Emotional Triggers: Why Your Reaction Feels Bigger Than the Moment
Certified Jungian Life Coach Aaron King explains how emotional triggers reveal old patterns, suppressed emotions, and the stories influencing our relationships, careers, and choices.
Why can one comment, one tone of voice, or one frustrating moment create an emotional reaction that feels much bigger than what actually happened?
In this episode of Sip on This, I sit down with certified Jungian Life Coach Aaron King to explore emotional triggers—what they are, how they show up in the body, and what they may reveal about the patterns operating beneath our conscious awareness.
Aaron explains why a trigger can be a window into the subconscious and how our earliest experiences may shape the protective roles we carry into our relationships, careers, and choices.
We discuss:
☕ Why an emotional reaction may feel out of proportion to the present moment
☕ How to recognize where a trigger appears in your body
☕ The difference between what actually happened and the story you attached to it
☕ How childhood coping mechanisms can later become limiting patterns
☕ Jungian shadow work, archetypes, and the parts of ourselves we suppress
☕ Why triggers can appear in romantic, professional, and family relationships
☕ The relationship between coaching and therapy—and knowing when additional support is needed
☕ Using a trigger log and dream journal to identify recurring patterns
☕ How awareness creates a pause between the trigger and your response
☕ Why the most important relationship is the one you have with yourself
Aaron also shares his personal journey through career success, alcoholism, recovery, divorce, reinvention, and relationship coaching. We discuss his book in development, From F-Me to F-Yeah, and the four movements from shame and self-abandonment toward relational sovereignty:
F-Me. F-This. F-Off. F-Yeah!
It is not about pretending our triggers disappear. It is about recognizing them, understanding what they may be telling us, and choosing how we want to respond.
ABOUT AARON KING
Aaron King is a certified Jungian Life Coach and the founder of Relationship King. He helps people break toxic relationship patterns, strengthen their boundaries, and stop abandoning themselves to be loved.
Before coaching, Aaron spent more than 30 years as an Emmy Award-winning creative director in television, advertising, and brand storytelling. His work now brings together Jungian shadow work, relational practice, recovery, and lived experience to help people understand the triggers and protective roles influencing their relationships, careers, and choices.
Aaron lives in northern New Mexico, where he is developing Ranch 69 as a future retreat space.
Connect with Aaron:
Website and Coaching: https://www.relationship.coach
Read “Why This Gets Under My Skin: Emotional Triggers”: https://www.relationship.coach/blog/why-this-gets-under-my-skin-emotional-triggers
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronking
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579382941097
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