Drift away......

Many of us have been on courses in our time. I was sent on one by the NHS. “Self Hypnosis, to help with Pain Relief. (Stop giggling in the back!) It works, or at least does for me; it’s not so much removing the pain but helps by taking my mind elsewhere to a place where I am confident and comfortable. During the first session I was asked to create a safe space, somewhere nobody could or would intrude, not physically but internally. Mine is rather unusual, it’s not a beach, or a waterfall or anything close to that. 

I worked in China, three months on, one month off. At the end of the third month I was about as useful as a Chocolate Teapot. My mind and body frazzled, having spent three months constantly trying to improve the quality of the Chinese pilots. My final afternoon was spent in Hong Kong, shopping for my girls. Then it was off to Kai Tak and wait for the Lufthansa evening flight. My safe space is on that flight. 

I could never relax enough to sleep on aeroplanes as a passenger, leaving Heathrow I would know each turn and climb, then the procedures on return. However on the flight from Kai Tak I could. Airline food is inevitably a miserable offering, or it was at the time. I always found a good restaurant in any airport and munched before boarding. Always the same seat, it may well have been the same blanket, but I had a little label I would pin to my head cushion, DND, do not disturb. After take-off from runway 13 the aircraft would climb to 3000’ then turn right to Chung Chau VOR before another slight turn to Macau, then Guangzhou (Canton). My mind and body followed each turn but I was away from it all. Ear plugs fitted, eye mask on and a blanket pulled over me I was relaxed and heading home. It occasionally happened that I would fall asleep after an hour or two but rarely. 

Today the world caught up with me, so I headed for my chair next to the desk, put in ear plugs, pulled the curtains, threw a blanket over my legs and, according to Elaine, was snuffling within minutes. I was in my safe place and I hadn’t even reached Chung Chau, eight miles from Kai Tak. You may like to try something similar, remove all sensory inputs, close your eyes, forget everything and go somewhere warm and relaxing in your mind. If it works you won’t even know you have drifted off.