Wandering mind!!
Our mind wanders so much. Not that I noticed it today but I wanted to share something with all of you. Something that occured to me when my mind was wandering around.
To start with let me tell you how and why the wandering started. Of late I have started reading a lot of nonfiction books. But during this lockdown I didn't want to read any nonfiction but a fictional book.
Unfortunately we don't have a huge collection of fiction and whatever we have I have already read it. So I got our Kindle to check if I have something that I wanted to re-read. And then I saw the book - Marley & Me by John Gregon. This is when my mind stopped being grumpy about not having any new fictional book and started travelling back to the time when I had first read this book.
In 2008-09 we were in Winnipeg, Canada. The one thing that I still miss from Winnipeg is the huge public library. I read most books during my time in Winnipeg. I read Marley & Me, first time this year. People who know me would be surprised that I picked up a book on dogs. I have always been scared of animals - all and any type. But Sanket had chosen this book for me because he was sure he wanted to get a pet once we were back in India and he thought that maybe reading this book may help me atleast accept the thought of having a dog as a pet. I read the book and I loved it. I enjoyed every moment of that book, I laughed with it and even cried at the end. And that book actually made me accept the idea that pets make life a little better.
We came back to India but with circumstances and the different situations that life threw at us we never really got a pet. And what remained was my fear of animals. I was so scared that I caused many embarrassing moments for my family. I never really understood what that fear was. But I used to just freeze when surrounded by animals.
I remember once when I returned from work I saw a big fat cat sitting right outside our main door in our front garden in Mumbai. I tried to act strong and shoo her away. But then she just ‘meowed’ and I froze. I couldn't even speak so that I could call out to my family to come down to help me. Finally after settling down a bit I called my father-in-law on the landline because my voice was really weak to yell out directly from ground floor to first floor. I asked him to come down to help me out. He came down and shooed the cat, helping me get indoors, and then it was a joke he shared with everyone he spoke to. It was really embarrassing for a newly wed when all I was doing was to impress my in-laws in all ways possible.
Another scary incidence occurred when we visited my brother in Painswick, UK. To celebrate our daughter's birthday my brother had planned an afternoon at a bird park near his place. He takes everyone who visits him there and so he wanted to take his niece and so I had no option but to accompany them. The bird park has all the birds and some animals freely roaming around us and we can feed them with bird food. To get that bird food, these birds come close to us and then you can click pictures. It was Monday and so there weren't a lot of visitors that day at the park. As soon as we entered the place, the birds came hungrily running towards us and I froze. I just couldn't move or do anything. I was just holding on to Sanket tightly and screaming my heart out. Everyone tried helping me but I just couldn't do anything. After sometime, my Dad decided to stay back with me and let Sanket have some fun with the birds. It was like a nightmare with birds hovering around, my mom and brother telling me that I am weird, Sanket jokingly suggesting that my parents should have given me some treatment when I was a kid and my parents saying that I wasn't like this when I was kid. It was a weird situation and all I knew was that I wanted to get away from that (stupid) bird park. It was my sister-in-law who suggested that we have coffee. Almost an hour later I was getting back to my normal self - breathing normally, talking normally and walking normally.
There have been times when I went for my morning walk and returned home in 10 mins because there was a cat who was supposedly looking straight at me. I walked out of a dinner party at a garden restaurant because I saw a cat somewhere. The fear, the uneasiness, the discomfort was always there if I saw any animal around me.
This continued till last year when I took an EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) session from Sanket. EFT is a technique which takes you deeper inside your mind to understand what exactly is happening to you for a particular issue, helping you release whatever blocks you might have inside. I took two sessions on pet fear and today I am in a much better position. Today, I can share the space in our elevator with our neighbour’s dog, which was not the case until last year. Before that I would either take another lift or use the stairs. I can now stand next to a dog and even give him a small pat. I still don't like cats (sorry to all the cat lovers) but I just don’t like them. So I have not gone ahead to touch them because that is my choice to not go near them. But I can still continue my walk even when I see a cat in the path and wouldn’t freak out as before. EFT has really really helped me. And saved my family members (especially my mom) from some embarrassing moments.
EFT is not just for pet fear, it is for chronic pains, emotional and mental blocks, stress, addictions, limiting beliefs, issues in your life … in short for everything. Sanket is a certified EFT practitioner and a Life Coach to be precise Leap Ahead and Human Potential Coach. You can try it out too for any of your problems. Get in touch with him at www.sanketpai.com/contact/ or email him at sanket@sanketpai.com
So that is how my mind wandered while looking for a book to read. Went over all the incidents in my life when I was so scared of animals that I had to call for help just to move ahead on the street, or hurriedly cross the road, or worse create a scene. Today I am a better person co-existing happily with other animals sharing this world.
BTW, the book that I finally picked up to read now is “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell.
