A few years ago I was attended a workshop with friends. I hung out with one friend in particular during all the classes. Before the classes began, there was always music played. He was waiting and waiting for one song in particular – always hoping for that song to be played. Forever waiting.

He’d hold the song book open to “Song #11” as soon as he arrived in the room. He’d hold the vision of “Song #11” in his mind’s eye so he could see it. He’d think of how much he loves Song #11 so it would shine brightly in his heart. He was clutching at it. Holding it soooo tight.

By the last day of the workshop he gave up. They hadn’t played Song #11. “I guess I’ll just have to let it go”, he said. “Maybe that’s exactly it”, I said to him. Maybe you’re holding on to it so tightly that it can’t get out.

What do you know? The band entered the room. They played Song #11.

We laughed our heads off. We still laugh our heads off. Now I call it the Song #11 syndrome.

I’m trying to be conscious of this syndrome right now, being a few days overdue. I mean yes, I LOVE being pregnant. Yes, I LOVE feeling him moving inside of my belly – and watching him there! And yes, I do know that he’s coming out – one way or another, he’s coming out – but I’ll have to envision him on the outside! Feel him in my arms instead of in my womb. “See” him in my house, instead of in my body. And hope that it starts moving labour along.

In the same category? I’m reading a book called The Pregnant Man, (it’s about hypnotism not about this pregnant man) and just last night I read the chapter about the actual “Pregnant Man” and how it all came to be. What happened is he went to a hypnotist to quit smoking and towards the end of a session, the practitioner asked him to imagine “the person he would like to be. Into his mind popped a picture of a pregnant woman (I won’t get into all the details of his history right now). Next thing you know, he’s got all the symptoms of a pregnancy: enlarged breasts, pregnant belly, nausea, etc.

So how he overcame this and corrected it was abandoning the imagery from one of being pregnant, to one of someone who had already been through labour and birth. And then his body went back to normal.

Hey... it’s worth a try!