You might have triggered it, but you didn’t cause their response.

Understanding the difference between causes and triggers can help you take the other person’s actions less personally.
You can trigger a behavior, but that doesn’t mean that you caused it.
A trigger starts something that is primed to happen.
A cause is the reason for something to happen.

Your neutral statement “what a beautiful day” might have triggered a negative retort “just leave me alone” because the other person was having a hard day. You didn’t cause their bad mood, you just triggered their snarling response. Don’t take it personally. Their response is telling you something about what is happening for them.

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