
2 minute read
Triggered to Treasured
In true form as we're talking about feeling and healing, there must be a conversation about triggers. Back in my early days with Creative Facilitation work, I was introduced to the framework of Comfort, Stretch, Panic (for a walkthrough on how to implement this in a meeting or group space, checkout "Toolkit: Decolonize Your Meetings" towards the back). What I loved about Comfort, Stretch, Panic is that it gave us a completely different approach to talking through triggers. Let's be real - someone was often feeling triggered in the spaces I was working in in those days because we were just on the precipice of pronoun usage and not nearly enough people had begun doing their personal anti-Blackness, anti-oppression work so everything we brought up had the potential for being triggering. As a participant in spaces, I witnessed entire agendas and meetings get derailed because the proper thing to do seemed to be to stop and make space for the person feeling triggered. As our work, and we all evolved Comfort, Stretch, Panic was an amazing tool to allow the person feeling triggered to name that and express to the group where they were at simply and then take accountability for re-calibrating.
69
Advertisement
70
Now, I am in no way saying that triggers are bad. From my perspective, triggers are teachers that show us where our wounds are. What I AM saying and hope to make clear to you is this - to ask that everyone else in a space around you pause and sit with you while you process the fact that someone poked an invisible wound they didn't know was there is not going to heal the wound. Only YOU can do that. When you have a scab, what things do you need to let it heal? Think about it. This brings me back around to much of what we discussed in "Shadow Work as Ancestral Healing" . The only way a wound could still be opened is if it hasn't gotten the medicine or air it needs to heal. So when we are triggered, it's actually us feeling in our bodies that something needs our attention. If someone is intentionally triggering you after you've already named your version of "Ouch. " , then it may be time to put some boundaries in place which we'll touch on in a few chapters. To support your move from triggered to treasured, here are a few power statements:
May the healing I achieve not only benefit me, but ALL sentient beings. May it benefit all in our orbit. I can show up as I am, allowing people to see my process. I offer myself compassion and loving kindness so that I may offer this to others. I trust my intuition in order to stay in alignment with my Higher Self and reduce my own suffering. No matter what is in the way of my healing. Bless the way. Bless these teachers that show up on my path. I vow loyalty to my light and to live by the light.