Smoking
More Healing Tales
At his first healing session, "Jay" expressed the feeling that his biggest problem in life was fear of the unknown. He was 30 years old and had been at the same job for nine years. The job did not interest him. He had planned to stay for two years tops, but his fear of the unknown held him back from seeking something new.
In approaching the unconscious for help in healing a problem, it is useful to realize that most every good thing has a down side, and most every bad thing has a good side. We agreed that it might be healthy to hold on to some fear - for example, if he lost all fear of the unknown and went walking late at night in a dangerous neighborhood, he might come to harm. What we would like to get rid of would be unhelpful, unhealthy, unnecessary fear.
As he sat in a chair resting comfortably with his eyes shut, he received Therapeutic Touch and musing questions about job possibilities. There was no commitment to do anything, just to relax and let his mind wander and wonder. Might he, for example, at some point in the future, we did not know when, get a job that paid more? He was unlikely to accept a job that was not more meaningful and also paid less, but he might accept a new job that paid the same but was entirely more interesting. He was interested in acting and was taking classes, so might he find, for example, that he could use his acting skills not on a stage, but on a job? Perhaps his current job might become fun, or he might get a new job where he played roles, not in a fake way but in a fun way that communicated to other people and helped facilitate success. We did not know that this would happen, but what if he had a job that was more interesting, more meaningful, and paid more? We did not have to know, now, what this job might be, but would this be a pleasant situation? And might there be a job that he did not even know existed, that he might find out about, and that might turn out to be a wonderful job? There are all sorts of jobs that we do not even know are there, but they might be quite rewarding. Well, if he were to get a new job, it would probably be a better one in at least one of these ways. It might be more fun, or more interesting, or more meaningful, or pay more. "Just let your mind just wonder about these possibilities. You don't have to know anything specific like what, or when, or who you might work with, or what kind of job you might accept - just wonder about the interesting possibilities the future might hold..."
Continuing to promote a calmness and relaxation with Therapeutic Touch and with my voice, I began a series of questions that were not job-related, that could be answered simply "yes" or "no," and that he did not have to respond to aloud. He did answer them all aloud, although some of them about his family elicited some profound emotions. They were mainly designed to fixate his attention on other matters before asking, "Are you still afraid of the unknown?"
"No!" he said in pleased amazement.
"I have the feeling that in the days to come there will be some fear that you no longer need that you won't have anymore."
His second session was two weeks later. He reported that he had gone on a plane trip to Florida. He had always been afraid of flying in planes. It wasn't a full-fledged phobia, but it was a form of his fear of the unknown. On the plane ride back, he was not afraid at all. "I've always been afraid of planes. I just suddenly wasn't afraid."
After a few more sessions on other issues, Jay reported that due to financial reasons, he could not see me for a while, because he had quit his job and did not have a new one yet. In doing this, he had discovered unexpected backing from his mother. By changing his pattern, he found that hers had changed as well. Given his initial fear of the unknown, this courageous leap from a dead-end job into the unknown, when he had no new job lined up yet, suggested that he did not need to see me anymore. "You'll always be welcome to come back in the future, of course, but I feel that you've healed yourself of your largest problem in life."