Jen,
Thanks so much for sharing your free-write!
The image of a trigger be a stuck place in the brain is one I won’t forget and helps remind me that some of the work of avoiding or working with triggers isn’t only about place. That’s a magnet of insight you magnet of joy!
The reminder to allow ALL of the emotions, for some of us, just can’t come often enough.
Cis

Often, returning to “the scene of the crime” is all we need to get triggered. A place. A location. Or even if not physical, that spot in our mind where we are transported right back to the memory. I’ve got lots of triggers. Some physical places, others stuck in my brain, attached to and wrapped around my neuropathways. Relentless. So relentless. Despite the pleas for ease.

At times, however those places, those descriptive scenes in our minds and physical spaces, also provide incredible relief. How wonderful it is to know that we are not alone in our suffering? What a gift it is to know that because of our own suffering, we are angels of compassion and understanding that seem to swoop down and be there, right there, when a friend needs us. How grateful am I that when I am able to take those triggers, flip them around, see the other side, and share it with others, I am called a magnet of joy!

I think the key to happiness is allowing ourselves to feel all of our emotions. The joys. The suffering. The heartache. The elation. The disappointment, no, even more so, the utter disbelief in other people’s actions. And in our own lack of actions. Or worse still, revenge. This is the human experience. This is it. Let it be your link.