Identifying What Triggers Emotions

Imagine standing in front of a wide, calm and peaceful sea. Suddenly, you see a tiny pebble fall into the calm surface and instantly, you would observe the generation of several ripples one by one. Seemingly tiny external triggers carry a potential to disturb and disrupt the widest of seas.

Is there anything we can do to be unperturbed by these triggers? Well, lets see..

Imagine a situation where you were extremely hurt or angry or afraid. Go deeper and identify what was the external trigger that elicited the momentary impulse of that emotion and make a note. For example, say  you were eating an ice-cream and someone took it from you, the feeling of being deprived of the treat would be a trigger to anger/ emotion of sadness.

Further recall a situation where an emotion was triggered from a much deeper space. Let’s say you shared your ice-cream with your younger sibling, it would be the happiness on their face that would give rise to warmth and happiness in your heart as well. Make a note of all such observations.

You would note that none of the ingredients of the ice-cream itself is actually “anger”, “sadness” or “happiness”, yet it has the potential of either making our heart smile or cry, just thinking of it makes our mouth start salivating and we instantly experience a feeling of being elated. If the external trigger itself is not happiness, this trigger is merely a means of accessing the abundant source of happiness that is somewhere deep within us. As we slowly and slowly start becoming lesser dependent on these external triggers to feel happy, the doors to the inner source start opening up more and more.

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