Cirencester Hypnotherapy & Health Centre: The Tide is Turning

Nicola Griffiths, hypnotherapist 

The Tide is Turning by Nicola Griffith

A few years ago I took myself off to a ‘serviced apartment’ for a couple of days as I had to finish some significant work that wasn’t getting done with all the distractions of home and the clinic I run. Someone had suggested that if you get writer’s block, then it’s good to put yourself into a different place – so I did.  On arriving at this lovely place, overlooking the sea, I walked in thinking to myself “Nicola Griffiths, you have arrived” with a big grin over my face.  It was rather nice.

The next day, at approximately 7.42am, I was stood daydreaming looking out at the sea trying to get inspiration on what to write.  I was stood there a good 5-10 minutes when I noticed that a rock had become visible on the shore line.  I’d noticed the tide was coming in when I first stood watching and during my daydream state the tide had turned. 

Nothing unusual in that I hear you say.  I agree.  But it brought something home to me.  In that 10 minute space of time, the little waves had started retreating rather than coming higher up the shore – a small change.  Yet as I looked out over that vast ocean, it struck me that the whole ocean was now moving in a different direction.  And that’s one heck of a lot of water to start shifting in the opposite direction!

When working with hypnotherapy clients, you’ll hear us say “It’s the small steps that count”.  The small steps lead to big changes.  But do we take notice of the small changes?  I suspect the answer may be no!  Yet the small changes signal a potential big change around the corner, in the same way the small waves aren’t lapping quite so far up the beach is signalling a whole ocean is changing direction.  Can we see that ocean moving? No.  Not all changes are visible immediately.

So if you want to change something about yourself, don’t look at the whole big picture expecting it to change overnight. Certainly you need to have a goal or know how you want to be and then look at the first individual step you can make towards that change.  It might be to pick up the phone to our lovely clinic or maybe email us to ask if we can help.

I once worked with a client who climbed Everest.  I remember them saying they looked down at their boots when on a vertical incline, in the pitch black of the early hours of the morning, and thought of my words “Just one small step”. So they took the next small step. That client went on to reach the summit of a rather large mountain, so don’t ever let the size of a problem put you off.