Does anyone else have the “snake in the road” kind of syndrome?
I used to spend a lot of time walking every day, primarily for exercise. The lingering effect, that I didn’t initially realize, was that it was my practice of meditation in movement. It was a time when I did a lot of thinking and processing, as well as focus on my breath work. One day, I was walking along on a very familiar route and a snake was in the middle of the road. It was a green snake, bright green. It startled me, because I’m petrified of snakes. But I just stopped in my tracks and waited to see where it would go. Strangely, as snakes usually remain in motion once in motion, it stopped in the middle of the road, in the shade, lifted its head and looked back at me. I waited and tried to maintain a spirit of curiosity rather then absolute fear. Then it continued onto the grass in another neighbors yard and I continued on my walk.
I realize that there are snakes everywhere and that there’s not much that I can do to avoid them, so long as I want to be active in nature. Strange thing is, that every single time I walk past that same point on my journey I would look right and left as if the snake would be coming through that identical path again as if that I needed to be extremely careful at that point, more than any other time on my walk.
Of course I never saw that snake pass through the same point on my walk, although I did see many other snakes both poisonous and harmless throughout my walks over time. This whole story with snakes made me wonder. Is it human nature, or personally just my own behavior pattern that causes me to believe that danger will appear in the same place, in the same way again, in the future. My thinking brain says that that is absolutely absurd, yet I still look for the snakes in the same places I previously encountered.
Does anyone else have this phenomenon of expecting dangers to show up in similar ways and familiar places? Why do you think this happens? What is it here to teach us?
I think it’s natural to be affected by a stressful memory. When we walk back into the same place – in nature, in a relationship, in work – where prior difficulty occurred we can acknowledge the memory but hold hope that things will work out differently this time. Negative experiences aren’t fixed to location but to time. Returning to location is no guarantee of repeat trauma. Returning to time is impossible (on this physical plane anyway), except in the memory and imagination. I think it’s useful to say to ourselves: this is where the snake startled me last time but the time is now and snake or no snake this experience is different. Spending too much time in memory or imagination can keep the trauma anew. Probing old trauma too deeply can create new trauma. I think snakes come to visit as totem animals. You are smart to pause, let the snake do its snake thing, and move forward, both of you. xo
Great thoughts. Thank you for taking the time to comment <3