Triggers as problems reinforce mental patterns and feelings of disunity…within oneself. We can always choose to go toward the light. Trace the trigger to its root, and you will find the solution to the problem and shed light on what a trigger truly means in your life.
Unicursal: A labyrinth with only one single, unbranching path winding toward the center. Historically, this is a true labyrinth—it has no dead ends or choices, ensuring you always arrive at the designated destination. But how many people give up before the miracle happens? They are so close to finishing a race, but turn around because they think they are lost, and run back to the direction in which they ‘know’. Familiarity becomes the enemy.
However, the spirit has eyes to see and ears to hear that are not reduced to the material realms. Our spirit is always choosing to go toward the heavenly glimmer of light that physical eyes may or may not see with spiritual awareness.
This Trigger/Glimmer equation presents a profound framework for understanding emotional health, personal transformation, and the conscious direction of one's inner life. The statement "A & B = C" is not a mathematical formula but a philosophical and psychological principle that integrates ancient wisdom with modern understanding of the mind-body connection.
A: Unicursality of Triggers & Glimmers
The concept of "unicursality" suggests that triggers (events or stimuli that provoke negative emotional responses) and glimmers (moments of joy, safety, or connection) exist along a single, unified pathway of human experience. This aligns with the understanding that our emotional and psychological needs are "inexorably linked to our biology" and that unaddressed emotional wounds drive much of our behavior.
The book Understanding and Lifting Depression Without Drugs, by Ivan Tyrrell and Joe Griffin, explains that depression stems from unmet fundamental human needs, not just chemical imbalances, and offers a practical, drug-free method to overcome it. The Human Givens approach identifies nine core emotional needs—including security, attention, autonomy, emotional intimacy, and meaning—that must be satisfied for human flourishing. When these needs go unmet, triggers arise, but if one does not feed triggers, glimmers emerge. Both are manifestations of the same underlying system of emotional regulation.
I love Karen Casey!
Many have experienced trauma in their lives, but how they react to it is their choice. Research on childhood trauma demonstrates that early life stress "hardwires a person for 'survival stress,'" which can lead to seeking comfort through various behaviors. However, we can rewire our minds. Run a virus scan, then purge the files.
Take a DEEP personal inventory, then ‘reveal & deal’ with it. Hardwiring creates a unidirectional relationship in which the same neural pathways that produce fear responses can, when properly addressed, produce healing and connection. The immune system functions as a "sensory organ," monitoring both internal and external environments and responding to threats and pleasures alike.
This sensory capacity means that triggers and glimmers are not separate phenomena but two sides of the same coin—both are information from our environment that our body processes through the same biological systems.
B: Happiness is a Choice of Internal Unity
The proposition that happiness is a choice of internal unity recognizes that emotional well-being requires conscious decision-making and integration of one's whole being. As the foundational principles of optimal health teach, "Be Mindful Of Your Thoughts," because the quality of your thinking "will have a significant impact on the quality of decisions you make." This mindfulness is the first step toward internal unity—aligning one's thoughts, emotions, and actions toward a coherent purpose.
Mens sana in corpore sano is a famous Latin phrase translated as "a healthy mind in a healthy body". Originating from the Roman poet Juvenal, the ancient ideal emphasizes the deep, holistic connection between our mental and physical well-being. Mental Health is achieved through reducing "faults and increasing strengths," with each individual possessing a unique constitution that requires personalized approaches to diet, activity, mental state, and emotional well-being. Internal unity means bringing one's life into balance, recognizing that "the role of the mind in health and disease is well-conceived" and that by altering one's reaction to life, one's mental state and even status can be improved as needed. This is not about suppressing parts of oneself, but about integrating them into a harmonious whole.
The inscription carved into the facade of the University of Szczecin Rectorate building, located at 22a Jana Pawła Avenue in Szczecin, Poland.
The choice aspect is critical. Depression and other mental health challenges often require asking "hard questions" such as "What am I getting out of this?" and "What does being depressed do for me?" Until one faces these truths, meaningful change remains elusive. Happiness as internal unity means refusing to adopt a "self-indulgent victim mentality" and instead taking responsibility for one's emotional state. This is supported by the understanding that "pleasurable experiences increase resistance to infections" and that "cultivating positive feelings is crucial for a healthy immune system". The choice to find appreciation, to practice gratitude, and to engage in activities that build one up is a choice for internal unity.
C: Look for the Good (Feed the White Dog)
The directive to "look for the good" or "feed the white dog" is a practical application of the principles established in A and B. It means consciously directing attention toward positive aspects of experience rather than dwelling on negative triggers. It’s not so much about what happened or is happening as about what it MEANS. We get to decide what something means. Man’s Search for Meaning was a great book. Meaning is not about naive optimism but a strategic intervention in one's own neurobiology. The emotional-physical landscape demonstrates that "emotions are not merely thoughts confined to the mind; we experience them in our bodies, making them 'psychobiological'. By choosing to look for the good, one literally changes the body's physiological state.
Decisions Determine Destiny. No one can give us or take away our freedom to decide what something means. I sometimes show this to DWI audiences in my speeches.
This principle is exemplified in the human-animal bond, where pets trigger oxytocin release through mutual gazing, creating "a positive feedback loop similar to that of a mother and newborn". The "love hormone" oxytocin is responsible for "mother-infant bonding, flooding each with feelings of happiness, trust, and well-being". By choosing to engage with sources of positive connection—whether pets, nature, or loved ones—one feeds the "white dog" of well-being rather than the "black dog" of despair.
Exercise serves as another powerful tool for feeding the white dog. Studies show that "exercise alone can be as effective as pharmaceuticals in treating depression" because it "decreases stress hormones and increases endorphins" while releasing "adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine". Gardening, walking with a pet, or engaging in high-intensity interval training all represent choices to look for the good through physical action. Even the simple act of breathing deeply and slowly can have "a calming effect" by shifting the body out of "fight or flight" stress patterns.
The Integrated Equation
When A (the unicursal nature of triggers and glimmers) combines with B (the choice of internal unity), the result is C: the ability to look for the good and feed the white dog. This equation recognizes that triggers and glimmers arise from the same emotional system, that happiness requires conscious integration of one's whole being, and that the practical outcome is a disciplined focus on positive experience. Wisdom teaches, we don’t only improve our lives through 'surface mutation' or external chiseling, but by energizing our True Self to flourish in the best way possible in any given circumstance".
Full Serenity Prayer, Christian Tradition.
The equation A & B = C is a roadmap for flourishing—a call to recognize the unity of emotional experience, to choose internal coherence, and to actively cultivate the good.