Last Updated on December 15, 2022 by Paul Hradek
On 12th December 2020 mid-morning, my partner Kate shut her left thumb in my car boot. I thought something was up when she called me shortly afterwards and said there had been an ‘incident’, and she would see me soon. She managed to drive home and explain the incident to me. A lot of thoughts flash through your mind when an ‘incident’ happens: “Is the person ok? What do I need to do to help them? How will this affect me? How much time will be lost now for us both due to this ‘incident’?” At this point, I didn’t even know what the incident was.
Once I knew what had happened, I drove her to the hospital. If I’m being honest, I was also dreading the time I would lose by taking Kate to the hospital to get her seen. Is this selfish? Yes, probably. But it is honest too. Obviously, I would never truly resent someone for having an accident and having to spend my time looking after them in whatever way is needed.
So I drove her to the A&E department in Newbury, suspecting I was in for a long wait in the car on my own (due to covid restrictions). I made sure Kate got into the hospital to get checked in and then settled down in my car in the cold. What to do? Well, I could fall into the trap we all fall into with so-called dead time. Play with my phone. But wait! Can I not distract myself with something else? Yes!…But what?
What about the parking? There’s something to distract me with. The cynic in me was expecting the hospital to charge an arm and a leg (and maybe a thumb?) for parking but it was actually free on weekends. So after checking the parking machine, and distracting myself for all of 5 minutes, I settled back into my car. I decided I didn’t want to get drawn into using my phone. I am currently writing a screenplay, so I decided to use the gift of uninterrupted time that fate had thrown into my path.
I focused on my breathing and closed my eyes and tried to think of nothing. Soon enough, thoughts of where I had been struggling with my story flowed into my head. You might be thinking this sounds a bit unbelievable, but try closing your eyes and thinking of nothing. Something always pops in…Look what happened to Ray Stantz in Ghostbusters when he tried to think of nothing at the end of the film!
Anyway, I opened my eyes and scribbled these thoughts down on a piece of paper I had brought with me. Every half an hour or so (yes, I set a timer :)) I checked my phone, purely for messages from Kate.
After a few hours of doing this trance thought-provoking, Kate messaged to say she was going to have her thumb drained. By this time, I needed the toilet so I decided to try my luck and go into the hospital. As it turns out, I would have been allowed to see Kate the whole time! So I stayed with her as the nurses drained the fluid out of her thumb. Interesting, as the “idea fluids” had been kind of drained into my brain a few hours before.
The point of all this is twofold:
Sometimes all we need is some time alone with our thoughts (and possibly a pen and paper).
We can adapt to novel or unexpected situations; you never know what it might give you or what thoughts/ideas the situation might inspire. If you want to discuss any troublesome thoughts or ideas with someone, get in touch to arrange a free consultation.
https://paulhradek.co.uk/contact/
or via https://www.facebook.com/PaulHradekCognitiveHypnotherapy