When we left off, my inner little girl was fuming…
(If you’re on my main email list, you’ve been getting the whole story in your inbox. If you want to be, just click on the link, then Take the Quiz and get a freebie, too.) You can also find the rest of the story in my Substack notes here, here, and here.)
So what do you do for the little girl (or little boy) in you who never got to say “it was an accident” and be believed?
Two things:
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You validate her feelings. You let her tell you what happened. You listen. (I was always tempted to tell her she should be over it. Not helpful.)
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You reassure her that you both are safe now. Of course, she’ll only believe you if you do the first thing.
And this time, you do something with what she tells you.
That’s not therapy-speak. It’s certainly not telling yourself the cashier was having a bad day and you should just let it go. We’re going to address this feeling at the root, following it back to where it started, letting it be seen and heard, and watching the charge around it dissolve. Best of all, we’re going to do it without pretending it never happened or didn’t hurt.
Most of us try to talk ourselves out of it or think our way through it. Or tell ourselves to just let it go. And for a while, that can work. But if the same trigger keeps coming back, it’s because the feeling underneath it hasn’t felt seen, heard, or addressed yet. It doesn’t disappear just because we decide it should. It goes underground. It waits. And then it shows back up often stronger, often at the worst possible moment, usually in the form of reactions, patterns, and behaviors that don’t quite make sense in the present.
And here’s the good news: you don’t have to dig it out alone, and you don’t have to have it all figured out before you begin. Triggers are where we can all start, regardless of where you are in your own process. That means we can go there together.
Doing it together is fundamental to the StoryShift Experience, and the first place we’re going together is Put Your Triggers to Work FOR You.
Each of us brings our own triggers, our own stories, our own backlog, our own pace, and we work with it in our own way. But we’re all working toward the same thing: shifting the internal stories that have been shaping our lives, without pretending some things never happened or didn’t hurt.
Here’s what I love about this. You’ll start untangling something during the workshop itself. The eBook and video transcript are there to help. You don’t have to wait for life to trigger you. You can find a trigger any time you’re ready — that’s exactly what the StoryShift Triggers Card Deck is for.
Because StoryShift works with all of you – mind, body, intellect, and spirit – the tools aren’t one-size-fits-all. Some may sound familiar, but each one has been modified and customized for this work. You choose what fits. You use what works. And you build a personal StoryShift practice that’s yours.
The book StoryShift: Reshaping the Stories that Shape Our Lives is coming in October 2026 and it will be your complete guide to all of it. But you don’t have to wait until October to begin. You can start learning the tools right now. Here’s what I’ve put together:
An on-demand replay of the masterclass Put Your Triggers to Work FOR You: Four Things You Need to Know About Triggers with a downloadable eBook, and the StoryShift Triggers Card Deck – a physical deck you can keep wherever life happens. Pull it out in the morning. Use it when something’s been nagging at you. Draw a card when you’re ready to do a little excavating. You don’t have to wait to get triggered. You get to choose when you’re ready.
If you’ve been around long enough to have heard the original plan for StoryShift the Experience, thank you! It’s also gotten a reshaping to accommodate my current health. I have a confession: this is a better approach than the original plan. Bite-size nuggets of wisdom and guidance.
Put Your Triggers to Work FOR You is doing double duty – teaching you about triggers and three tools you can use right now, and introducing you to the new StoryShift Experience.
Let’s do this together!