Reclaiming Your Power Through Emotional Awareness
When you’re stressed, anxious, or burned out, life can feel like it’s constantly happening to you. A comment lands the wrong way. An email spikes your heart rate. A small situation suddenly feels overwhelming. It can seem as though the world is full of triggers and that peace depends on everything outside of you behaving differently.
But there is another way of understanding what’s happening. One that doesn’t involve blame, self-criticism, or forcing yourself to “be better.” A way that is deeply human — and deeply freeing.
At the heart of it is this gentle truth: You are responsible for your emotional experience. Not because you’re doing something wrong, but because this is how human nervous systems work.
Events Don’t Trigger Us — Assigned Meaning Does
An event in itself has no emotional charge. A message. A tone of voice. A situation. A memory. None of these things hold power on their own. What creates the emotional response is the meaning we unconsciously attach to the event.
That meaning often sounds like:
- “I’m not safe.”
- “I’m not enough.”
- “This is going to go badly.”
- “I’m about to be rejected, overwhelmed, or fail.”
And here’s the important part: we don’t choose these meanings consciously, especially when we’re anxious or burned out. They are shaped by past experiences, conditioning, and a nervous system that is trying to protect us.
Why Stress and Burnout Make Everything Feel Personal
When the body and nervous system are overwhelmed, they move into protection mode. In this state:
- the mind becomes hyper-alert
- the body scans constantly for danger
- neutral events are interpreted as threats
- emotions intensify more quickly and linger longer
This is why, during burnout or chronic stress, it can feel like everything is triggering. Not because you’re weak. Not because you’re overreacting. But because your system is doing its best to keep you safe. When you recognize burnout as a signal from your system, rather than a personal failure, everything shifts. The problem isn’t the trigger. The problem isn’t you. The issue is that we start living almost entirely in our heads, reacting to meanings instead of responding to reality.
Responsibility as Empowerment, Not Blame
When I say you are responsible for your experience, I am not saying:
- “It’s your fault.”
- “You shouldn’t feel this way.”
- “Just change your thoughts.”
I am saying something much kinder and more powerful:
If meaning is created inside you, then power lives there too.
This realization is often the moment people move out of victim mode — not by denying pain, but by reclaiming choice. Because when you see that the event didn’t cause the emotion, the meaning did, you gain space.
And in that space, you can pause. You can soften. You can choose a response instead of being driven by a trigger.
From Reaction to Conscious Choice
Most of us don’t need better coping strategies. We need understanding and integration. Trying to “think positively” or suppress reactions often creates more tension. True change happens when we turn toward the trigger with curiosity instead of resistance. This is where shadow work becomes such a gentle and powerful tool, moving us beyond the success masks and personas we’ve learned to wear. Rather than asking: “How do I stop feeling this?”
We ask:
- “What part of me feels threatened right now?”
- “What meaning am I attaching to this?”
- “Where have I felt this before?”
- “What is this part trying to protect me from?”
When met with curiosity, compassion, and love, the trigger begins to soften — not because we forced it to, but because it has finally been seen.
Integration Is the Healing
Shadow work isn’t about fixing yourself. It’s about integrating parts of you that learned to protect you in the past. When you shine light on the root of a trigger — gently, without judgment — something profound happens:
- the nervous system relaxes
- the emotional charge lessens
- reactivity gives way to choice
Over time, triggers lose their grip. Not because life stops happening, but because you no longer hand your power to the meaning automatically.
A Gentle Truth to Carry With You
You are not broken for being triggered. You are not failing because you feel anxious or overwhelmed. You are human. And realising that your experience is shaped from the inside is not a burden, it’s the doorway back to your power.
🌱 Mini Practice — “Meeting the Trigger With Compassion” (5 minutes)
- Sit quietly and close your eyes.
- Bring a trigger to mind allow a recent situation to come to mind that felt triggering or activating.
- Notice where your body feels tight or restless. Observe without judgment.
- Separate event from meaning ask yourself what meaning did your mind attach to the event?
- Turning inward ask yourself what part of you felt threatened or unsafe
- Bring in compassion, meet that part of you with love and compassion.
- Integration, let the tension soften and let that part of you integrate back into your body.
- Coming back bring your attention back to the body, back to the room and open your eyes when you are ready.
🪷 Optional journaling prompt:
“What meaning did I notice and what might be possible if I meet it with curiosity instead of resistance?”
This small pause is where transformation begins.
My Own InnerShift
I’ve been practicing this for over a year and my life transformed, my body transformed and my mind transformed.
My system learned that it’s safe to let go.
I learned kindness, compassion and love I’ve never known before, for myself and the people around me.
Nobody taught us how to be compassionate and loving towards ourselves. We learn early on to beat ourselves up and bully ourselves into submission.
I’ve walked through it and found that surrendering to the process allowed clarity, presence, and authenticity to emerge.
This is the path I now guide others along—turning what feels like a breakdown into a sacred breakthrough.
A Gentle Next Step
If you see yourself in these words, know this:
This is not the end of the road. It’s your invitation to step into your breakthrough.
I offer a 30-minute free Alignment Call — a gentle, no-pressure session to explore what’s beneath the surface of your restlessness and begin your InnerShift.