Holiday Healing, Triggers, and How to Embrace It All

Side note: As I type this, I am sitting watching a handful of snow flurries fall from the sky. They are so sparse they look like little angels floating around in the air. We are always supported when we choose to heal. Even when it feels like we are not, we are.

Triggers are fantastic! I mean aside from the feeling they initially bring and that they continue to bring while we are healing them. They are an invitation to heal and transform. It is your soul saying *waves* "hey over here."

A lot of people feel that triggers are bad - something to be avoided. Triggers are in fact a wound that gets poked - a wound that is not fully healed, but that craves healing at its core. The Holidays brings up A LOT - different for everyone, but a lot. 

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it felt like a great time to discuss ways to work with your triggers. A lot of the triggers that surface around the holidays are a mix of Inner Child Wounds, feeling like you can't speak your truth, or that you do not feel seen as you are now. Little things, right? 

The biggest step to embracing and working with your old wounds is self love and acceptance for yourself. If you love and accept yourself as you are, it is easier to forgive yourself for not saying or not doing something. 

Forgiveness is key. Forgiveness of the one who you feel hurt you, forgiveness for yourself for "allowing" it to happen. 

Here are a few ways to help support your healing during the holidays...

• Sit in gratitude every morning for at least a minute. Thank your triggers and old wounds for surfacing so that they can be healed. 
• Make a literal or mental list of one or two of your biggest triggers over the holidays. You can do more, but I have found that focusing on one or two things at a time allows you to heal them more fully than trying to do everything all at once, feeling overwhelmed, and giving up.
• Ask yourself - what I actions can I personally take to heal these wounds (am I willing to have a private conversation with someone before the holidays?, Am I willing to ask someone for support?, Am I willing to slowly work on forgiving someone? If you feel alone, Am I willing to talk to some friends to see if they would be open to having a friend's holiday or having you join their gathering?
• Create a list for yourself of how you need to be nourished in this vulnerable space of transformation. Healing is deep levels of vulnerability. It requires kindness and care that we must give ourselves.

Remember, energy and emotions surfaces, because they are ready to begin to be seen. Sometimes that means having awareness and saying "I see you." Then that shifts into being aware of the discomfort you are in, when you are triggered. Followed by deciding to stand up, slap the table, and say no more. I am done with this. Let's heal this. You can do this!