Emotional triggers are a normal part of life. Sometimes, they happen as a response to something we see or hear. Other times, they may be a visceral reaction to something that happens inside our bodies.
We have many emotions that come to the surface in different ways. Sometimes we know them, but sometimes they sneak up on us and hit us out of nowhere. When we are feeling emotional, we need to be able to manage those emotions so that we can function in our everyday lives.
What Are Emotional Triggers?
Emotional triggers are part of everyone’s life, but they can be especially problematic in the workplace because it’s harder to manage emotions when you’re around other people.
The problem with emotional triggers is that they are not always easy to control. In many cases, people don’t even realize when they are triggered until after it has happened, by which time their emotions have already been affected. This makes managing emotional triggers difficult because you’re trying to catch a moving target.
The first step in understanding emotional triggers is to identify what they are. Emotional triggers are not always obvious and can be hidden under other behaviors that are more overt. Some examples include:
- Fear. Fear is the most common trigger, with more than 70 percent of people saying they’ve been triggered by it to some degree. Fear is a natural response to danger and can be caused by anything from a loud noise to an unexpected touch. While everyone experiences fear differently, some common reactions include increased heart rate, sweating, nausea, and difficulty breathing.
- Sadness. Sadness can be triggered by many things in life, including the death of a loved one or the end of a relationship. Sadness is often accompanied by other emotions like anger, guilt, or frustration, as well as physical symptoms like chest pain and headaches.
- Anger. Another typical feeling is anger, whether you’re mad at yourself or someone else. Anger can trigger heart palpitations, stomach upset, and headaches. To effectively regulate your anger, you must identify its causes.
Behavioral coaching can help you learn how to recognize these triggers and manage them effectively. In behavioral coaching, people learn how to make better decisions by understanding why they make certain decisions. Let’s know more about it.
How Behavioral Coaching Manages Emotional Triggers
Behavioral coaching is a process that helps an individual improve their behavior. It is often used to help people overcome addictions and other behaviors that lead to negative consequences. Behavioral coaching aims to help individuals identify issues in their lives, productively address them, and implement the solutions that work best for them.
Other therapies, such as counseling, are often used with behavioral coaching. Emotional management and behavior change can also be helped by behavioral coaching.
Behavioral coaching helps people understand how emotions affect their behavior. To understand what makes you angry, behavioral coaches will ask questions. This will help them find patterns in your behavior so you can make better decisions in similar situations.
After understanding why, a coach can help an angry or disappointed person manage his emotions. Coaches propose taking deep breaths, counting backward from ten, or imagining yourself at home when nothing bad has happened.
A behavioral coach uses three basic steps to guide their client through the process of change:
- Identify Strengths and Weaknesses
The coach will help you identify which behaviors are working for you and which aren’t. They will then work with you on identifying specific abilities that can help or hinder your progress toward reaching your goals.
- Set Goals and Develop Action Plans
You will set specific goals based on your strengths and weaknesses and create an action plan for accomplishing those goals. A coach will also provide feedback throughout this process to ensure that both parties always move in the right direction.
- Monitor Progress
Once goals have been set, both parties must continue to monitor progress toward meeting those goals until they are reached (or until they aren’t).
Behavioral Coaches Tools To Understand and Manage Emotional Triggers
Behavioral coaches are trained in various methods to help individuals and organizations manage emotional triggers. Here are some of the most common tools:
- Self-Awareness Training
Self-awareness training helps people understand how they perceive themselves and their surroundings. As a result, they become better at managing their emotions so that they don’t interfere with their ability to perform at work or in other areas of their lives.
- Mindfulness Techniques.
A behavioral coach may suggest mindfulness techniques such as meditation or yoga. Mindfulness has been shown by research to help people feel less stressed and have better mental health. This can make it easier to manage your emotions when they arise.
- Emotional Intelligence Skills Training
EIS is self-awareness training that helps people recognize and manage their emotions healthily. It includes identifying your feelings and understanding how others feel based on their behavior and body language. This information enables you to respond to others more effectively while also letting them respond better to you.
A behavioral coaching perspective would suggest three components needed to manage emotional triggers: awareness, acceptance, and management.
- Awareness
Awareness is the first step in changing a behavior. How will you change what you’re doing if you don’t know what you’re doing? If you can’t identify your triggers, how will you manage them?
Awareness is about being aware of your emotions and thoughts so that when you feel one coming on, you can recognize it and use it as an opportunity for growth.
When you become aware of what’s happening in your body and mind, you can start choosing how to respond. Awareness is the beginning of change.
- Acceptance
Acceptance is a key component of change. You can’t change what you don’t accept; acceptance is getting your feelings without acting on them.
Acceptance means not trying to change your feelings but being aware of them without judgment or criticism. Accepting your feelings doesn’t mean you like or approve of them. It simply means that you are willing to fully experience the emotion at the moment without trying to change or fix it.
Management
Manage those triggers through self-awareness training by identifying one thing you can do differently next time.
A behavioral coach may suggest mindfulness techniques such as meditation or yoga to manage stress. Research has shown that mindfulness can reduce stress and improve mental health, making it easier to manage your emotions when they arise.
Emotional intelligence skills training (EIS) is another type of healthy emotion management. It includes recognizing your feelings and understanding how other people feel based on their behavior and body language. This information helps you respond to others more effectively while also helping them respond better to you.
The Bottom Line
Emotional triggers are a powerful force in our lives. They can cause us to react before we have time to think or respond. When we get triggered, we can easily find ourselves in situations we would prefer not to be in. We may find ourselves yelling at our children or arguing with people. We may be struggling with a lack of motivation or be unmotivated to do anything.
The emotional triggers we experience may seem uncontrollable, but they can be managed and controlled by behavioral coaching. Behavioral coaching is a great way to help employees manage their emotions in the workplace. It’s also a cost-effective way to help your team improve their performance and productivity.
