How To Use the Triggering Mechanism For Your Benefit?
What if you could program your emotional triggers? What if being triggered could end up being a good thing, making you feel better and more productive?
When we get emotionally triggered, some external signal triggers an emotional response within us. Usually, this makes us feel worse (sad, angry, hurt), but it doesn’t have to. Today, I wanted to discuss programming positive triggers in your mind so that you can enter those positive emotional states faster.
Previous articles on emotional triggers:
You can use this exact mechanism to improve your life! Deliberately program triggers that will awaken within you a certain mood, one you desire. Here are a few examples:
Get triggered into exercising
If you don’t like working out and struggle getting started, program a trigger that will wake up the version of you who does. Establish a system where you follow the same routine every time you work out. Repeated enough times, this will form habits. Habits will then take over willpower and help you toward your goals.
If you don’t feel like working out today, just put on your sneakers—the same ones you use every day and the accompanying outfit. That is the only thing you will force yourself to do.
Since you wear the same outfit every time you work out, the simple act of putting on your sneakers and outfit will trigger the mood for exercising. This does wonders for me personally. “I’ve already got the shoes on, so I might as well give it a go. I aim for one exercise at minimum (a deal I’ve made with myself).”
Ideally, you would also work out at the same time every day or week and even warm up with the same short routine. The trigger could also be a special music playlist or watching a TV show when you work out, for example. Trigger, trigger, trigger!
Those mental connections will begin to add up. For instance, if I eat more protein in the morning, like eggs, meat, or cottage cheese, I’m much more likely to do some strength training later in the day. It makes me feel like a healthy person who takes care of himself. If I start with comfort food like cereals or bread, I’ll end up feeling lazy and seeking more comfort. When I work out or exercise in the morning, I’m much more inclined to choose better food during the day. If I start the day lazy, I’m going to end it in the same manner.
Trigger a faster meditation state
When you meditate, always try to do it in a similar position, in the same place, at the same time (if you can). Make it a habit. Do it often enough, and as soon as you sit in your chosen pose, stick those fingers together, and take a few deep breaths, your mind will already be in a “mediating mood.”
Triggers could be a special pillow, sofa, position, time period, candle, music, or something you do every time before starting your meditation (exercise, affirmation, vocalized decision to meditate).
I love to meditate on my sofa in the morning, in the same position every day. Not because it’s some holy position with energetic benefits but because it helps me let go of thinking and just “be” in my meditating zone. In simple terms, it gets me there quicker.
I find it more difficult to meditate when I try to do it elsewhere or in a different position simply because I haven’t programmed that trigger beforehand.
A trigger I use to empty my mind is also a simple technique of intensely focusing on the screen of my mind, waiting for what images it will produce. If it does, I gently but firmly refocus back to the blank empty space in my mind. The refocusing on my eyes behind my eyelids triggers the “empty your mind” mediation. I become the detached observer of the mind, not the thinker.
Trigger an antidote for your anxiety attack or panic attack
When you are stricken with anxiety, the fastest way out will be the one that has helped calm you a million times before. It’s best to practice the activity and mental process that helps ground you and calms you down regularly. This will make it much more effective when the crisis arrives.
The trigger can be a specific breathing technique (I like 378), a mantra you repeat, a visualization, journaling, counting, listing objects in your view, or freaking ice cream, if it helps. Talk about childhood programming, ey? Use the same thing every time, ideally the thing that makes you feel calm and relaxed.
You can program tiny movements to help ground you in the moment and calm you down. Examples would be pinching a specific finger, snapping an elastic bracelet on your wrist, squeezing a stress ball, doing ten pushups, counting, or a particular mantra that takes anxiety’s power away. I like this one (everything is already determined and done, and no one can change that) and this visualization (locking myself in a time-resistant submarine).
Another trigger I use when I can’t stand the anxiety anmore is the act of physical surrender. I’m afraid of what will happen, so I resist it. I then open my arms wide and look up at the sky in a clear gesture of surrender to life. if there was a lion in front of me, now would be the time to eat me. “Let it be, what will be. I don’t care anymore. I give up, I surrender, I let go. I’m right here. Do with me as you please.” This unleashes some uncomfortable emotions for a short while, but I stay with them, and since nothing ever happens, it then triggers a sensation of relief. I faced my worst fear, and it dissipated into nothingness.
Programm triggers to help you fall asleep
Many have problems sleeping. If you can, go to sleep at the same time every night, in the same bed, in the same position, under the same conditions. Program a routine that will ease your transition into sleep mode.
For the longest time, I watched boring documentaries an hour before sleep in the evening. It helped put me to sleep. It took a whole hour when I started and only a few minutes after the trigger was programmed.
Now, I sleep like a baby as soon as I decide it’s sleeping time, but I had problems falling asleep for decades due to an overactive mind. I just couldn’t stop thinking and was on overdrive when it was time to sleep.
A trigger for telling your body and mind that it’s time to sleep could be anything but ideally repeated every time so it solidifies in your mind.
