Navigating triggers....
Some days, it is easy to brush things off—to let the little frustrations roll away. Other days, a single comment, a dismissive tone, an unfair assumption lingers, and suddenly, there is a storm inside. I feel first. Annoyance, anger, disappointment. The reaction is immediate and hard to ignore. But is it about this moment, or is it something deeper? Is it just this person, or am I responding to a pattern I have seen before? I remember when someone casually dismissed my work as "interesting, but energy economics is not really economics." On the surface, it was just an opinion, but deep down, it triggered years of having to prove the value of my research in rooms where my field wasn’t always taken seriously. That comment wasn’t just about that person—it was about every similar moment that had come before it. I think next—sometimes too much. Was it intentional? Am I overreacting? Should I give the benefit of the doubt, or is this a boundary being crossed? Thought can help ...