5. Respond from the Inside Out (Reclamation of Feeling)

Have you ever had the hope in your life that someday you would arrive at a point of spiritual maturity where you were no longer triggered by anything? You were no longer triggered by your spouse, or your kids, or your parents, or your co-workers, or that really annoying person in your life, or maybe even no longer triggered by your own self?

I have had this wish for most of my life! I think I have imagined that someday there would hopefully be some epic moment of arrival where I was eternally happy and unaffected by emotional challenges because I’d finally figured out how to master the game of life and had transcended it.

If reaching that arrival is even possible, I am still a long ways out, and more so, I don’t know that I have ever met anyone who has ever arrived at perfect peace and stayed there forever afterwards, no matter what. All the people I know still get off balance…some are better than others at responding to those moments, but I don’t know anyone who is no longer triggered by anything. With that said, I think talking about the nature of trigger and response is a worthwhile conversation. Perhaps if we understood some of the mechanics of what happens when we’re triggered, we can, in the very least, get better at responding.