How to pay attention to your triggers during the holiday season—and how to return the focus to yourself and your values.
Video Transcript
Something really interesting happens around the holidays. People get tested and triggered by their families, by society, random folks on the side of the road, social media… Everyone gets triggered by something—and it’s our job to figure out why it triggers us, why it bothers us, why it brings up something within us that is frustrating. Or maybe it’s bringing up a feeling of lack or unworthiness or a feeling that we are alone or unheard, or unvalidated.
Check In With Yourself
As we move through the holidays, check in with yourself. Are you setting boundaries with your family? Are you prioritizing your own needs, your own rituals, your traditions, things that bring you joy? Not just things that bring other people joy or expectations that have been put on you due to generational patterns or expectations.
I think there is also something to be said about living in a society that is obsessed with consumerism and getting new and shiny things. In reality we can have values that align with certain things we want to get, but at the end of the day, we’ve turned these holidays into something less about what were grateful for—our traditions, focusing on the things we’ve cultivated and created for our own families or our own selves to find joy in something that is really meaningful to us. So, notice how you give in to “the norms” of the holidays.
Pay Attention to What Bothers You
What comes up?
Why does it bother you?
Is there a boundary that needs to be placed?
Does something need attention, love, adoration, validation?
Do you need to speak up for yourself?
There’s lots of ways to go about this, but simply checking in with yourself and feeling what’s going on in your body and noticing when things are frustrating. Noticing when things are agitating—like when you’re driving in traffic and someone cuts you off, because everyone is holiday shopping. Is that what’s really bothering you? Or is there something that’s happened earlier that’s getting you all riled up?
