Triggers are stimuli that elicit a emotional response in the present that is similar to the one experienced in the original event or related event. So if you broke up with your boyfriend or girlfriend six months ago and you see a car like the one they drove and that causes you to think of them (and call them names and curse they very being) that is a trigger.

There are also physical triggers which occur when a body part is touched and a memory is elicited. I remember about 20 years ago I had learned about this concept and was getting a massage in San Luis Obispo. The therapist was working on my back and touched, with pressure an area in my upper shoulder. To this day I don’t know what that trigger was, but it instantly created a flood of sadness in me. It was pronounced that the therapist sensed and stopped working to ask me what was wrong. Being the macho guy I had to be I denied everything. I had come into the room cheerful and bright, and left sad and depressed without knowing exactly why.

One of the keys premises of NLP is that the body can lead the mind. This is best demonstrated with war veterans who suffer from PTSD. When a person not suffering from PTSD is given the drug yohimbe, their heart rate and blood pressure will increase and they might feel a little more “frisky”. When a PTSD sufferer is given the same drug, the increase in their heart rate simulates the physical response they experienced under the traumatic event and they relive it!