A Simple Trick to Make a Mind Shift
One of the things that makes Justin Thorstad so relatable is that he shares his own personal experiences — not just the great ones, but the struggles, too. The ones that he himself has to work himself out of. Here Justin does just that, explaining how he recently experienced a triggered state and how he worked himself out of it and sharing the technique that people can use to do the same.
Justin reveals that recently while having coffee and a discussion, he started evoking some past feelings and energy he had on the topic. He began feeding into it and getting triggered, despite his efforts in his daily morning practice and, as a result, he spent the whole day in a triggered state, reacting to one thing after.
It wasn’t until later that evening when he was working on some of his own workshop and instructional content and going through various material that he began having an awareness of what happened and how he had allowed himself to remain in a triggered and reactive state for that long. As the awareness came about, he realized he’d been fighting himself all day — he didn’t like the way he was feeling and thinking and he was literally struggling within to make a shift, with, he admits, no success.
“A lot of effort, energy attention went into that and it is physically and mentally exhausting,” he says. And while he reveals that it’s a losing battle to continue the fight with one’s self in a triggered state, there is something everyone can practice to become responsive versus reactive.
“To shift your mindset, you have to sit in your state of consciousness and become aware of what’s really going on,” he says. “When you do that, your thoughts and feelings start to subside and you can instantly shift to how you desire to think and feel.” Sometimes this takes a minute, and Justin offers a physical trick help. When people are feeling triggered, he advises them to try to detach from the moment in a physical way.
“When you’re in the moment and perhaps getting caught up in old programming, try to detach by literally leaning back,” he says. “The accomplishes a few things — it creates physical space and it gives you distance, which allows you time to let those feelings and thoughts subside. Once they do subside, you can gain an elevated perspective and then create how you desire to respond instead of simply reacting because you are triggered.”
Justin encourages people to use this technique when feeling triggered or reactive. He summarizes simply that when people change the way they look at what they’re dealing with, what they’re dealing with changes. So a subtle mind shift can make all the difference.
