(This blog was originally posted on December 30, 2014)
“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90
percent how you handle it.” – Lou Holtz
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| Photo courtesy of Microsoft Bing |
I think a part
of my subconscious mind was already tuned in to ESPN football analyst and
former National Collegiate Athletic Association football coach Lou Holtz’s philosophy when I
detached the filter from the machine. Before that moment, I had never ever tried to clean the filter so soon
after the espresso finished dripping through; but that day my mind was on about
20 other things and I wasn’t focusing on what I was doing. In my rush to be
efficient so I could tackle my next task (baking), I reached for the filter
handle to clean up the machine after I made my latte.
BOOM! POP! Espresso grounds flew
everywhere.
Let me just say
that before I enrolled at the Hypnosis
Motivation Institute—let alone became a certified hypnotherapist—this kind
of incident probably would have wound me up more than the caffeine I was
drinking. But this time, I was willing and very able to take my mishap in
stride. Sure, the mess was inconvenient; but there was a silver lining to the
clean-up I had to do. I took HMI founder Dr. John Kappas’s advice to just “turn
the situation around” directly to heart. Now that I already had to clean up the
espresso grounds, this would be a perfect opportunity to really clean the espresso machine as well. I had recently noticed that the water was
filtering very slowly of late; or, sometimes inconsistent amounts of the beverage
would be produced. It was time to figure out what was going on so I could get
back to enjoying my latte.
The clean-up was
also a great opportunity to do some of the relaxation techniques I recommend
and teach to my hypnotherapy clients when they are frustrated. I practiced
diaphragmatic breathing—drawing slow, deep breaths through my nose, holding the
breath for several seconds and slowly released the air through my mouth. Meanwhile,
I focused on completely brushing away the errant grounds and then ran the
machine with just clear water to flush out the remnant espresso that got stuck
in the machine. To prevent my subconscious mind from drifting into negative
self-talk and recrimination about all the time I had to spend cleaning up the
mess, I sang along with the holiday songs playing on the radio. I thought about
all of the holiday festivities to come in the coming days. I even thanked myself for creating an
opportunity to give the machine a mini tune-up that would ultimately brew
better espresso.
Before I knew
it, I had completely handled the mess as well as my non-reaction to it. The
espresso maker was clean and working
better than it had in a long time, and I had plenty of time to enjoy my beverage
before I started my holiday baking. Win-win.
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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