Something New in Something Familiar

                While I sorting laundry from the drier this evening, I suddenly noticed that I had never noticed the color of the “eyes” of the wolf faces on one of my favorite pairs of socks. I don’t just mean that I had never noticed that they were yellow (amber). I had never noticed that there was a color in the first place! All the time I had owned and the many occasions I wore the socks I just assumed—or presumed; whatever—that the eyes were a version of the black and white motif as the rest of the animal’s face. Of course, it is completely likely that my subconscious mind just filled in the color for me. After all, as one of my favorite species of animals, I know that their eyes are generally amber. In addition to the many documentaries I have watched and books I have read about them, the sight of a wolf’s piercing yellow eyes peering from behind a tree or glowing from the shadows is iconic Hollywood imagery. It is just interesting to me that my conscious mind didn’t register this obvious detail on clothing that I wear almost every week.

 

 

As I explained in my previous blog titled “Fire Hydrants”, once the SCM has ruled out that specific objects or sensory data are not a threat to our well-being it simply “tunes out” that information from our conscious awareness. After repeated exposure to that stimulus, it becomes a known in the subconscious mind: comfortable and even “safe” in its familiarity. There is no reason for the critical awareness part of our mind to reject this information and raise a metaphoric red flag that something new and unknown is nearby. This kind of selective awareness is actually crucial to our long-term survival. If this process didn’t occur we would be quickly, completely overwhelmed by having to actively notice details about and respond to every sensation we perceive. In no time at all, this information overload would send us into a constant, perpetual state of hypnosis every waking moment. I mean, can you imagine noticing that scratchy sensation of that garment-instruction label sewn into your shirt whenever you put on that garment? How irritating would that be?

                I don’t know what caught my attention about this detail in the design of those socks tonight. Perhaps my subconscious mind wanted to encourage me to draw on some of the energy and qualities I admire in the wolf to achieve greater balance in my own life. Maybe my SCM was just sending me a gentle reminder that I need to take more time to keep noticing the small (yet significant) details about the important people and objects in my environment. Or, it could be that noticing this detail for the first time was just a way for something known, comfortable and familiar to be like new again.

 

 

 

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.