To start with let me tell you how and why the wandering started. Of late I have started reading a lot of nonfiction books. But during this lockdown I didn't want to read any nonfiction but a fictional book.
Unfortunately we don't have a huge collection of fiction and whatever we have I have already read it. So I got our Kindle to check if I have something that I wanted to re-read. And then I saw the book - Marley & Me by John Gregon. This is when my mind stopped being grumpy about not having any new fictional book and started travelling back to the time when I had first read this book.
In 2008-09 we were in Winnipeg, Canada. The one thing that I still miss from Winnipeg is the huge public library. I read most books during my time in Winnipeg. I read Marley & Me, first time this year. People who know me would be surprised that I picked up a book on dogs. I have always been scared of animals - all and any type. But Sanket had chosen this book for me because he was sure he wanted to get a pet once we were back in India and he thought that maybe reading this book may help me atleast accept the thought of having a dog as a pet. I read the book and I loved it. I enjoyed every moment of that book, I laughed with it and even cried at the end. And that book actually made me accept the idea that pets make life a little better.
We came back to India but with circumstances and the different situations that life threw at us we never really got a pet. And what remained was my fear of animals. I was so scared that I caused many embarrassing moments for my family. I never really understood what that fear was. But I used to just freeze when surrounded by animals.
I remember once when I returned from work I saw a big fat cat sitting right outside our main door in our front garden in Mumbai. I tried to act strong and shoo her away. But then she just ‘meowed’ and I froze. I couldn't even speak so that I could call out to my family to come down to help me. Finally after settling down a bit I called my father-in-law on the landline because my voice was really weak to yell out directly from ground floor to first floor. I asked him to come down to help me out. He came down and shooed the cat, helping me get indoors, and then it was a joke he shared with everyone he spoke to. It was really embarrassing for a newly wed when all I was doing was to impress my in-laws in all ways possible.
Another scary incidence occurred when we visited my brother in Painswick, UK. To celebrate our daughter's birthday my brother had planned an afternoon at a bird park near his place. He takes everyone who visits him there and so he wanted to take his niece and so I had no option but to accompany them. The bird park has all the birds and some animals freely roaming around us and we can feed them with bird food. To get that bird food, these birds come close to us and then you can click pictures. It was Monday and so there weren't a lot of visitors that day at the park. As soon as we entered the place, the birds came hungrily running towards us and I froze. I just couldn't move or do anything. I was just holding on to Sanket tightly and screaming my heart out. Everyone tried helping me but I just couldn't do anything. After sometime, my Dad decided to stay back with me and let Sanket have some fun with the birds. It was like a nightmare with birds hovering around, my mom and brother telling me that I am weird, Sanket jokingly suggesting that my parents should have given me some treatment when I was a kid and my parents saying that I wasn't like this when I was kid. It was a weird situation and all I knew was that I wanted to get away from that (stupid) bird park. It was my sister-in-law who suggested that we have coffee. Almost an hour later I was getting back to my normal self - breathing normally, talking normally and walking normally.
There have been times when I went for my morning walk and returned home in 10 mins because there was a cat who was supposedly looking straight at me. I walked out of a dinner party at a garden restaurant because I saw a cat somewhere. The fear, the uneasiness, the discomfort was always there if I saw any animal around me.
This continued till last year when I took an EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) session from Sanket. EFT is a technique which takes you deeper inside your mind to understand what exactly is happening to you for a particular issue, helping you release whatever blocks you might have inside. I took two sessions on pet fear and today I am in a much better position. Today, I can share the space in our elevator with our neighbour’s dog, which was not the case until last year. Before that I would either take another lift or use the stairs. I can now stand next to a dog and even give him a small pat. I still don't like cats (sorry to all the cat lovers) but I just don’t like them. So I have not gone ahead to touch them because that is my choice to not go near them. But I can still continue my walk even when I see a cat in the path and wouldn’t freak out as before. EFT has really really helped me. And saved my family members (especially my mom) from some embarrassing moments.
EFT is not just for pet fear, it is for chronic pains, emotional and mental blocks, stress, addictions, limiting beliefs, issues in your life … in short for everything. Sanket is a certified EFT practitioner and a Life Coach to be precise Leap Ahead and Human Potential Coach. You can try it out too for any of your problems. Get in touch with him at www.sanketpai.com/contact/ or email him at sanket@sanketpai.com
So that is how my mind wandered while looking for a book to read. Went over all the incidents in my life when I was so scared of animals that I had to call for help just to move ahead on the street, or hurriedly cross the road, or worse create a scene. Today I am a better person co-existing happily with other animals sharing this world.
BTW, the book that I finally picked up to read now is “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell.
This was an interesting read for 2 reasons
ReplyDelete1- I had no idea of your pet fear and I am glad you no longer fear pets and
2- Very amusing anecdotes of what you have been through.
Also, look forward to how you liked Outliers.