Correcting Inappropriate Triggers
TLDR - If you are sensitive to something, it is possible to reverse your negative response. There are a few different methods to this.
Expanded
You may eat something and get an upset stomach, a headache, or feel fatigued. You may go into a specific room and always feel worse. There may be a supplement you were told is good for you, but every time you take it you feel much worse. In these situations, your body negatively response to the item and because of this, you get a negative symptom.
Legitimate Triggers
Let’s say you have a severely disrupted digestive system. If you eat high FODMAP foods, you will have a hard time digesting them and likely experience symptoms like gas, bloating, GERD, etc. Your body has learned that specific high FODMAP foods cause this negative response, so if you muscle test one of them, it will likely test weak. You could use one of the methods below to desensitize yourself from the food. If you muscle test yourself for the item afterward, it will test strong. If you eat the food again, you will still have a negative response, but potentially milder than before. Your body will then resave that new negative response, and you will likely test weak to the item if you muscle test again.
The take away is that there are some legitimately “bad” items you can’t trick your body into being able to tolerate.
Note that if your body is extremely weak (low body batter) and your levers are moving at the wrong times (disrupted circadian rhythm), then you likely have blocked biochemical pathways and different foods and supplements will still cause you issues even after you desensitize yourself from them. It is important to correct the foundational items before desensitizing something will “stick.”
Processed Foods: These are always going to be hard to digest. If your digestive system is very strong then you may still be positive on these.
Mold/Chemicals/Pollutants/etc: These are always going to be bad for you. It may be helpful to desensitize yourself to potentially reduce the negative response to these, but its still always important to try to avoid them (without stressing).
Illegitimate Triggers
Let’s say you had an extremely sensitive digestive system for many years and now you have finally fixed it. You try to reintroduce new “good” foods, but some of them still give you a negative response. When you used to eat the food with a compromised digestive system, your body would experience gas, bloating, and pain. This stamped a negative association with the food. This is an example of a potentially negative illegitimate association that can be reversed. Below are other potential scenarios:
You always ate fruit that had a ton of pesticides. Your body tolerated the fruit fine but did not like the pesticides. Because these were consumed together, your body started to associated “bad” with the fruit by association.
You always ate a specific food during a stressful lunch work call. Over time, your body started to associate stress with the food you were consuming.
One time you went to the beach and you were bit by a snake. Now every time you go to the beach you become stressed and worried you will get bit again.
You once stood up in front of a bunch people to give a presentation, but forgot what you were presenting on and it was very embarrassing. Now every time you present you get extremely nervous.
Why do Illegitimate Triggers Happen?
My theory is that we attach emotions to memories of our experiences. If we do something and have a great experience, we save the memory of that event with the positive emotion. If we have a negative experience, that memory is also saved with the negative emotion. This information is stored at the subconscious level, not the analytical level. We might analytically tell ourselves that a blueberry is fine to eat, but still have a negative reaction. We might tell ourselves that we aren’t afraid of heights, but still panic when we go over a bridge. This information is saved in our subconscious and our subconscious influences our autonomic nervous system. See my post on emotional storage for more detail on how this might be saved in our body.
Strategies to Reverse Inappropriate Triggers
These inappropriate triggers are stored in our bodies with negative emotions. To correct this, we need to tap into our subconscious and associate a new positive emotion with the item. There are many ways to do this, and each person might have a different preference.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT): EFT is a method to restamp a positive emotion over an existing negative association. It involves generating a positive emotion while thinking about your trigger, reciting a phrase, and tapping on specific meridian points.
Mediation: Through various meditation techniques, we can tap into our subconscious. While in this state, we can learn to change how we feel about specific items. We can do this by thinking about the item or by physically having it next to us. There are many free meditation options available, and different methods will work best for different people. I personally enjoy the Changing Beliefs and Perceptions mediation by Joe Dispenza.
NAET: Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques involves identifying specific allergen or sensitivities through muscle testing, then uses acupressure to desensitize the body. This requires you working with an NAET provider to perform the technique on you.
Hypnotherapy: During hypnotherapy a therapist guides the individual into a relaxed, trance like state, making the subconscious more receptive to positive suggestions and changes. The therapist then uses a script to reprogram the negative associations. A great option if you are unable to tap into your subconscious on your own.
Desensitization Therapy: Gradually exposing yourself to triggers in a controlled manner to reduce sensitivity over time.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Working with a therapist to change negative thought patterns and behaviors.
