The last couple of months I’ve felt a lot of simmering tension, the kind that could convert to anger if I indulged it. Already being a highly sensitive person in what is a complex world, seemingly full of places, people, things and thoughts designed to test our value system and reserves of energy, I struggle to step outside of the cycle of reactivity.

And this is particularly challenging because I don’t have a daily practice in place designed to nurture inner stillness and help me zoom out on the minutiae of everyday life and zoom in on the things that really make the Universe go round, namely love, compassion and boundaryless growth.

Looking up the dictionary definition of trigger, you know the kind I’m referring to, reads as follows:

Something that causes someone to feel upset and frightened because they are made to remember something bad that has happened in the past.

Given the above, it’s no wonder that Eastern philosophy puts so much emphasis on being in the moment and not being pulled here and there by the whims of time and space. The past is behind us, but it foreshadows much of our day-to-day experience.

Are triggers then echoes of the me before me? And is that why swatting them away temporarily only causes them to circle closer, like a wasp in a summer pub garden who’s determined to take a sup of your fizzy drink? Could the real win come from engaging with triggers deeply, through EMDR or another modality of choice, giving them the attention and reverence they deserve and thereby helping to soothe, then dissipate them altogether?

It’s a thought that has just come to me, but one that deserves fuller contemplation.