I’ve been thinking lately about the tools I use for self-development, the main one being “the triggers are the guides.’ and working relentlessly to notice when I’m upset about something, either because I’m afraid it might be true or because part of me knows it’s true, and I’d rather avoid it. The inverse of delayed gratification is immediate pain. Pull the bandaid off. Get to the root of it. Dive right in to the hard stuff as soon as possible to get it dealt with so it’s not a background noise dragging everything else down. Taking this route to work through my “buttons” that others can push to get a rise out of me, I’ve noticed some things. When you’re triggered, don’t put too much meaning into the other person’s meaning. By that I mean, you being triggered doesn’t necessarily mean what was said about you is “correct.” It doesn’t mean it’s not correct either. It’s actually kind of irrelevant either way because the trigger itself, the feeling within your body, is the actual guide, not the surface level intellectualizing. Why is that important? Because our intellect wants us to keep the Shadow buried and focus on the other person instead of ourselves, our bodies, and what’s taking place within us right now. If we can invalidate the content of what is being said, we can create stories where we’ve been wronged or victimized or misinterpreted, etc. All of those things may be “true”, but in that moment your rational brain isn’t firing on all cylinders. If you don’t let the energy rising up within you guide you to your own fear and avoidance, then you are missing an opportunity to develop and improve the quality of your consciousness. Later, after you are well regulated, you can connect with aspects of the truth or lack of truth from a logic perspective and take proper steps to create, communicate, and enforce healthy boundaries, but that doesn’t happen when you are triggered. When you are triggered, you may hear words and interpret intentions and experience things that aren’t actually happening in that moment. They are actually the body reminding you of the scar.. Things which have been left unprocessed that are seething right beneath the surface, desperate to be known, seen, and released. It could be stuff from childhood, making the content of the current circumstances mostly irrelevant, in spite of what your intellect is screaming at you.