Biofeedback: Using technology to become more aware of physiological functions and learn to control them.
I highly recommend learning how to self muscle test and then using EFT and meditation techniques to desensitize yourself. This will take a long amount of practice but is completely free. Please reach out if you have questions and I hope to have videos that go into detail on exactly what I do in the future.
It Can’t Be That Easy. What About This or That?
Below are my thoughts around each of the below scenarios. Note that everyone is unique. There are a countless different possibilities.
Allergic Reactions:
The immune system mistakenly identifies a harmless substance (e.g., food, pollen) as a threat and releases antibodies (IgE). This triggers the release of histamines and other chemicals, leading to symptoms like hives, swelling, or anaphylaxis.
Why does your body think these things are bad? Your autonomic nervous system is being told these are a threat but why?
Maybe you have a low body battery and now your body struggles to identify good and bad thing.
Maybe you were exposed to some pollen and at the same time had an extremely stressful moment. Now your body has stamped stressful or bad with the pollen and now your body will have an allergic reaction when exposed to it going forward.
You have the ability to support your body so it has the energy needed to accurately determine what is good and bad. You also have the ability to tap into your subconscious and retrain your autonomic nervous system on how to react to allergens.
Food Intolerances
Specific Foods: When you have a specific food, such as a blueberry, you experience an increased heart rate.
Most whole food intolerances result from inappropriate responses by the body or a compromised digestive system. You can tap into your subconscious to change how your autonomic nervous system reacts to certain foods, but if your digestive system isn’t functioning properly, you may still struggle to break down the food. This may then lead to another negative response that your body will remember and continue to experience in the future. If you fix your gut and then change how your body feels about the blueberry, then you likely will no longer have the intolerance going forward.
Enzyme Deficiency: The body lacks the necessary enzymes to properly digest certain foods (e.g., lactose intolerance due to lack of lactase), leading to gastrointestinal discomfort, bloating, and diarrhea.
You could tap into your subconscious and change how your autonomic nervous system reacts to specific foods, but if you aren’t correcting the enzyme deficiency then you will still have a negative response to the food.
Additive Sensitivity: Sensitivity to certain food additives or naturally occurring chemicals (e.g., MSG, sulfites) can cause headaches, nausea, or other symptoms.
Additives aren’t necessarily bad, but they differ from the whole foods our bodies have evolved to process. Additives are artificial and may require our body to learn how to respond to them. The first time you consume a specific additive, your body might not digest it effectively, potentially leading to a negative reaction like a headache. This memory is stamped to your body and you may have that same response when you consume it in the future. While it's possible to retrain your subconscious to accept the additive, it might still be still be challenging to digest if you have a compromised digestive system. If your digestive system is strong, you may be able to overcome the intolerance.
Toxic Reactions
Exposure to Toxins: Ingesting or coming into contact with harmful substances (e.g., heavy metals, pesticides) can cause cell damage, organ failure, or other serious health issues.
This kind of exposure causes direct damage to your cells. Even if you retrain your autonomic nervous system to perceive the toxin as harmless, it will still cause harm, leading your autonomic nervous system to eventually recognize the toxin as dangerous again. You can’t reset reactions like this.
Chemical Burns or Irritation: Contact with caustic substances can damage skin, eyes, or respiratory tissues, causing pain, inflammation, or scarring.
You can’t reverse this.
Autoimmune Response
The immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, mistaking them for foreign invaders. This can lead to conditions like celiac disease (reaction to gluten), where the small intestine is damaged, or rheumatoid arthritis, where joints are attacked.
This situation is challenging because your body is reacting to itself rather than an external substance. It is more difficult since you can't temporarily remove tissues from your body to 'give them a break' from the negative reaction. Many people have successfully reversed these types of conditions and I am certain you can too. Focus on the foundational practices and explore the techniques mentioned above.
Infection and Inflammation
Pathogen Invasion: Bacteria, viruses, or fungi from the environment can trigger an immune response, leading to symptoms like fever, inflammation, and tissue damage.
Many of these substances will always pose a threat, but you can change how your body responds to them. For example, you might strongly believe that mold is extremely harmful (which it is), but now, even thinking about mold triggers a danger response in your body, even before exposure. By tapping into your subconscious, you can retrain your body to believe that you are strong and capable of fighting off and detoxifying these pathogens. While they are still harmful, you can reset your body’s response to fight them off efficiently instead of entering a state of panic, which can cause more harm than necessary.
