What are Your Positive Triggers?
We all have had circumstances in our lives that ignite a particular feeling or memory. Some are negative but there also are positive triggers.
Trying to understand this about ourselves is confusing!
When we begin to pay attention to these triggers by shifting our perspective and reframing our life experiences it provides us with an opportunity to become more aware and in tune with ourselves allowing more positive triggers to occur.
How do we know what they are?
I like to begin by noticing how I am feeling, we have to remember as human beings we are feeling people that think, not the other way around!
Getting in touch will all five of your senses is a great way to start, especially by being in nature.
Seeing a butterfly, smelling an orange blossom tree, tasting the salt from an ocean breeze, hearing birds singing and touching the rocks in a babbling brook are just some examples of the gifts we receive. These moments are priceless, beyond words.
The only way I can describe these positive triggers is a “sense of knowing.”
We all need to take the time to slow things down even if the rest of the world wants to speed things up! We need to remember it is the little things in life that bring us the most joy!
A huge positive trigger for me is when I see the shape of a heart in nature.
This is so much a part of me that now many of my friends and family send me pictures of what they have found in the shape of a heart! I am in awe when these people have taken the time to share their inspiring photo with me!
The symbol of a heart means to me that we all are connected; we all need to feel loved and show compassion for one another.
Sometimes when I am in a crowd of people, I think everyone around me has a heart…we all just use it differently. I wish we all would realize the capacity to love with our whole heart is the most important gift we can give to ourselves and to others, but instead we hold back!
We want a guarantee we won’t get hurt which we all know that doesn’t exist!!
Being brave and vulnerable means, we need to take a risk and understand we don’t have control over the outcome!
I believe we all need to ask ourselves the question, “What prevents me from or motivates me to love with all my heart?”
We all need to explore this question and find peace within ourselves because if we keep blaming others, we are still a child, but taking responsibility for ourselves is the only way we become free!
It has taken me some time to write this blog for some reason.
I needed to allow the words to unfold the way that I felt would resonate most to the people who would read it and now I understand because over the past week I paid close attention to what inspired me; which I would like to share with you.
The first one was when I was getting ready for work and went to turn off the television but a morning show was interviewing a 99-year-old artist who became an overnight sensation; her name is Luchita Hurtado.
She was married to an artist and had painted throughout her life but recently her pieces of art were discovered by a young man who was cataloging her late husband’s work. She was just voted by Time Magazine as one of the top one hundred most influential people in the world and her work is now on display in the Serpentine Gallery in London!
The best part of the story was the joy she exudes from her being and when asked how we all can have what she has, she replied, “You can, no one is keeping you from having a life.” How profound!!!
The second gift I received last week was another interview I happened to watch on Super Soul Sunday with Oprah Winfrey.
I don’t know why I chose this segment but it her name intrigued me; Dr. Edith Eva Eger, Ph.D. She was sixteen when her family was taken to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, her parents were immediately taken to the gas chamber while she and her sister endured the horrors of camp including the famous thirty-five-mile death march.
Barely surviving, both sisters moved to America. Eva married and had children but also completed her education to become a psychotherapist. During her interview with Oprah she said that the camp was a place of discovery to find who you really were at your core, your true self.
The most astounding comment was when she was asked if she lost faith in God and her answer was, “No, in fact that is where I found Him.”
She decided to write a book about her life experiences to help others through trauma and abuse so at the age of ninety her book “The Choice” was published! As many of you know I have already ordered myself a copy!
A quote I will remember the most from her was, “What happened did not make me a victim, I needed to grieve what I knew would never happen for me, but I learned I needed to feel ALL my feelings, forgiveness can’t come without rage.”
The last positive trigger I would like to share with you is a couple pictures someone had sent to me from a Russian photographer named Andy Seliverstoff and the kind of feelings the pictures evoke.
I never get tired of seeing photos filled with goodness, light, love, a feeling of a miracle.
The transmission of mood is such a special gift of the artist who loves to photograph children with their dogs in the community around his village and I just had to share them with you!
After all, life is so beautiful, maybe we need just to look through a new pair of glasses!
What brings you joy? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Maria Bucci, M.Ed LPC DWC-F. Daring Way Facilitator by Dr. Brené Brown
Dear Maria,
Greetings from Kimberly Quann! I must tell you that I was instantly inspired by your beautiful presentation. I am a primary counselor specializing in women’s trauma. I have worked for Westover Treatment Centre for over 10 years. In 2014 I developed a women’s program for inhouse, but then it was tested as out-patient counseling. Since then, it has been well recognized and women of all professions, races, and experiences have sought out the program. My biggest dilemma at this time is that I want to become more privatized and work for myself. Presently, I have a cofacilitator named Sarah who is the brains of the new program I have developed. She was previously a policewoman and has since become a school teacher. I am reaching out for your support. Would you be interested in helping me?