Empaths Can Heal Through Turning Emotional Triggers & Pain into Your Greatest Gift

Let’s talk about the T-word. You know, the trendy buzzword that is thrown around like confetti… Trigger. In some circles, triggers are held like a badge of honour. And depending on the individual’s perspective, triggers can be viewed as being your arch nemesis or best friend.

Understanding the True Nature of Triggers

Triggers are an emotional response and/or physical sensation experienced in our bodies that is activated by an external or internal factor. External triggers arise through influences in our external environment, such as: people, situations, events, circumstances, etc.  While internal triggers are often activated through our own thoughts, feelings, and emotions that are typically associated with past experiences.

It is incredibly common for us to trigger ourselves by ourselves. Have you spun yourself out over a thought before that turned into a sour mood, or tears? Yea, it's a thing we do to ourselves.

Emotional triggers in your field can be volatile, like carrying ammunition in your pocket.

In fact, I would even argue that triggers are actually an internal matter much more so than an external one. Why? Because triggers are like ammunition that we hold in our energetic field, or body.  Some lay festering just below the surface, in a fully charged state, just waiting for a match to ignite, like a resonating factor that is connecting to the energy that we associate with people and situations in our environment.  

Other triggers lay deep, and dormant within us that we are unaware of and end up causing us to unconsciously act and behave in (undesirable) ways that is unknown to us. When we have deeply embedded emotionally loaded grenades in our body, and we are not consciously doing work to heal, aka diffuse them, we can feel like we are out of control to our triggers. We can react quickly, be irrational, and do and/or say things that we regret after the moment has passed.

Often times, deeply hidden triggers are usually from a time we have consciously or subconsciously chosen to forget, such as from childhood or even past lives. But they are there, running the show from behind the curtain, and we end up acting like puppets to their whim.

For example, have you noticed how some people seem to fly off the handle and seem to go into a state of rage from zero to 100 in a matter of seconds? And over something that occurred that could be perceived as absolutely miniscule or even completely out of left field?

Or how you could be watching a movie, and there is a scene that resonates with an experience that you once had a long, long time ago. Next thing you know, you start to feel emotionally upset and start bawling your eyes out because that puppy on the yogurt commercial reminded you of your childhood dog who was hit by a car?

The Empath's Dilemma: Understanding Emotional Complexity

And to add fire to the chaos, Empaths are typically highly in tune to, and feel the emotions of others - consciously and subconsciously. So, imagine how confusing and overwhelming it must be for an Empath who is feeling an intense emotionally energetic state that does not even belong to them? From my experience, it can be truly disorienting and devastating to be feeling such an intense emotional charge, when you are not in a grounded state, this can be very destabilizing. And to level up the discomfort, Empaths typically find themselves enmeshed with other people, in a particularly unhealthy way. But they don’t even realize that this is the case as in the unawakened phase, that is usually the way that they have experienced most close relationships throughout their lives. So, you can imagine it could be very easy for them to be confused and think that the emotional trigger that they are feeling is theirs – but it might not actually be theirs at all!

Side tangent: I was not aware that this was the case with me until I started to dive into my own inner wounds. I then realized that carried so much energy that belonged to other people, and I was completely blind to that fact. I had to learn what my own energy actually felt like and then I was able to determine when I was feeling an external energy in my field that was not mine.

Are You Carrying Emotional Triggers as Ammunition?

Anyway, back to the ammunition analogy. When the ammunition is activated, but something that someone says or does. We can feel lost, and out of control to the “Boom!” of the eruption. When we lose our cool, and snap at someone who pressed our buttons. It is easy to point the finger (actually our society promotes and encourages us to) at the other person and say “You caused this, you made me feel……”

But let’s take a closer look at this scenario, shall we?

The shrapnel that flies from the eruption of an emotional explosion can cause consequences that can last a lifetime.

We are the one walking around fully loaded with active ammunition in our metaphysical pocket.

We are the one carrying around the emotional charge related to a past event that (most likely) occurred in our life.

We are the one who is reacting to a perceived outside factor, that (most likely) is unrelated to the original origin of the trigger.

And now we are walking around expecting the world to walk on eggshells around us because we carry a metaphorical energetic grenade on our person?!?

See how the story does not really add up?

Let’s think about it this way: When we are not carrying around an emotional, or energetic, charge related to a topic, such as “being lazy,” we are highly unlikely to be reactive to any reference, or perceived slight, towards it. So, if someone was to come up to you and say, “wow, you are being lazy.” You would not be impacted by the external factor and might even laugh at the nonsense of that comment, you know you are a highly productive person. But, if you held a trigger that caused an insecurity about being perceived as lazy, you would most likely be emotionally triggered in some way if someone referred to you as being lazy.

Make sense?

