It’s an awful feeling, right there in the pit of your stomach, twisting and turning, telling you “something is wrong, something bad is about to happen,” although you haven’t a clue what, or two whom.
Nothing is worse!
You want to do something, stop something, or at the very least warn somebody, but can’t do anything but sit there and worry. You know that if you start calling around asking people if they’re okay, if they are up to anything dangerous or unusual, you are only going to worry them too, and what’s the point of that? So most times we just suck it up, hope for the best and pray a little, asking that somehow, someway whatever our presentimiento was about doesn’t actually happen.
I generally also try to convince myself that it is little more than silly superstition and that I don’t believe in that stuff… right before repeating my ritual once again: worrying, worrying some more, praying, praying again, and then thinking up everything in the world that “the universe” could be trying to warn me about, before going back to square one all over again.
Maybe it’s because my own mother’s presentimientos always seemed to be so accurate in my memories. She’d get an “ugly feeling” and all of a sudden, BAM, something was wrong! It was unnerving to hear her say tengo un presentimiento. My skin would crawl and I would just start bracing myself. Then I got to thinking, maybe it was just that whole theory that if you believe something strongly enough it will come true. I guess that we are channeling negative energy into our lives and that we are really the ones making bad things happen to ourselves.
A little bit too new age, modern thinking for me… so in the years since I’ve adopted my own “Anti-Presentimiento Remedio-Ritual”. Like when I dream a bad dream, I really do believe that if I repeat it out loud, share it with someone else, I am preventing the dream, or the presentimiento, from actually coming true. That somehow I’m putting a block on it, stopping it dead in its tracks.
It sounds silly, but it is kind of comforting… some of the time.
7 thoughts on “My Anti-Presentimiento Remedio-Ritual”
¡Siempre me haces sonreir con tus posts, colega! Love it… Great stuff and perspective as always!
Gracias Sr. Tony,
Usted siempre tan gentil. I’m glad my blog posts can bring a smile to your days 🙂
Me has leido la mente. Last night I had a dream about somebody leaving a message, telling me both my biggest fault and something they admire about me. But it wasn’t a regular phone call or message. It was like a despedida. I woke up worried with that presentimiento that someone we know and love was sick or dying. Desperte a mi marido para decirle, you know, so the dream wouldn’t come true. Y para estar segura de que no pase nada malo, I’ve worried, prayed, worried and prayed.
La chistoso es que no me considero muy supersticiosa. But God help me if I have a presentimiento from a dream. Ay. Dios. Mio! 🙂
Leslie,
Even when it is something really delicate that I don’t want to repeat I make myself do so because it just feels like something is being controlled by me at that point. It’s weird really, but I’ll probably continue doing this because of habit, lol. Then again, maybe it’s just that I’m talking about it that makes me feel better 🙂
Juan, I feel the same as you about this. Both mine and my hubby’s families are big believers and we will call people up in the middle of the night sometimes when the feeling is bad enough and give them fair warning and a fury of prayers. Maybe it’s strange, but it sure feels right…lol. 😉
Telling someone about it usually helps me too – usually. But I actually, not to sound like Walter Mercado or anything here, have some psychic abilities. LOL. Te juro. I don’t like to talk about it cause I know it sounds crazy. For as long as I can remember I have experienced “deja vu” … and if I just think my child’s name, from the other room they will say, “Mommy, are you calling me?” … So when I get those presentimientos, I tend to take them seriously. Just this morning I woke early and drove Carlos to meet his boss, (they’re going to work at another location today, so his boss wanted him to meet him halfway, leave his car, and he would give him a ride the other half.) — Well, to leave his car and meet him, he was going to have to cross a busy road on foot. Carlos made a joke that he’d get hit by a car… Well, that didn’t go over well with me. Carlos’s father died because he was hit by a car as a pedestrian, so I’m always worried that for some reason, that will be Carlos’s fate too… And so, that is how I came to drive him this morning. Who knows if I wasted my time and my bad feeling was borne only of silly anxiety. It’s entirely possible but I didn’t want to find out… Telling you made it feel less likely to happen though – so thanks.
Anyhow, I definitely feel you on this one!
Chantilly, Tienes toda la razon, aunque uno lo sienta raro a veces, the truth it does make us feel better in the end. Much more common than we think I guess.
And Tracy, actually I believe in that stuff that some of us are more sensitive to certain things than others. Like if I can put my finger on just what it is that is making me uneasy or making me feel a certain way, then I will avoid doing that particular thing…or will warn my family not to do it, or whoever it may be, and like I said on Twitter, I am constantly feeling like I am reliving moments that have already passed…it’s freaky. One of my sisters had a car accident once and she swore that she envisioned the lady from next door who was some kind of a witch or curandera right before she crashed. Anyhow, I’m glad you felt better by sharing your bad presentimiento with me…y don’t worry, Carlos va estar bien 🙂