Stop Reacting and Reclaim Your Power
How can understanding our triggers help us find peace and lasting emotional well-being? Psychotherapist David Richo, Ph.D., author of Triggers, discusses how we can look deeply at the roots of what provokes us so we can develop the resources to stay calm under pressure and to heal.
David Richo, Ph.D, is a psychotherapist, writer, and workshop leader whose work emphasizes the benefits of mindfulness and loving kindness in personal growth and emotional well-being. He is the author of several books including How to Be an Adult in Relationships and The Five Things We Cannot Change. The book we are discussing in this episode is Triggers: How We Can Stop Reacting and Start Healing.
SHOW NOTES: Dr. Richo’s website is DaveRicho.com His books are available HERE
THE YOGA HOUR TEAM COMMENTS:I found this conversation on triggers to be interesting and enlightening. Being triggered is common to most of us and it helps us to understand what the trigger is, discern where it comes from and then make choices to lessen or overcome it. Dr. Richo said a trigger moves you into a reaction that you don't choose. When you are able to choose that is freedom. Triggers come from our fight or flight system which is a necessary survival mechanism. Our thinking brain turns off when the fear center of our brain is triggered. Dr. Richo says that the good news is that we are not totally at the mercy of our triggers, if we can pause until our thinking mind comes back online, then we have a choice. Meditation is one way to train ourselves to be able to pause before we react. I appreciated his re-stated version of the Serenity Prayer. It supports us in accepting what cannot be changed. You find the inner resource that supports you and then you realize that that inner resource is God or however you perceive God to be. He shared that saying yes to what is, accepting what we cannot change, turns the triggers into opportunities for spiritual growth. I appreciated his simple examples of what some triggers could be and also his examples of some ways we can deal with these triggers.
DR. TRUJILLO’S COMMENTS: I enjoyed our conversation about triggers and the science behind them, as well as the work we can each do to be triggered into curiosity rather than reaction when they occur. I appreciated Dr. Richo’s rephrasing of the serenity prayer as “May I have the serenity to accept what can’t be changed, the courage to change what is ready to be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference”, as well as your daily affirmation of "May I say yes to all that happens to me today as an opportunity to love more and fear less.” I think our discussion of inner resources like courage, wisdom, serenity, and self-discipline will be helpful to our listeners as they explore the forest of their own triggers and reactions.