Now where did I put it? Check your mind’s eye

IWAS sitting in a hotel lobby when a woman came rushing in. She was in full panic mode. “My phone. My phone.” It wasn’t clear whether she thought she had lost it, or thought it had been stolen.

She ran over to where I was sitting. “Was there a phone left here? Was there a phone left here?” I began to feel like a suspect as I told her I had been there only a minute and I didn’t see anything on the table or the chairs.

The situation was resolved when a very polite employee came over from reception with the phone in his hand.

It had been spotted by one of the staff and placed in safe keeping. Her life returned to whatever semblance of normality which it typically occupied.

The next day, one of the group I was travelling with was distinctly uneasy at breakfast. He told me he could not find his, or his wife’s, passport. He had not shared this with her.

“Did you get a real belt in the stomach feeling when you missed it?” I asked him. He hadn’t.

“Then you have put it somewhere. Part of your mind knows where it is. You will find it,” I told him.

Sure enough, he turned up at dinner having located both passports. He had put them in the back of a camera bag where he had never put them before. He had the dimmest recollection. Memory goes on holidays when we travel.

I know the feeling well. The day after, I mislaid my notebook with all of the non-digital bits of my life in it. No stomach jolt. I just knew it was somewhere. I hadn’t lost it. It hadn’t been stolen. Sure enough, it turned up under a pile of brochures.

I have always found it a curious phenomenon that the unconscious mind keeps an eye on what we are doing. And while neither my friend, nor I, could consciously remember where we had put our mislaid objects, in some sense our body was telling us not to worry.

I come from that school of thought that does not set massive store on some difference between conscious and unconscious.

Memories slip in and out of awareness, depending on circumstances. But I do know that when in unfamiliar surroundings, and when my sleep is disrupted, the normal functioning of my memory goes haywire. This makes me more aware that in the normal life, at home, there are things we need to do to keep our mental state and emotions working efficiently. They all have to do with taking a little time.

So much gets sorted out on a good walk. A real conversation with a trusted friend or lover is like taking out a lot of memories and ideas and then storing them in the right mental boxes.

You cannot do that if there is a mobile phone in your eyeline.

And you cannot do it without making sure you get enough hours of restful sober sleep most nights.