What Triggers Your Happiness?

I love this post (to the right) that I found on instagram (credit to @mombrain.therapist)!  So often in therapy we talk about what triggers negative emotions like sadness, worry, or anger.  Of course, that can be incredibly important because knowing what triggers our emotions can help us to understand them better, and help us to cope more effectively in the present and when a similar trigger happens again.  

However, this question of what triggers positive feelings often isn’t asked in the same way, though it is equally important!  Knowing what triggers feelings like happiness, peacefulness, connectedness, etc. can help us to choose what we might do when we want to feel those emotions.  For example, if we are feeling alone and want to feel connected to others, what might help you to do that?  Maybe texting a friend, or watching videos about people you relate to can help you feel connected.  Knowing this in advance by coming up with these ideas when you are feeling okay can be a great way to make it easier for those ideas to occur to you when you are struggling.

One place to start could be to recreate the above photo with things that help you to feel positive emotions.  You could use drawings or it could be as simple as a written list.  Then you’ll have something to refer to when you need ideas for how to improve how you feel in the moment.