You experience and feel your emotions in the present, but they are actually rooted in your PAST. The truth is emotions are so powerful because they have an accumulated lifetime of fuel behind them…

Have you ever wondered why you can get so deeply frustrated, sad or angry due to the behavior of a partner, boss or friend? Have your emotions ever caused you to feel completely overwhelmed effecting your mental state, your ability to be present or make sound choices? Or do you ever feel so upset that your emotions effect your optimism about life, your perceptions about yourself or cause you to have physical health problems?

Your emotions can be so powerful at times because when someone or something sets you off, they are actually triggering a lifetime accumulated pattern of baggage. Your body records everything that has ever happened to you, and past events buildup on top of the other creating great sensitivity and fuel in your perceptions and emotions

Time Line Pattern of an Emotional Tigger

The First Emotional Significant Event is in your past, which you may or may not have conscious memory of. The Gestalt is a repeating pattern of similar experiences that are stressful or shocking and accumulate over time – creating a buildup of emotional fuel. (Stressful events also have an emotional response deeply connected to it, as well as an unconscious limiting belief.)

Now lets make this practical, lets say you had a parent who was overly emotional and dominant. Perhaps they yelled and screamed at you and over time and you felt great anger for being treated this way.

Your perception: They are disrespectful.  Your emotion: Anger. Your unconscious belief: I am not treated with respect. Now fast-forward to the present – when a boss or a partner yells at you disrespectfully, a lifetime of triggers and cellular memory can suddenly release an overwhelming flood of emotions in your body. When all your past triggers come alive in the present, it can require all your effort to keep cool – if you even can at all! The angel suddenly becomes the lioness!

Why do we keep re-creating a stressful pattern? Is it some sort of cruel joke?

I will get more in depth on this subject in another article, (trying to keep these tight and to the point!) but I will briefly touch on the power of BELIEFS. Beliefs are powerful. They are deeply ingrained unconscious patterns that effect the way you see the world. If you unconsciously or consciously believe 100% deep down inside: “I am not treated with respect.” “I am not good enough.” “Something is wrong with me.” “I am unworthy of love.” ” I am a failure.”…etc. Then it is very difficult NOT to re-create events that will prove yourself right! Your mind will exaggerate when an event supports your belief, and minimize, distort or even delete an event that suggests the opposite. Like I said I will delve more deeply into this subject in a future post, but that is the brief answer from now.

Getting back to emotions … the depth of your emotions have a story, they have a recorded lineage of painful or stressful memories associated with them; however, they also serve you in a very profound and sacred. They are a biological feedback system alerting you to where you most need to heal in your life. They tell you your exact Achilles Heal pattern, limiting belief and emotional block holding you back in life. Your body can not and will not lie. It is your teacher on the deepest level, and your emotions, (which are experienced in the body – in fact within every cell of your body!) is communicating to you where you most need to grow.

Try a trick the next time you get Emotionally Triggered:

1. First pull back when you experience an intense emotion and become the observer of it.

2. Let go of ALL identification with your emotions and get curious about them.

3. Ask yourself – Where have I felt this before? Does it feel familiar? Where does it come from? Write down where you have felt this same emotion before and what characters have played out this role for you.

4. If it is a big emotional pattern causing you a great amount of stress or frustration in your life, create a strategy to heal yourself and shift this pattern.

If you don’t know how to find deep and meaningful healing from your pains of the past, you
can work with me and I will help you to transform any challenge and pain into empowerment and purpose, or you can work with any number of trained and skilled professionals. 🙂

The trick is get curious about your emotions, become the observer and let them teach you and reveal to you a great depth of meaning, healing, wisdom and growth in your life.

(That is unless of course you are cool with continuing to play out your emotional perceptions of your 5, 8 and 15 year old self … but that choice is up to you! 🙂 )

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.”
~ C.S. Lewis