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/.
