Somatic Roadmap for Navigating Triggers
HEIDI SCHAUL-YODER
SOMATIC PSYCHOTHERAPIST
For most of us, wanted or not, this time of year is ripe with potential triggers and presents ample opportunities to deepen our healing work.
Encounters with family, painful memories, grief and loss, horrifying world events, and end-of-year reflections (or perhaps a nauseating “life review,” as the case may be) can all contribute to feeling especially tense and tenderized in our hearts and minds.
Many of us haven’t been taught how to work with our emotions and triggered states, and so will just grin and bear it, or turn to substances, numbing, and outdated coping strategies from earlier in life. As the writer and psychotherapist Francis Weller says, “we live in a culture that encourages amnesia and anesthesia; we forget, and we go numb.” It’s shocking to me how our culture continues to pathologize deep feelings, and leaves us completely at a loss for how to actually trust our bodies or metabolize our experiences.
There is a different way, where it is possible to know that our triggers are just here to reflect an unresolved layer of our being, and that everything we go through is here to deepen us and enrich our lives. It’s possible to become fascinated by our triggers, and to know that in addressing these parts of ourselves with curiosity we’ll be ushered into a state of serenity and wholeness we may never have known existed (and which is way more fulfilling than anything on that New Year’s resolution list).
If or when you feel triggered this holiday season (and beyond), I hope this roadmap is helpful!
1. ENGAGE WITNESS CONSCIOUSNESS
Pause and recognize that you’re feeling triggered (or, as one of my teachers says, that “you’re having a visitation from a younger part of you.”) Now, see if it’s possible to breathe some space around what’s happening, and to engage witness consciousness – invite the deepest part of you to observe the triggered feelings without judgment. You can say to yourself “woah, something is really coming up for me right now, hmm I wonder what’s going on…”
In Internal Family Systems therapy, this witness consciousness is called our “Self,” and embodies the qualities of Compassion, Curiosity, Calm, Clarity, Courage, Connectedness, Confidence, and Creativity.
2. LEAN INTO SUPPORT
When we’re triggered, our amygdala is hijacked and our nervous system is telling us that something doesn’t feel safe. We’re likely in a fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response. Try to locate some form of support that will allow you to be with the feelings without becoming overwhelmed. This could be a safe person, a pet, a place in nature, wrapping yourself in a blanket, holding a pillow, sitting in your closet…use your imagination and trust your instincts!
Try to locate some form of support that will allow you to be with the feelings without becoming overwhelmed.
3. RELEASE THE STORY & FOCUS ON THE SENSATIONS IN YOUR BODY
It can be common to stay mired in the narrative of what we think is happening (often a story about shame, blame, fear, powerlessness, etc) - these are important clues about how life has felt and our core healing themes, but won’t help to resolve the underlying emotions that are present in the moment.
Bring your awareness to the sensations in your body, and simply allow them to be there. Is there a constriction in your chest? Heat in your head? A pit in your stomach?
Just get curious and see if an image or adjectives emerge, or if the sensations change as you explore them.
4. EXPRESS & RELEASE PENT UP ENERGY
Your body is asking for some form of release and expression - go slowly, and ask it what would feel good. You might want to cry, squeeze your fists, shake your body, stomp your feet, rock from side to side, gently stroke your arms with your hands…again, get creative and experiment to see what provides a sense of safe release for this energy.
5. INTEGRATE & REFLECT
Hopefully you will have found some relief and feel more grounded and regulated (if not, there might be more that is surfacing for you, or you can choose to pause at any time). The sensations in your body will likely have changed; let yourself linger and receive this new experience, so it can become an embodied imprint that you can return to.
Your thoughts and beliefs about yourself and the triggering experience may also have changed (80% of our thoughts are a direct result of the state of our body and nervous system!)
Take the time to reflect on any mental shifts you notice as well.
Congratulations, you did it! :)
Celebrate yourself for moving through this trigger with so much awareness, skill, and grace.
To take your healing to the next level, check out this final step…
HEAL THE CORE WOUND
Triggers are a direct portal to a time and place when unresolved emotional energy became frozen in our system; to our body, it feels as if the past is happening now. Once you have successfully navigated the trigger and found your way back to your grounded, present self, consider what aspects of the experience felt familiar to you, and what it may have reminded you of (eg. a core feeling of being disrespected, humiliated, terrified, out of control, etc). Notice if any memories arise. Follow any impulses to provide support, compassion, and love to the part of you that has endured and carried this challenging experience.
Want to find out more about Somatic Psychotherapy with Heidi?
ABOUT HEIDI SCHAUL-YODER, LP
A Certified Gestalt Therapist and New York State Licensed Psychoanalyst, Heidi studied somatic psychotherapy and contemporary psycho-analysis through the Gestalt Center for Psychotherapy & Training in NYC.
Heidi has been supporting people therapeutically for the past nine years, addressing issues related to self love, anxiety, trauma, life transitions, relationships, and spirituality. In her work, Heidi draws inspiration from mindfulness and Eastern philosophy, Gestalt psychology, attachment theory, somatic practices, the natural world, and art of all kinds. She is constantly learning, and continues to pursue advanced training in the nervous system, trauma, and the mind-body connection.