The day started out so hot and with a lovely breeze to keep you cool. That's why I like Lanzarote, you are always guaranteed a breeze, so you don’t feel like you are scorching.
I love to swim in the pool or the sea, to keep the body temperature down.
However convincing the other members of the family is another story. Is it cold? What a question of course it is, it is cooler than body temperature for a reason. My son decided he needed his hat and his goggles so off he went to get them. Delay tactics! But seriously, it’s important to keep the water out of his ears as he tends to get ear infections that don’t respond to medication easily, so safer to prevent rather than cure.
Not being able to wait any longer, I got in. There was a lady walking in the pool and I asked her how many laps she had done already? She laughed a big belly laugh. It appeared that she was rehabilitating and was walking fairly slowly. She broke her ankle and had surgery on it a number of weeks previously and was keeping it limbered up, on instruction from her physiotherapist. I love telling people I did x amount of laps, she said. It sounds fantastic, but the thing is I can’t swim, so it's a big fib!!
Now, I can’t resist helping an adult who tells me she can’t swim. I answered her with my usual response, do you know the word ‘yet’, what you should reply is - I can’t swim yet! She laughed at that and said that's a good one alright! So she precedes to tell me she has been to endless lessons, none of which helped her at all.
I began to tell her that I was over forty when I learned to swim properly, that I had a bad experience when I was young and it put me right off for years. Then I was given the task of running the special swim club and it encouraged me to learn. Such a wonderful sense of achievement when you realise you can actually do what you always thought for years, you could not.
We were talking for ages about all sorts of stuff. Her job was a reader and scribe for students with extra needs and an exam envigilator, whatever the job called for, she was ready and willing. I always tell adults and some kids if they are old enough to understand it, that the science behind swimming is really quite logical. So I showed her what happens when you float. About the 5% rule. She listened very intently. I then asked her what was she so afraid of?
The poor woman told me that her brother drowned over fifty years ago and it felt really stupid to be telling me that! What, I said? How is that stupid? A traumatic event that has shattered your belief system forever, that's what! In my mind I am thinking a QTT session would be very helpful here, but I stayed in my professional space and said nothing more. (very difficult for me to do that sometimes)
The next afternoon I was lying in the sun when she came over all excited and said. Wait until I tell you what's just happened! I was up early this morning, doing my exercises on my recovering ankle when the phone rang. It was an old friend, one who had taken me under her wing to give me some swimming lessons. I asked her about this 5% rule and she said yes that’s right, that she had taken the same swim course I had a number of years ago.
So low and behold she said I got into the pool and guess who is able to float? My hair got wet for the first time in years and I am delighted with myself. Thanks for talking to me, look what I have overcome after a conversation.
Hopefully we will meet in the pool again and we can have more chats and the next part of the lesson may unfold! Isn’t it interesting how we just have a little chat with someone and those of us who do holistic work, hear their life story in an instant and make a difference!
But probably more to the point, since I trained in QTT, I have to hold myself from offering it to everyone who tells me they are emotionally trapped in the past, by limiting beliefs or patterns of behaviour that no longer serve. It is the type of work that the client should look for, rather than be told to do it, if you understand.
It turns out she doesn't live too far from me either, so you would never know what might happen when we get home. I love the word ‘yet’, for me it holds so much potential, intrigue, magic and possibilities. What does your ‘yet’ mean to you? Have you ever thought about it? Well now you might!