Something to Think About

Photo by Rick Hustead

This evening when I was checking my social-media accounts, I came across an evocative post that described various incidents that prevented a handful of individuals from getting to work at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In one case, someone’s car wouldn’t start so the individual never made it to the office at all. In another, a child didn’t get ready for school in time; his tardiness meant that a parent was also late for work in order to get the child to class. One person’s alarm didn’t go off in time. Another decided to take a call (rather than let it go to voice-mail) before heading out to work. And so on.

I bet most if not all of the people described in that post was silently or verbally cursing whatever (or whoever) was causing the frustration and delay. How long did it take until news of the first airline crashing into the Twin Towers turned that frustration into gratitude and relief?

Reading about these scenarios reminded me of times in the past when I have rushed to attend an event or complete a project, only to be stopped in my tracks by circumstances beyond my control. Back then, I am sure that my frustration and even anger would have been palpable.  But since then I have come to appreciate these uncontrollable events—including traffic jams or having to rewrite most of a document because I forgot to save it before the computer crashed. As Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., liked to advise, it is always possible to take a negative experience and “turn it around” to become a positive one. Who knows what challenge I might have faced a few miles up the freeway if that big-rig hadn’t stalled out on the hill? Or, having completed writing a new draft of the document I lost, I realized that the current version is much better after all. Come to think of it, I can think about several occasions in which a delay, a wrong turn or a mistake have resulted in a much better outcome for having experienced those inconveniences. It’s something to think about.

 If you are interested in reading the original Facebook post I described at the beginning of this essay, you can check it out at https://www.facebook.com/Calminsense-Hypnotherapy-183965798312732/.  

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/.

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