Triggers, Coping Skills and Goals. Oh My!

When you hear the word “trigger” what do you think of?

I think of pulling the trigger on a gun.

That startles me. Knowing that the gun is going to explode and shoot a potentially dangerous bullet when someone pulls the trigger is a bit frightening to me.

My heart races, my pulse quickens, I get flushed and my temperature changes. Fight or flight.

I happen to be a fighter.

I’m often told how strong I am. It comes naturally.

Perhaps it is supernatural considering I am a child of the most high God. I’m certainly not embarrassed to say that Jesus is my savior AND my Lord.

That simple truth makes me a child of God. Jesus made the way for me to get to God. He is where I get my strength from.

I am talking about spiritually, emotionally, mentally and yes, physically. You might not realize it to look at me, but I’m a pretty strong for a girl.

So back to triggers. What do I mean when I say triggers? Triggers are things that trigger me to go into that fight or flight response. Things that are upsetting that can cause full-blown anxiety. Even panic. I never fully experienced this until my child died. I had had anxious thoughts but nothing like full-blown anxiety.

Some of my triggers are: yelling, hearing the “F” word in an angry way, slamming doors. Loud angry things.

So what are my coping skills you might be wondering?

Well, I have a few!

First and foremost is praying. Just a simple prayer it goes something like this “Lord, help me.”

Sometimes I cry when I pray but I always pray. I always turn to Jesus and ask for his help.

I thank him for helping me.I thank him for the truth of his word.

I believe that I have received and then up I will see it. I don’t see it to believe it, I believe it to see it.

Music is a HUGE coping skill. Praise and worship music or just music that reminds me of Billy.

I have always loved to sing, it has always calmed me down no matter what has been going on in my life ever since I can remember.

Another coping skill that I use besides prayer and singing is, going to the gym and working out. I love it, I always have been very active my entire life.

When I work out now, I have a community of other people who love working out as much as I do.

We encourage each other, we help each other, and it is amazing to have such an awesome community of like-minded people who are there in your life no matter what is going on in and outside of the gym.

Last but not least are my goals. What kind of goals do I have in my daily life? Well it changes daily.

I realized that when I go to the gym, it is me against me. What I mean by that is that it is easy to get caught up in comparing yourself with others which the Bible says is not wise. I just want to compare myself to how I was yesterday or six months ago or two years ago and try to be the best version of me today.

The most important daily goal that I have would be to always keep my relationship with Jesus fresh. What I mean by that is that it is easy to sink to the bottom if you don’t stir yourself up. King David encouraged himself in the Lord. That has been one of my favorite verses since I heard a teaching about that 15 years ago or more. David encouraged himself. No one was there to encourage him he had to do it alone and he encouraged to him self IN the Lord. Not apart from him.

In the society that we live in, it is easy to encourage ourselves with substances. Drugs, alcohol, immoral sex, you name it it’s available, readily available.

David didn’t encourage himself using those things, but he encouraged himself in the Lord.