An important lesson

Do you remember starting senior school? I do although it was many decades ago. A particular incident that happened in my first few weeks there remains really clear in my mind.

The school had only been built for a couple of years when I attended it. It had facilities not available at my junior school, an art room, cookery rooms, playing fields and a proper gymnasium. In junior school we had to do PT in the school hall.

Everyone was excited about going into the new gym and using the equipment. Once we were changed into our PT kits our teacher Miss Rothwell told us to go and wait for her in the gym, as she needed to have a word with another teacher.

Melanie couldn't resist the wall bars no sooner had we entered the gym than she ran to the far wall were they were situated and climbed them. Then she froze, she couldn't get down. At first we thought that she was acting the fool and didn't take much notice. Then it became cleared that she was genuinely frightened and didn't believe that she could get down.

Someone went to get Miss Rothwell. She appeared in seconds accompanied by another sports teacher. She spoke calmly to a distressed and crying Melanie to the effect that she was standing right behind her and Melanie would not fall.

When Melanie had calmed down a little she was instructed to feel with her right foot for the next rung down on the wall bars and step onto it. As Melanie proceeded on her descent following Miss Rothwell's instructions she froze at least twice more, clung to the bars and refused to move.

Miss Rothwell was our hero on that day as calm and patient she guided Melanie down to safety. The rest of us girls stood watching in fascination.

Eventually Melanie stepped safely from the last rung of the wall bars onto the floor shaken but unhurt. She was led out of the gym by our other sports teacher no doubt to sit down, calm down and be reassured that she was now safe.

Meanwhile Miss Rothwell began our scheduled PT lesson. We were never spoken to about the incident. Our teachers probably felt that it was a graphic lesson for all of us in understanding the importance of having skilled supervision when using the gym equipment.

Correct use of the equipment taught us balance and self-discipline. It helped us to grow into healthy, confident young women. Use of the equipment without skilled supervision could have injured or even killed us.

Why do I still remember this so clearly? Because it has a parallel with work that I do today. As a psychologist/psychotherapist I have taught many people about the existence of their unconscious mind and how to use this mental level to achieve their goals.

Working towards a goal using only the conscious level of mind means using roughly 10% of your true ability so clearly harnessing and using the power of the unconscious mind is desirable.

More people are realising this. However often they act like Melanie did in relation to the wall bars. They rush ahead without proper supervision.

Like electricity or water the unconscious mind is extremely powerful and we should respect that power. With responsible and knowledgeable use electricity and water bring us much good without it they could wreck havoc.

Sometimes I have needed to play a similar role to Miss Rothwell in guiding people safely away from errors in the use of their unconscious minds. Melanie never tried again to use gym equipment without supervision. Nor did anyone in my class. We had learnt the lesson.

However it would have been better if Melanie had not had the experience of freezing on the wall bars. Over confidence and a little knowledge can cause people to experiment with their unconscious level of mind with negative results.

This requires not only someone like myself to pick up the pieces but delays the achievement of their desired goals. The obvious answer is to find a suitably qualified mentor before attempting to use your powerful creative unconscious mental level.

Names mentioned above are not the real names of the people concerned.