Triggers provoke memories for me, followed by emotion, followed then by many thoughts.
One thing I am learning slowly is to turn down the churning of thoughts, and focus on the emotions.
Specifically, (1) labeling the emotion(s), (2) allow the emotion(s), (3) sitting with the emotion(s) without triggering a behavior like breaking NC, (4) figuring out where it manifests in my body (e.g. tightness in chest).
Oddly, I'm finding that the physical experience of the emotion is something I can work with -- much more easily than the thoughts, which clang around in my brain.