The Bite

Photo by Rick Hustead

I eventually learned how to drive an automatic transmission vehicle. That was the kind of cars my parents had (my subconscious known) and I didn’t have a pressing need to learn stick shift. In fact, I was one of the few if only sixteen-year-olds who didn’t really want to drive the second I got my driver’s license. If I had a horse when I was a teenager I might have been more motivated, but that’s another story.

However, in 1997 I decided I wanted (needed) to learn how to drive stick shift. I was living and working in Hull, England, at the time. My work contract and work visa would expire at the beginning of December, and several jobs I considered applying for required the new hire to have a car and be able to drive to various venues. At that time, virtually every vehicle on the road was “manual transmission,” so I didn’t really have any option but to drive what was available. As I recall, as it seemed to be more expensive to have an automatic car in England at that time; driving lessons in an automatic would also cost more. So not only would I have to learn how to drive on the opposite side of the road to what I was used to in the United States, but also to use a clutch pedal and the gear stick.

To my surprise, though, I liked it.

The instructor was very patient with me, despite the number of times I stalled the vehicle. At the very beginning of the lesson, he told me about “the bite,” that moment when the clutch is engaged just so and the driver shifts the car into the correct gear while depressing the accelerator (or something like that). He said that when this is done correctly, with perfect timing, you should feel and hear the car easily slide into the gear and smoothly move forward. No stuttering or sputtering of the engine, no jerking movement of the car as the engine gasps for air before stalling out. Smooooooth. I grinned from ear to ear the first time I felt that bite, and promptly stalled the engine. But, I did it; and the metaphoric significance of the term “bite” continues to resonate with me.

I returned to the United States a few months later. I eventually got a job working as a proofreader and then managing editor at Black Belt® magazine. In 2005, I completed my hypnotherapy training at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute and opened hypnotherapy practice, Calminsense Hypnotherapy®.  I no longer drive stick-shift—it is actually more expensive to buy a manual transmission vehicle here—but the concept of feeling or listening for “the bite” plays a big part in my day. It is the metaphoric exhale of a relaxed breath that my clients take as they drift into hypnosis. It is the optimism I feel about the success of my hypnotherapy practice when I pick up the phone to answer someone’s questions about hypnosis and whether hypnotherapy really works. (It does.) It is the excitement and pride I feel for a client when the person achieves his or her self-improvement goal, glowing with pride and renewed self-confidence at this accomplishment. It is the sense of calm and joy I experience when I first climb onto my horse’s back, as we transition smoothly between his gaits or amble down the street on an impromptu hack.

For me, ultimately, “the bite” represents achievement, success, accomplishment. I know that if I ever absolutely needed to, I could probably still drive stick-shift without stalling the engine too many times. To this day, I still always listen and feel for that moment when my car automatically shifts gears. It makes me happy that I can tell when that happens and even feel bad for the car when the engine seems to be straining too hard going up a hill. Most of all, I enjoy hearing and feeling the bite when, if only for a moment, most things in my and my clients’ lives are comfortable and smooth.

Have you felt your “bite” today?

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® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2016