Trigger Tags- What are they?

Trigger Tags are certain words, phrases, or subjects that I have noticed which seem to bring up emotions, specific thoughts, or specific reactions within me. And often, these words don't have to be directed at me personally. I can overhear them or notice them in passing, and the effect is the same.

Imagine that you are still and your mind is not running. You are aware, focused, and fully present as your real honest self, and you are experiencing and expressing yourself freely, WITHOUT your mind. Suddenly, you hear a certain phrase or combination of words, and they seem to race into your mind and say "TAG! YOU'RE IT!" And all of a sudden your mind roars into life having been "tagged" by the trigger (which can be a word, a phrase, a subject, even a picture). So now your mind is in this game of tag and it goes running around fetching out thoughts, emotions, ideas, all of which are associated with the trigger, as if to "tag" it back, and back and forth it goes.

This can be frustrating especially when I am HERE in the present moment expressing myself and experiencing myself and then the trigger word is heard or noticed, and BOOM my mind kicks in and I get lost in the sweep of emotions and thoughts associated with the trigger word(s) and all the programming kicks in as well.

Here's an example-

Last week on September 11th, I was at work with some colleagues and of course the subject of the 9-11 terror attacks came up. I shared my perspective openly regarding my position on whether or not the official explanation given to us by the government is accurate, and whether or not key information is being withheld and misinformation is being used as a smokescreen to obscure what really happened on that day.

So far so good. I was not trying to persuade anybody. I was just sharing my perspective. And I accepted the perspective of others on the topic.

But moments later a co-worker asked "What were you guys talking about? Did one of you say we weren't attacked?"

To which I responded "I never said we weren't attacked."

He responds incredulously "How could you believe that it wasn't terrorists?"

BOOM. Trigger Tag.

My mind goes racing at this point, though I did not press the topic further. I was too bogged down with thoughts like "How could you NOT believe that there were other agencies at work that day, some of which were criminal elements from our own governmental structure?"

Then came thoughts of "How could you be so trapped within the 'us versus terrorists' paradigm that you can no longer see anything between the spectrum of 'us good' and 'them bad'?"

Then of course came the flood of thoughts regarding the many unanswered questions around 9-11 and the inconsistencies of the official and mainstream theories, which then led me to frustration and agitation, which led to more thoughts. It was indeed a vicious game of tag within my mind, which let me slip back into my head of remaining in the present with and as the stillness of self.

And so... when Trigger Tags happen, do not allow it to continue. STOP it. And also see it as an opportunity to see where you have unresolved issues or self definitions that you are holding onto and are not allowing yourself to transcend.