Knowing Your Triggers
So you're in the classroom and everything is going great until a child unintentionally triggers you into an unexpected emotional meltdown! Embarrassing! How could this little being with their pretty predictable behaviors, launch you into an emotional response that takes you by surprise?
Well that’s kind of how it works! Getting triggered is not something you typically plan for, but it is something that happens a lot, to all of us. This blog isn't just for teachers, look we all get triggered, probably more than we'd like to admit. So this is for everyone out there who’d like to get a better handle on their emotions!
The first step in managing how you react to triggers is knowing what gets you upset, bothered, or emotional in the first place. By the time you finish completing this activity we want you to know exactly what it is that gets you hot and bothered, so that you can avoid these places and situations or apply healthy coping skills when needed.
There are three areas you will need to look at to develop this level of self-awareness.
The first is identifying what your triggers are. Ask yourself, what is happening just before your emotional response?
The second is labeling the emotion you're feeling. Once triggered what exact motion did you feel and why?
Finally, it's important to understand your response to the emotion. How did you deal with that feeling?
So that's it three easy steps to knowing your triggers!
But here comes the actual work, you MUST study yourself!
Comment below with your email, and we will send you a treasure, THE TRIGGER TRACKER, which will allow you to use the next week to study what really grinds your gears, why, and note how you deal with it. After about a week pay close attention to what you see in the trigger column, and ask yourself what patterns do I see emerging?
Once you are empowered with this knowledge, you can begin to develop healthy ways to cope with your stress. This completed activity is a great tool to share with your therapist who can also help you to create healthy ways for coping with stress.
As your tracking this week feel free to let us know how it’s going! Shoot us an email, (cmiles@werestoremore.com), leave a comment below, or find us on social media, we’d love to support and encourage you!
HAPPY LEARNING!
Claudine Miles