When something occurs, what is the first thing that happens in your mind? Do you get scared? Feel guilty? Think the worst? Panic? Get overly angry and irritated? The first step to understanding how your mind works is discovering your "Triggers". Everyone's brain is unique and has different reactions to occurrences. When starting your mindfulness journey you need to take a step back and become an observer. Think of your mind as a movie in progress and you the director, watching your creation play out are looking for things that have to be modified and fixed to create the best possible outcome. Instead of instantly reacting and letting your mind consume you, take a step back and regain control. Reflect on what happened and how it made you feel. Another very helpful tip is journaling. While it is not mandatory, I feel it is crucial for learning about yourself in the early stages of mindset reconstruction. Journaling allows you to get all your thoughts and feelings out at the moment and then be able to reflect on them later and see how that occurrence affected your brain. Triggers can even be things you would never think are triggers. For example, as a kid, I would get terrible anxiety and sometimes panic attacks, but most of the time I had no clue why or what affected me. It turns out there was a pattern and that pattern was that it would usually happen every time too much motion, sounds, and feelings happened around me. Something so simple as the wind shaking palm trees and the waterfall crashing into the pool would make me feel overstimulated and trigger me. So in summary:

• Evaluate your mind

• Journal your thoughts and feelings and then later reflect on them

• Find your triggers

Sounds, emotions, sights, memories, objects, or even people can act as triggers. Anything could be a trigger, so it’s likely you may have one without knowing. In order to identify them, you have to look deep inside yourself. Finding patterns in the things that make you feel down can be achieved by journaling every time you have an off mood. Imagine each thought as a piece of a jigsaw; the more pieces you discover, the more you can use the patterns to put the puzzle together. It's time to identify your coping techniques after you've identified your triggers. Anything that can help you relax, such as breathing exercises, meditation, journaling, viewing movies, or relaxing music, can be an aid. For instance, when I used to have panic attacks I would curl up under a blanket and watch my favorite movie to help me decompress. I also would write down every negative thought I was experiencing in my journal, followed by positive ones when I started to feel better.

You’re never alone. There are always resources and people who care about you!