5 Ways To Stop Getting Triggered Easily At Work 

Almost every working-class person knows what it’s like to be easily triggered at work.

The feeling of bile rising in your throat, or your stomach twisting and tying itself when hit with outrageous comments, or overreactions from your colleagues or bosses over minor mistakes.

You can be repeatedly triggered by numerous things at work. It could be a particular colleague always trying to talk down on you, or having your work degraded or even stolen.

When you’re triggered, your brain goes into fight or flight mode because your Amygdala(a part of the brain) thinks you’re in danger.

Now this can sometimes happen frequently, meaning you get triggered easily.

Why you may ask? Let’s begin this article by answering this question. Then I’ll discuss exactly how to stop getting triggered at work easily.

Why Do I Get Triggered So Easily?

As explained earlier, the Amygdala is the part of the brain that recognizes threats and springs to action.

The Amygdala springs to action by releasing various chemicals that bring about responses like increased heart rate, feeling anger, anxiety, sweating, physical tension, difficulty breathing, etc.

Now I like to think of triggers as stumps of the past.

The stumps are from hurtful experiences that we may have moved past but are not fully uprooted from our brains.

This is why when similar hurtful experiences occur, our brain recognizes them as a threat and is triggered.

So if you’re triggered easily it means they’re many experiences or stumps your brain hasn’t uprooted completely.

And similar experiences are occurring and your brain recognizes them as threats.

Now that we’ve identified why you get triggered easily let’s discuss how to stop getting easily triggered.

How To Stop Getting Triggered Easily At Work

1. Figure Out Your Major Triggers

Most people have numerous triggers, but there are usually two or three triggers that stand out more than others.

These usually cause you the most stress and draw out the most intense reaction from you.

When you figure out these triggers, you focus more on stopping them first before considering other triggers.

Ask yourself what exactly triggers me in this situation?

Is it the person in particular?

Is it what they are saying?

Are they undermining my work and making me feel small?

Figuring out your major triggers and what is inciting them will help you in the next step.

2. Prepare For The Trigger

Once you figure out your most recurring triggers, your next step is to prepare for them.

If it’s a particular person at your workplace that triggers you, you need to find out why and address it ASAP.

If it’s a specific type of action that triggers you, like feeling mocked, taken for granted, or unimportant, you need to address it as well.

It may help to write down these things – the person or action (what/who triggers you) and why they trigger you (the cause).

To figure out the cause, you may have to dig a little deeper into past experiences.

This may be a bit hard and if it hurts to dig up the past, you may need to seek professional help.

3. Take Deep Breaths

Now that you’ve armed yourself with the knowledge of who/what triggers and why, you need to know how to react in situations where you’re triggered.

At that moment when you feel yourself feeling angry, your heartbeat quickening..take a deep breath.

Exhale. And then take another and exhale. Do this as many times as you need to relax.

Usually after six seconds of deep breathing, you should feel relaxed and your Amygdala will know that you’re not in danger.

By doing this, you just stopped yourself from reacting negatively and impulsively to your trigger.

This gives you more time to carry out your next step.

4. Practice Emotional Regulation

Once you’ve relaxed and are no longer in fight or flight mode, you should allow yourself to feel your emotions.

Are you feeling mad, anxious, or cranky? You have to try to be self-aware.

Understanding what you’re feeling will help you decide how to react, which brings us to our next step.

5. React Differently

To effectively stop being easily triggered at work, you must work to change the only person you can – yourself. You can’t stop the person or certain words from triggering you but you can stop the way you react to it.

Once you’ve gotten your emotions in check, carefully think about the best way to reply.

Your reply should not show even the slightest hint of annoyance or anger.

You should try to keep it professional and try to relay your concerns or if necessary your feelings, in the most respectful manner.

If that’ll be difficult to do at the moment, you can decide to be silent and excuse yourself to take a few minutes.

Getting Triggered At Work

The workplace is one place where triggers are almost unavoidable.

And it might cause you to have to deal with issues from your past you may not have known you had.

But by recognizing why you get triggered so easily and following the steps above, you could stop being easily triggered at work.

Of course, following these steps isn’t going to be easy.

And it would definitely take some getting used to, but with time it would come naturally to you.

And you getting triggered would be a thing of the past, or would barely be a regular struggle.

As you work on getting the best out of your job, the NetWerk community is here to provide you with the professional development resources you’ll require.