Here are a few ideas: repeating an affirmation that calms you down, reverse counting, breathwork, full-body relaxation, or perhaps deciding like I do: “It’s time to sleep. No more thinking allowed today. Everything will still be waiting for me tomorrow. I’m done for today. No more thinking allowed! I won’t bite. Brain — I’m not interested. Sleep. I’ll be fresh and well-rested in the morning and deal with it then. Now, I’m going to sleep.” Then, visualize picking up your brain (thinking cap) from your head and placing it on the nightstand. There — done! Repeat every night, and it will be like an off-switch for your brain.
I would also avoid scrolling through your phone or doing any active thinking and focus all my effort on chilling and “not thinking, planning, deciding” anything two hours before bed. That’s unwinding time, so unwind.
The trigger can be anything you program into your mind
Animal training is based on triggers
When we teach animals, dogs especially, we train them using positive triggers. At first, we usually use treats, but we accompany them with clickers. Every time the dog gets a treat for doing something right, it also hears a loud click. Day in, day out. In time, we can skip the treats altogether and use only the clicks. The dog will respond in a programmed way.
Raising children with triggers
Most people raise their babies and toddlers using similar triggers: pacifiers to help them calm down, feel safe, and fall asleep, and small compounding rewards for potty training. Personally, I prefer to use self-imagining motivation.
I keep repeating the same word, one that my daughter inspires to become—“a big strong girl,” for example—and repeating it over and over again in relation to the desired behavior.
For example - my three-year-old daughter wants to be a big girl, of course, so I use that phrase to connect the ideal with the desired action: “Big girls use the toilet. Big girls dress themselves. Big girls sleep in their own beds. Big girls brush their teeth. You know what to do if you want to be a big girl. Little babies pee in their diapers. I know you’re a big, strong, smart girl. What do you think — are you a baby or a big girl?” No pressure, just persistance.
I’m hoping it will help her find inner motivation and confidence from the reward of becoming what she wants to become instead of using some outside reward like sweets or stickers, which would, admittedly, be easier. I’m all about choosing the smaller pain now vs. the larger pain later, and so far, it’s worked out brilliantly.
Helpful triggers are everywhere
Using similar methods, we can program ourselves to do things we don’t like doing and get in the right frame of mind to help us instantly feel relief, for example.
We can also employ outside triggers, like those met online that trigger the anger, resentment, or emotional pain within, to trigger an improved mood.
Watching “cat videos” is one such simple trigger. Music and dancing are another, as is watching motivational videos. They instantly improve our mood.
For men, the act of working out, doing something productive and challenging, and feeling pumped triggers the feeling of being powerful, which is what all men crave.
Women tend to need acceptance and love instead of power (generalizations, I know), so their triggers for instant mood improvement will rarely be found in the gym. Apart perhaps from some lusting eyes on their sweaty bottom. But then a chat with their friends, a simple hug, a video that warms the heart, or some music that takes them back to when they felt loved, accepted, and appreciated might do the trick. Showing self-love by allowing themselves to eat something they love can also trigger an improvement in their mood. Do comfort foods ring a bell?
Helping someone else, even with a simple compliment, opening a door, donating to a cause, or giving a larger tip, makes us feel better. It’s a simple trigger that emphasizes that we are good people and that the world is a nice place to live in. Interestingly enough, just imagining these things achieves similar results.
Use triggers to help you change your habits
When you’re trying to change a habit, use triggers to replace the existing habit with a new one, a more beneficial one. It’s usually more productive than just quitting cold turkey.
If you replace smoking cigarettes with chewing gum, it’s triggering a similar response in your system, especially if you chewed gum immediately after smoking, for example.
Choosing to do ten pushups or squats instead of eating a piece of chocolate does the same thing. For an easier transition, you can make a deal with yourself that you can eat that chocolate when you crave it, but only if you do some quick exercise before or during. That will connect the triggers together in your mind, and in time, you can let go of eating “junk food” and just do the exercise and experience the same emotional satisfaction.
You can also use little tricks in the form of “mental reframes.” One great example is the “alcohol is poison” mental reframe from Scott Adams. Program that phrase into your mind by way of repetition, and now, whenever you see alcohol or want to drink, you’ll be subconsciously reminded that you’re choosing to poison yourself, and that will help you drink less. It will make alcohol less attractive.
Use words, sounds, images, and objects that you associate with desired outcomes as triggers. Use them when you talk, plaster them everywhere, and incorporate these triggers in everything you do. Drinking your daily coffee from a cup that says, “World’s healthiest person,” will subconsciously make you want to live in a more healthy way. Choosing a mighty pen name might transform your writing to another level. “Mighty Duck” writes some powerful stuff!
A similar effect can be achieved in your significant other. Imagine him or her as you want them to be, and keep using the same words for them that embody those qualities. “My Little Nymph” is a risky one, but after hearing it a thousand times, it may just unlock something ancient in your lady friend. I would suggest a more subtle choice, though. “My Strong Man” has done wonders for women who wanted men to do things for them. A word of warning. Calling your man’s “you know what” a cute girly name might have some unintended consequences. Words matter, especially those we repeat often.
Triggers and habits, friends. If you learn to hack your mind, everything will be a hell of a lot simpler. One small step at a time, employing a simple-to-follow system, is how we can completely transform ourselves in time without much effort and willpower.
Have a good one, friends!
Are there any triggers you employ deliberately or just found out you unconsciously do it? Let me know in the comments.
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