How to calm yourself when triggered? If that’s what you have been looking for on the web, you have finally landed in the right place.
So, you went to work after a busy weekend, and your boss critiqued your work in front of everyone, instantly pushing your hot buttons?
Let’s call a spade a spade, we all feel triggered sometimes. Certain topics and situations get the worst out of us, no matter how hard we try to ignore them.
They make us feel angry and react impulsively, lashing out at things that we later regret saying in the first place.
So, as work makes the most of our lives, it is the place where we can literally snap in our ways.
We spend so many hours at work every day. Think about it!
Therefore, our chances of getting triggered and reacting unconsciously become quite higher when we are most under pressure, meeting deadlines, and engaging with different kinds of people (some difficult ones, if you know what I mean)—everything at once.
By now, you must have gauged what we are heading towards!
Everyone wants to know how to not lose their cool, even in the most unfavorable and difficult situations.
So, after analyzing different human beings and some proven research work, here are some of the ways you can master yourself to not lose your calm and manage your triggers effectively at work.
How To Calm Yourself When Triggered And Angry?
Label your emotions:
Whenever you feel triggered, your emotions start overpowering you, and then there’s no stopping irrational thoughts.
They make you think of all the worst-case scenarios and possible hazards that are coming for you.
According to many studies, labeling our emotions reduces their effect on our emotional well-being.
It can work as a cognitive space between your thoughts and their manifestation in your physiology and psychology.
That gives you more time to process your emotions and feelings, making them work in your favor and not the other way around.
Concentrate on your breathing:
It might initially sound like a very cliched suggestion, especially when it comes to how to keep yourself calm when triggered.
However, we are not suggesting things just randomly here. There is a lot of scientific research behind it.
According to studies, when you feel stressed out and panicky, your heartbeat gets out of sync, shutting down your prefrontal cortex and your ability to think and react with clarity.
So, slow and conscious breathing helps you get out of the whole flight or fight state and helps you regain calm and composure.
If you are a complete beginner regarding different breathing exercises and the positive impact they can create on your mental health, please consider box breathing as your starting technique.
You can watch this video to comprehend box breathing better.
Make an action plan:
To be honest, it is not always easy to manage your deeply-rooted triggers, as there can be solid reasons behind them.
Maybe these emotional triggers and reactions can somehow be connected to your past, overpowering you in a jiffy.
Therefore, when some stressful or discountable situations arrive, it gets impossible for you to see beyond them, consuming you to the tee.
And until the damage is already done—you have lost your calm and reacted—it can be difficult for you to undo things.
That’s why journaling can be helpful for you in the long run. It can work like an alarm notification in your mind.
For doing this, sit down and think about your biggest triggers and situations that really made you lose all your poise in the past.
Accordingly, you can make an action plan. So, when the situation arrives again, you can consciously choose your response and buy some time in your mind to not respond on the spot.
Distract yourself temporarily:
You might be thinking that the whole world is telling you not to distract yourself and be in the present; why are we telling you to do the opposite?
Well, please hear us out before jumping to any conclusion.
At the time when your emotions overpower you, making you say and do things that you later regret and mitigate, distraction can be your savior.
And distraction can come in some better/positive ways as well. You can observe your breathing, heartbeat, surroundings, and anything else, or you can simply watch something engaging on your mobile.
This way, you will not react at the moment, activating your prefrontal cortex to think in a calm state of mind rather than reacting on the spot.
Confide in someone to calm down when triggered:
Well, all the above strategies can be helpful in some situations. However, they don’t always work.
Also, we won’t encourage you to always bottle up your triggers and emotions.
Sometimes, it is important for them to come up and make you aware that something is bothering you and is not okay.
That’s why talking about your triggers with someone you trust, or maybe a therapist, is important, as sometimes it might be impossible for you to fight them back alone.
And seeking professional help is nothing to be ashamed of. We all need help sometimes. It’s okay!
However, if you have a confidant with whom you can confide your problems and triggers at work, it’s amazing.
The point is not to let your triggers always make you feel that something is wrong with you. There might be some solid reasons why you are feeling the way you are.
How to calm down when angry and triggered? We hope you got some clue about it!
So, we hope you find these top ways to calm yourself when triggered, especially at work, helpful and insightful.
What are your thoughts on this topic? When was the last time you felt triggered? Let us know your experience and how you overcame it! We are all ears!
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Author: Anam K.
Anam is a huge movie enthusiast with a journalism and mass communication diploma. She is continually immersed in the soft news media space, be it entertainment, movies, pop culture, lifestyle, or any other relevant creative niche. You can always find her reading and writing about any of these, and you can also find her binge-watching actors' round-table conversations to comprehend the humane side of the artists. Watch her pen down each and every significant aspect related to your favorite celebrities whenever you read from her!
