Trigger - Any person, place, thing, that evokes an often “undesired” emotional response.
Be grateful when you are triggered, for it is your unknown, subconscious content, being revealed to you. Why is this important? It is important because our unknown subconscious content dictates our conscious reality, and until it is known to us, we are powerless, a slave, to our subconscious. Subconscious content is often undesired, and that is why it has been pushed down, under, sub, our conscious. Anything sub our conscious, is consciously unknown to us. Subconscious content is often all the “negative,” “icky” feelings that we did not, and do not want to deal with; the anger, depression, anxiety, caused by traumas that we have dissociated and disconnected from. We often feel our subconscious content, in the form of anxiety, depression, and anger, but have no idea where these feelings are coming from. We do not want to consciously know, because these traumas are too painful - this is the basis of denial. We often try to consciously find external factors for these “negative” feelings, such as diet - something your eating, health - aches and pains, politics, people, etc... ANYTHING to not have to delve into the real source of your discomfort, which is YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS SELF! However, just because we have dissociated from, or projected these traumas and feelings, does not mean they have magically disappeared! They quietly and uncomfortably control every decision we make in our lives, until they are brought to the surface, resolved and dissolved. Patterns of behavior are dictated by the subconscious. It is the reason we repeat the same scenarios over and over, often committing the same mistakes again and again, and often asking ourselves - Why did I do that again? I knew better! Well, your conscious knew better, but your conscious does not dictate your reality, your subconscious does. There is a great quote by Carl Jung: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
There are many ways our subconscious is revealed to us, our feelings being the foremost important connector to our subconscious content. Thoughts are conscious. Feelings are subconscious, which then dictate our conscious thoughts. There is nothing more real then your feelings, whether you want to deny them or not. You can consciously lie to yourself, but your subconscious feelings will always be your truth. The ego is a conscious construct that was created to protect you. However, at some point it began to protect you from yourself, the real self that is underneath all subconscious traumas; traumas that need to be unearthed and aired out, in order for you to be cleansed and be free. The maladaptive ego will do everything in it’s power, through projection, denial, dissociation, intellectualization and more, to protect you from your pains. Spiritual awakening is a dissolution of the ego and a cleansing of the traumas, in order to reconnect you to you, the purity that exists before and after all trauma.
Dreams are another form of subconscious communication. Psychodynamic theorists state that dreams can be one of two things: unfulfilled subconscious desires or subconscious fears. I believe dreams are a very powerful subconscious processing tool, communicating to us our subconscious desires and fears, as well as processing this content. From a therapeutic standpoint, I find there is nothing more powerful then processing difficult emotional content in our dream state. Be grateful if you are ever anxious, sad, or angry in your dream, even if you wake up feeling these emotions. Understand that you have processed subconscious content that you had been unwilling to do, in your conscious wake state, and that your vessel is cleaner and clearer because of this. It would not be a bad idea to seek therapeutic help and this point to further assist the cleansing process, preferably from a therapist who is versed in dream work.
Then there are triggers. The beauty of being triggered, is that we are feeling a moment in which our subconscious truth is being revealed to us, in a very acute experience. We cannot be triggered into any emotion that does not ALREADY exist within us. If you do not have anger already within you, nothing can make you angry. The same can be said for anxiety and sadness - these emotions were taught to us through experience, through trauma - they are not inherent in our being. Triggers give us a glimpse into our subconscious self that has been hiding, or has been pushed down by ego defenses. Underneath trauma, fear, sadness, anger, is you - love, joy, happiness, and peace. Underneath the subconscious darkness, is the light of your being. The ego however, as a defense mechanism, wants to keep things at status quo; the ego does not want you to explore the depths, the darkness, the pain. The ego would like to keep us in the ignorance of our conscious matrix, as we live a semi-comfortable life of low level anxiety, depression, and even low level happiness, while searching for all types of external mechanisms to somehow improve our situation - from drugs to entertainment to chasing the “American Dream”, all the while never finding true fulfillment, for true fulfillment can only come from within.
In order to find fulfillment we need to explore! We need to explore ourselves! We need to go where our ego does not want to go! We need to thank those people, events, and circumstances that trigger us, that have revealed to us a glimpse into our own subconscious. We need to follow our feelings down down down, into the depths of our being, in order to face the monsters that have been buried deep below, but are however dictating our reality. We need to take our power back! We need to take our power back from ourselves! No one can give to you who you really are. No one can give you, you! With this realization your inner journey becomes the most important journey you will ever live. A journey to reconnect to your most powerful self.
-Michael Garbe