Tempting Triggers... you have a choice.

Anyone who has been through something traumatic knows that you have three choices in how to deal with the feelings that come as an aftermath from the experience.  No matter what kind of experience it was the ways to deal with the flood of emotion are still the same.  You can either bury and try to forget the feelings, you can turn to pity, or you can deal with the emotions and choose to move on.  Far too often we choose one of the two unhealthy ways of dealing with these emotions,  even if it is just to a small extent. It is only when you release the feelings you have about the experience from your past that you can fully move on and heal.

The other two ways of dealing with these emotions are not healthy.  People either choose to bury the feelings and not deal with them, essentially believing they have moved on, or they choose to hold onto those feelings and validate themselves as a victim. The problem with either one of these solutions is when things pop up that are related in any way to what you went through it triggers these emotions and they resurface.  This sends the person who burred their feelings into a frenzy of trying to cover these things back up that they had worked so hard to bury in the first place.  Sometimes its even the last straw, and someone who has seemed to be okay, breaks because they cant bury anymore.   The same triggers will send someone who has been holding onto the validation of a victim into a tailspin causing them to run back to the place where their insecurities beg others to pity and protect them.

We have a choice when triggers come into our lives.  These things are never easy to deal with when they are close to something we have been through .  Knowing that someone else is feeling the same pain, knowing that someone has brought up that old memory, or stabbed a knife in that old wound, but we have to make a choice.  We can choose to live an unhealthy life and bury the feelings or seek pity, coddleing, and "support" in the form of validation for our victimization, or we can choose to lay it down and do something productive with the feelings we are feeling.

When triggers pop up in your life, try to step back and see the big picture.  What can you do to make the situation better?  You will feel better if you can aid in the situation, if not you can always pray.  Pray for the current situation that is triggering your emotions, Pray that the Lord would strengthen you heart and keep you from going back to your old ways of handling your emotions, pray that you would see the situation in full light as to not make assumptions or see things in a jaded light because of the traumatic experience you had.   How can you glorify God in this current situation and allow it to take you 10 steps forward in your journey instead of 10 steps backward.

No matter what you went through ... you always have a choice not to ever go back there again.  Stay on guard.  Don't let Satan use similar situations to trigger you into losing precious ground you have worked so hard to gain.

You always have a choice. You may have to make that choice to lay it down and not allow the triggers to affect your life, but you ALWAYS have a choice.