Joe reframes getting triggered from something to avoid into “one of the best possible things that can ever happen to you.” Why? Because triggers are a map to the parts of ourselves we don’t accept.
“Being triggered is so incredibly exciting for me now because it’s like, oh my gosh, there’s some part of me that I don’t want to admit to, that I don’t like, that I judge, that I’m ashamed of.”
The Mechanism
You can’t love and accept parts of yourself that you can’t see. And you can’t see those parts unless something triggers you into awareness of them. The trigger is the doorway.
The Opportunity
When Joe no longer resists being “incompetent,” he can’t be triggered by accusations of incompetence:
“Somebody’s like, ‘You’re not competent.’ I’m like, absolutely. I can name 10 ways I’m not competent. Because there’s nothing in me resisting.”
The freedom isn’t in proving people wrong—it’s in no longer needing to.
Related Concepts
- We get triggered when something rhymes with our negative self-talk
- What triggers you in others is something you don’t like in yourself
- Resisting parts of yourself creates more of that behavior
- Triggers reveal where freedom is available