“Your rescue is within you.” – Lauretta NgCobo, Nigerian Writer
I have been
thinking about heroes a lot lately.
Another season
of 24 is almost concluded, and once
again I am thinking about how fantastic it would be if there really was a Jack
Bauer to sweep in and save the world. Yes, he is very rough around the edges
and sometimes takes a—well let’s just say he tends to go “rogue” when it comes
to getting the job done. But he does
get the job done. Whenever I hear Bonnie Tyler’s song, “Holding out for a hero,”
I think of Jack.
On
a similar theme, another one of my favorite television hero-types is a disgraced
detective-turned-cab-driver called Mike Olshansky on CBS’s short-lived series, Hack. The hero—or anti-hero, depending
on your point of view—has a knack for turning up at the right time when someone
(usually one of his fares) is in the wrong place. He saves the day and then
quietly disappears. The only token of gratitude Olshansky ever wants is a
promise that whomever he has just rescued will not reveal his role in the rescue
or even his presence at the scene. The tagline for the series is, “When you need
someone who answers to no one,” and that line still resonates with me.
The
television characters of Mike Olshansky and Jack Bauer use their experiences
and skills in law-enforcement officers to rescue clients or, in Bauer’s case,
save the world. As far-fetched as some of their actions and derring-do might
seem, these abilities make sense when we think about all of these behavioral
knowns stored in the mental script of each man’s subconscious mind.
When
I saw Ms. NgCobo’s quote, it reminded me of times in my life when I have had to
rely on myself to solve a problem or to get the job done. While I never went to
any of the extremes that my television heroes did to save my day, looking back,
I am very proud of those accomplishments. I even have a couple of songs to
remind me about this on my iPod—Mariah Carey’s “Hero” and Whitney Houston’s “Greatest
Love of All”—that still make me smile when I listen to them. The wistful lyrics,
and the soaring voices of the women who deliver them, are like a mini pep-rally
that remind me I still (and always did) have that can-do attitude.
My
training at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute (www.hypnosis.edu)
helped me to identify, refine and nurture the skills and beliefs that brought
me to HMI in the first place. In a way, earning my hypnotherapy certification
was a kind of “self” rescue. But this education also opened my eyes to the fact
that every one of us is capable of stepping
up to a challenge and becoming our own hero. We all possess a particular skill
set that enables us to achieve great things, things that no one else can do the
way we do them. We just have to be reminded or become aware of all those
wonderful things we can do.
Guess
what? When you are your own hero, no others need apply—and you might even get
to help rescue someone else along the way. How cool is that?
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/.
