Emotional Triggers

An interesting subject.

How far does one have to go before someone strikes back at them? How long can you pull the dog’s food bowl away from him before he bites your hand off? Looking at it on the other side of the coin; how long do you have to be nice to a hostile stranger before they  accept you?

Quite a conundrum. People in general are very set in their ways – they have strict beliefs, superstitions – although some of them won’t admit it, they have some semblance of a routine each day, be it work, school or a daily walk. Just as some people are determined about right, wrong and routines, there are those who refuse to accept it when they are wrong. One of the best quotes I ever read in the Harry Potter series is this:

‘It is easier to forgive someone for being wrong than it is for being right’.

This is so true.

Almost everyone in the world enjoys the feeling of being right, more so than being wrong. These same people will forgive those who are wrong much more easily than those who are right (because it would mean the ‘forgiver’, so to speak, is wrong).

But back to the matter of ‘baiting’. Which comments or actions will trigger which emotions? If I disagree with a volatile person, I wouldn’t want to be within arm’s reach. If I give a gift to a friend, and the friend likes it, the friend will say ‘thank you’. (No, I’m not joking. A genuine word of thanks is a show of emotion) If I told someone their relative had died, they would burst into tears. If someone’s house was on fire, they’d panic.

So we have a difference of opinions, a material present, death and dangerous situations.

Add to that weather, negative economical situations and (sexual) relationships and there are a whole catalogue of sub-triggers (ie: simply rain as opposed to ‘weather’), and it quickly turns out that almost everything in the world triggers an emotional response.  It requires a person of unbelievably even temperament to go even a single day without responding ‘majorly’ to any stimulus.

Spending a day completely calm must be an enlightening experience – I suggest some.