Chronic Inflammation: Persistent exposure to irritants (e.g., dust, pollution) can lead to chronic inflammation, which may damage tissues over time and contribute to diseases like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
These type of reactions are important to temporarily remove exposure as you desensitize yourself. This makes it difficult but is absolutely possible.
Neurological Reactions
Sensory Overload: Exposure to certain environmental stimuli (e.g., loud noises, bright lights) can overwhelm the nervous system, leading to headaches, migraines, or stress.
If you have low body batter or have many different stressors, your body isn’t able to easily handle stimulants from the world around you. It’s important to support the foundations before desensitizing yourself from things like this.
Toxic Effects on the Nervous System: Exposure to neurotoxins (e.g., lead, certain pesticides) can impair nerve function, leading to symptoms like numbness, tremors, or cognitive deficits.
Toxins will likely aways be bad for you. If they are internal then it is important to remove them from your body through the foundational practices.
Respiratory Reactions
Asthma: Environmental triggers (e.g., pollen, dust, smoke) can cause the airways to become inflamed and narrowed, leading to difficulty breathing, coughing, and wheezing.
Can be corrected or reduced.
Chemical Irritation: Inhalation of irritants (e.g., fumes, chemicals) can cause coughing, throat irritation, or even chemical pneumonia.
Will always be a trigger.
Psychological and Psychosomatic Reactions
Stress and Anxiety: Psychological factors can exacerbate physical symptoms (e.g., stress-induced hives, panic attacks), leading to a physical response to environmental factors.
These can be corrected but the foundations also need to be supported. You may be having anxiety because you have a low body battery, you aren’t producing neurotransmitters (levers not moving at right times), or have internal stressors you need to detox. You could desensitize yourself from a physical item you know is a trigger but if the foundations aren’t supported then it may come back over time.
Placebo/Nocebo Effect: Belief that something will cause harm or discomfort can actually trigger real physical symptoms, even if the substance is harmless.
Can be corrected.
Genetic Predisposition
Inherited Sensitivities: Genetic factors can make certain individuals more susceptible to adverse reactions from food, environmental factors, or allergens.
Your genes are not usually your destiny. You can correct these.
Metabolic Disorders: Genetic conditions that affect metabolism (e.g., phenylketonuria) can cause the body to react negatively to certain foods, leading to toxic buildup and damage.
Is it your genes causing this or your gene expressions? If you weren’t born with it then you can likely correct this via lifestyle and mindset.
Hormonal Imbalances
Endocrine Disruption: Environmental chemicals (e.g., BPA, phthalates) can disrupt hormone levels, leading to reproductive issues, thyroid problems, or metabolic disorders.
These will always be a problem and detox and avoidance is required.
Stress Hormones: Elevated levels of stress hormones (e.g., cortisol) in response to environmental stressors can weaken the immune system, leading to increased susceptibility to illness.
This can be corrected.
Nutritional Deficiencies
Lack of Essential Nutrients: Deficiency in vitamins or minerals (e.g., vitamin D, iron) can weaken the body’s defenses, making it more susceptible to environmental toxins or allergens.
This will always be an issue. Focus on the foundations.
Malabsorption: The body’s inability to absorb certain nutrients can lead to deficiencies, weakening the immune system and other bodily functions.
This will always be an issue. Work on healing your digestive system.
Environmental Conditions
Temperature Extremes: Exposure to extreme heat or cold can cause the body to react poorly, leading to heatstroke, hypothermia, or frostbite.
Extreme temperatures can’t be corrected, but minor ones can. Many people say they are always hot or always cold. There is absolutely a physical component to this, but there is also a mindset one that can be changed via the above practices.
Pollution and Air Quality: Poor air quality (e.g., smog, ozone) can exacerbate respiratory issues and lead to chronic lung conditions.
This will always be an issue.
Drug Interactions
Medication Side Effects: Certain medications can cause adverse reactions when combined with specific foods or environmental factors (e.g., photosensitivity, dizziness, or gastrointestinal issues).
Medications have a million different side effects. They will likely always be an issue but you can likely desensitize to a degree.
Microbiome Imbalance
Gut Dysbiosis: An imbalance in gut bacteria can lead to poor digestion, inflammation, or a weakened immune response, making the body more reactive to food or environmental allergens.
This will always be an issue. Work on healing your digestive system.