeated heartbreak, a meaningless life, constant rejection), you can focus on what you DO want (love, purpose, acceptance).

Do the inner work, love! It will be worth it.

I include innie insights like the ones I shared today in my new book, The Year of The Introvert.

It’s a daily inspiration book with weekly reflection questions, as well as monthly challenges, ‘Book Nooks’, ‘Fortune Cookies’, and introvert love. I’m really happy with the way my publisher designed it up. You can take a look inside on Amazon. 

Love,

 

P.S. If you liked today’s video, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. 🙂