When the Seagull Meets the Fly: A Lesson in Freedom
Just like the seagull snapping at a fly, many of us find ourselves stuck battling thoughts, worries, and conflicts that drain our energy. In hypnosis, this pattern shows up often: the mind latches onto something small, repeating it again and again, while the vast freedom of peace and perspective remains untapped.
The truth is, freedom doesn’t come from winning the fight, it comes from realizing there doesn’t need to be one. Hypnosis helps retrain the subconscious to let go of “the fly”; the persistent thought, the old wound, the stress trigger, and instead rise into the open sky of calm, clarity, and choice.
Whether you’re struggling with anxiety, replaying old conversations, or holding onto battles that no longer serve you, hypnosis can guide you back to the part of yourself that simply observes with wisdom. That part of you already knows: peace isn’t in controlling every fly, it’s in remembering you can always take flight.
Just the other day, I paused to watch the simplest of encounters unfold on the shoreline. A seagull stood there, wings tucked in, eyes sharp. Around it buzzed a tiny fly…relentless, persistent, annoying. The seagull snapped at it, twisting its beak this way and that, trying to catch what was hardly worth its time.
From afar, another seagull simply watched.
The dance went on: the fly swarming, the seagull lunging. Neither giving in. Neither walking, or flying, away. It struck me at that moment how much life can look exactly like this.
I thought about a season in my own life where I was caught in the same cycle. There was someone who seemed to needle me at every turn; every conversation felt like an argument waiting to happen. I replayed their words long after they were spoken, imagining comebacks, building cases in my mind. Just like that seagull, I snapped and twisted, trying to “catch” what was hardly worth my time. And just like that fly, they kept buzzing in my thoughts, relentless and small, but somehow consuming all my energy.
What I didn’t see then, but see now, was how simple the solution really was. I could have stepped away. I could have chosen silence. I could have lifted my attention to the bigger sky above me instead of staying grounded in a tug-of-war I didn’t need to win.
The truth is: the fly could have buzzed off. The seagull could have soared. Freedom wasn’t in winning the battle…it was in realizing there didn’t need to be one at all.
How often do we stay locked in battles we don’t need to fight? We replay conversations, chase validation, hold onto grievances, or try to control what we were never meant to control. And yet, like the seagull and the fly, both sides have the option to release. To rise. To let go.
And that other seagull, the one watching from a distance? That’s the wiser part of us. The one who sees the futility in the fight. The one who knows there’s another way.
The sky is always there. Vast. Expansive. Waiting.
The lesson is simple: sometimes peace isn’t in conquering; it’s in choosing not to play the game at all.
REFLECTIONS:
Where in my life am I still “snapping at flies,” giving energy to things or people that don’t truly deserve my attention?
What battles could I step away from today, not by winning, but by choosing not to play?
How can I access the “watching seagull” within me, the part that sees with wisdom and remembers the sky is always available?