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Hi guys, welcome to episode 17 of How to Get Your Sheet Together.

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As always, I'm super glad that you're here.

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This won't be a podcast based on a particular question that I received,

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but it will be based on a request to talk about triggers.

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I was talking to a subscriber about the acronym HALT, which is very commonly used in AA.

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And I told her that there are plenty of states and external things which can

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trigger someone to fall back into unhealthy habits.

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And to stop doing that, ideally, you would establish your triggers and work on them too.

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And she thought it was really interesting and podcast worthy.

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So there you go.

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Let's start by having a look at the acronym HALT.

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HALT describes internal states which can trigger cravings for an unhealthy habit,

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which would be feeling hungry,

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angry,

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lonely,

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and tired.

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I have seen plenty of other internal triggers,

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though,

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and the most common ones are feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

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This is probably the most common one,

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actually,

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so I would like to put some neon signs around that.

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Feeling scared, feeling bored.

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This is very, very typical for ADHDers.

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Feeling hormonal.

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You know what I'm talking about, ladies.

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PMS or period mood swings aren't great, right?

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Or feeling frustrated.

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Then there are also external triggers, which are related to people or your environment.

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And those external triggers will sometimes bring about some kind of state change

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for us,

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but sometimes they are just a visual trigger as well.

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For example,

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meeting up with your smoker friend and wanting to smoke all of a sudden,

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or walking past your favorite restaurant and wanting to have all of the unhealthy foods.

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Now, how do you figure out what your triggers are?

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It's really simple, actually.

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So when a craving seems to pop up out of nowhere,

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you pause and you think about what could be triggering it and then you write it down.

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What kind of environment are you in?

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Who are you with?

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Are you dealing with cock donkeys, for example?

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How are you feeling?

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And once you have established that,

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you can work on avoiding your triggers or at least reducing your exposure to them.

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And this can look like improving your relationship so you don't feel lonely,

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or making sure that you aren't just binge-watching shows the entire evening and

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still feeling bored.

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You could also set up a new hobby,

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which takes care of the underlying feeling that is triggering your bad habit.

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For example,

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if you feel stressed,

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and this usually triggers you to drink,

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you could do yoga instead.

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So that's it, guys.

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I hope this was helpful.

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And as always, I'm here if you have any questions or would like to work with me.

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Ciao.