Perhaps you even find this blog post to be triggering?  Totally understandable. When I was first introduced to this concept, I did not like it at all, because it shifted accountability and responsibility back onto me, and the ego no-likey. This meant that I had to reflect and become more aware of my inner state, loaded ammunition, and take responsibility for the diffusion process.

Emotional Triggering by Social Agendas & Movements

If you objectively and critically assess mainstream narratives, social agendas and movements you will notice that they encourage the masses to blame other people for our emotional reactions and internal state of being. These movements also advocate for us to expect and demand for others to walk on eggshells around our trigger points. However, there are many significant issues with these agendas that will be addressed in another blog post. But for now, let's consider the fact that if, as individuals, we are the ones walking around with emotional explosives in our metaphorical pockets at the brink of detonation, (in reality, this is energy in being stored in our bodies typically from past experiences), how can we be expecting the world around us to be responsible for internal state?

By pointing fingers and placing blame on others for our own emotional state, we are also giving our power away. The advocation that promotes this is disempowering people and encouraging them to remain in a victim-based reality that is stating "you are hopeless and helpless to the world around you, so you might as well give up." When in reality, you are the only one who can change your lived experience by addressing and healing your triggers. It can be difficult, if not impossible, to imagine life without having sore spots around a certain topic or experience. But when you empower yourself to take action to address and diffuse your trigger points, there is magic in it. You experience the world so much differently, and you learn how you are actually the powerful one who is accountable for your life - and can change the seemingly unchangeable scenarios you are faced with.

We cannot change others. Period. But we can change ourselves and therefore our lived experience through taking accountability for our lives. And when you do, you are using the magic sauce of life - you will begin to see the world around you sooo incredibly differently: people, situations, circumstances, events. You will even begin to experience people treating you differently, and you them! It is truly unbelievable!

Emotional Triggers Can Help Empath Healing & Reclaim Their Power

Yes, triggers often feel like total sh*t. They can feel awful, in every sense of the word. However, when you begin to shift your perspective to see how this means that triggers are actually a gift for you to heal, transcend, and evolve. This means that you have the power and opportunity to shift your life experience by acknowledging them for what they are – showing us where we need to pay special attention and compassion to ourselves and do some internal healing work.

Personally, I appreciate it when a friend tells me that I have a boogie in my nose, or food in my teeth.  So, what if we view triggers in a similar manner, as a loving yet obnoxiously loud and blunt friend who is pointing out our blind spot on where can improve our lives and love ourselves more by dismantling the ammunition that is negatively impacting and sabotaging us?

Empath, it is okay if you are resisting this concept. I get that, it is not always fun to think about. But I promise that you will begin to see the empowerment from this practice when you open your mind to the possibility that triggers are meant to help you.

You might even be thinking, this post should have had a “Trigger Warning” on it….

Trigger Warnings are Detrimental to Empath's Wellbeing

Personally, I think that Trigger Warnings are detrimental to your wellbeing as emotional triggers can empower empath's healing and awakening process to higher states of being and protentional. These warnings (while insinuating meaningful intentions) are actually enabling you to keep the loaded, explosive ammunition in your pocket opposed to doing the work and taking charge (*wink 😉) of diffusing it. When society encourages these warnings, it enables us to remain in an unstable, victimized state of existence and sways us to stay reactive and demanding others to walk on eggshells around us.

If we are in a such state of such internal disarray and instability that we require warning signs on social media posts to maintain our emotional equilibrium - we are not in a healthy condition mentally, emotionally, or biochemically. That is a big ol' red flag that we need help and to begin taking care and accountability for our lives!

To be clear, I am not referring to content that requires a warning that it is intended for Mature audiences only or contains disturbing images. I am referring to "Trigger Warnings" that are often found on social media on a person's post who is talking about difficult or sensitive matters. This actually encourages and can be perceived as a virtue signal for encouraging victimhood and disempowerment.

Trigger Warnings disempower us, and they perpetuate the notion that we have no power or freewill over our life. Which in turn, keeps us in a state of learned helplessness, hopelessly wounded, utterly powerless to change our lives.

But when you choose to start doing the work to diffuse the ammunition within, you experience life in a completely different way. It is truly an amazing and empowering experience to no longer react to a scenario in the same way you had in the past.  It stops you in your tracks when that triggering person’s words no longer make you want to cry or scream. When you can sit back in your seat, in a neutral and peaceful state of being... assessing the progress you have made with current self verses a past version that felt helpless and out of control to your emotional and reactionary state.

That, my friend, is freedom and peace!

Can you think of a few things that really rattle your cage and upset you, Empath? 💜

How could those triggers be showing you where you are not free within yourself? 😇

Can you imagine a world where you are feeling neutral and at peace in the presence of those things? 💫🥰

Copyright © 2025 Amanda MacLeod. All Rights Reserved.