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Getting Over the Wall
I
was 18 when I announced at the dinner table one evening that I had been
invited on a Territorial Army survival course for the weekend. My
parents laughed out loud and, in that moment, I decided I would go. I
would show them!
And
so I did, and immersed myself in two days of physical endurance like I
had never known before and have not known since (with the exception of a
concert tour of Hungary and having a baby!).
It
was November – cold, wet and windy; the “room” I was staying in had a
broken window with the branch of a tree poking in, the “bed” was a rusty
metal thing that was extremely uncomfortable. Course activities
included: being blindfolded and driven off into the night to find our
way back to base, sent down old unlit air raid shelters to drag out
dummies, doing some kind of target practice that involved a lot of
shouting and rolling around on our stomachs, eating cold lumpy vile food
very quickly (on reflection, I think that was supposed to be a lunch
break), running miles in mud and wet, running round the parade square
for not cleaning the mud and wet we had previously run through off our
clothes and shoes, an assault course with more requisite mud and wet,
flying out of windows on pulleys and more….
I
remember taking my first run around the parade square within five
minutes of arriving as I jumped straight out of the back of the jeep
into a large pool of mud; but, hilarious though this may all sound to
those that know me, this is not the point of me telling this tale.
My
point is this: I did these things, all of them, and I did them well, and
having done them gained a memory and belief in accord with the saying “a
mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its
original dimensions” [Oliver Wendell Holmes].
But
how did I do it? By my amazing determination? No. I did it
because there were people there who knew how to get me through it.
People who lived that life, and who really knew how to survive; who were
congruent, confident, convinced and convincing; if you wanted to get
through it, you had to put yourself in their hands.
We
did some very dangerous stuff that weekend, but no one got hurt, not
really - little scrapes and bruises but nothing serious. Considering our
lack of training and the fact that guns, dark holes and broken glass
were involved that is no small thing.
They shouted we obeyed, they shoved we went… they got us over the wall;
and hate them though I did at first; I later loved them for it. Looking
back, I can see now that their behaviour was exactly what was required
to get us through that weekend safely and efficiently.
Yet
those soldiers were not without compassion On the last afternoon, when I
was cold and exhausted, my legs just seized up at the top of a high rope
climb and I learned that those men knew well the difference between
“won’t” and “can’t”. Every part of me really had had enough. I had done
my best but I had no more to give; and there I was stuck at the top of
this thing and waiting for the shouting, but instead came soft words
behind and to my side. The soldiers had climbed up the ropes and two
strong pairs of hands, one under each arm, helped me and supported me
down, they told me to rest on the grass by the side of the course, and
five minutes later they came back, not to make me get up and do more,
but to see how I was.
I
remembered this when talking with a friend on the phone today and we
kept coming back to the point of “people who can get you over the wall”.
It’s the same thing as the lady I saw on the Paul McKenna show this week
who, when interviewed at the end, said, “I have never had so much fun
and without stress, it was like I could do anything”. Paul McKenna, in
his own way, got her over a wall. She could do things she never thought
possible before, and she had learned to have fun with no stress – and
isn’t that how fun is supposed to be?
“A mind stretched by a new experience…”
That is an extremely useful thing. We might think on it further, what
else could we do with someone to get us over the wall? For sure, support
is a wonderful thing, it is soothing and much needed, but a champion who
will get you not just through but over walls and hurdles is a rare and
precious find indeed.
I
consider myself very fortunate that I have good friends and mentors
around me that do that for me still and I know that many of my
endeavours would not have come to fruition if it were not so.
You
see, walls have their effects whether imagined, or physically present –
they are both hurdles, they can both makes us balk and stumble. Did you
ever see a runner trip on a hurdle? If you did, you may have noticed
that it’s often the first of many. We tend to give power to obstacles,
we might believe them to be solid and high and insurmountable but we
know that given certain circumstances, a dog snapping at our heels for
example – we will clear them fast enough.
Snapping dogs and shouting soldiers are one way, but they are not
necessarily the best way, or only way; our energy system does not take
well to the fight or flight response kicking in too often. Paul McKenna
is a good example of a gentler way of getting people over a wall, I once
knew a lorry driver who went to see his show and ended up on the stage –
he commented afterwards that it was a good laugh, that his friends
couldn’t believe the things he had said and done, but then he added
quietly that it had got him thinking about the other things he might be
able to do too, things he would never have considered before, he said he
felt different, more confident and more positive.
“A mind stretched by a new experience…”
Within a stretched mind reside stretched perceptions, changed and
updated beliefs – and maybe once you’ve got over a big wall the others
just don’t seem quite so daunting anymore…
The
“wall” is a broad term for obstacles and challenges, anything we believe
to be something that we need to “get over”. In my professional life,
helping people get over walls is possibly the thing that gives me the
greatest satisfaction, and for friends and family it’s something I’m
always ready to offer a leg up with too.
It
is a principle of the HypnoDreams team - to get others over walls. From
the Heart Healing prayer (see resources at the end of this article),
through to Freedom the HypnoDreams recordings seek to offer support and
the wind beneath the listeners wings to not just get over, but fly
over walls – and with no shouting too!
The
Lullaby Project was specifically created to provide a champion in times
of duress, those times when we feel we just cannot go on, we’re
exhausted, but there are things we should do, our body hurts, our brain
aches, and we feel completely snowed under - ever felt like that? The
Lullaby Project really works – we use it ourselves and are very glad of
it. When Silvia tells you “we are here with you, to lend you our
support, our strength and our love…” you can feel it’s true, she means
it, and she can take you where you need to go. As with the soldiers,
there is congruency, confidence and conviction there, all I needed to do
for that survival weekend was turn up and put myself in the hands of the
experts, the same is true of the Lullaby; just be there – stick some
headphones on and put the CD in a player and it will do take you over
the wall to settle down into a deeply relaxing and restorative place.
Now, as we prepare for the recording of the new and targeted PHDP
HypnoDreams and the Trance Dance Energy Project, we are ready to lend
our support again – to ourselves, to each other, and to others to get
over the wall, in times of challenge, whatever shape or size it may be,.
Ananga Sivyer
November 2004
The
HypnoDreams Team are:
Silvia Hartmann,
Ananga Sivyer and New World
recording artist
Pia –
find out more about them and their work at:
www.HypnoDreams.org
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