This morning I was woken by my screaming smoke alarm, 7 am on a Saturday. Ugh. I systematically began taking actions to calm it down (i.e. fan it), knowing there was no fire. It would stop and start again.
After waving a towel a few times and intent on getting back to sleep, I thought to turn on my ceiling fan to brush away whatever was alarming this poor thing. So on a freezing morning, here I was turning on the cooling fan. It seemed to work, but I was on edge with the fear it would start up again since I didn’t know what was aggravating it.
At that moment, I thought of a friend whose husband is a fireman. I know she’s often up hours before my normal waking time so there was a chance she’d be awake now. So I sent a text, asking for advice. Fortunately she had just woken up to go to the washroom, happened to notice her phone vibrating, and her husband was there instead of at work being his fireman-self. Amazing how many factors had to be in play!
I was given wonderfully clear and calm instructions by text to disarm the alarm after ensuring there really was no fire. (While this may be common sense, I had never done this before; it’s not battery operated so I’d never needed to adjust anything).
My fear was that I’d do something which would have it ringing for hours and that would not be ok! I needed to get trustworthy information to do the right thing. The alternative was taking a hammer and smashing it (which I’m afraid would’ve caused more problems), a thought that arrived after a few moments of hearing this horrible sound.
Now, to have you further understand the delicacy of the situation, the alarm is on the ceiling, a slight distance from the 2nd floor of my loft. So this meant I had to put one foot on my bed and one foot on the railing with my left arm hugging the column while I worked to open the gadget (no, I don’t have a ladder). And I’m doing this in my tiger-print velvet night suit. Yep.
In moments such as this, I am thankful for my Nia workouts – this position required balance, flexibility, and strength! Lol. With clear instructions via text from my friend’s fireman husband, I managed to turn it off ensuring my neighbours would not hate me forever nor would I be smashing my ceiling in the process.
My friend later commented that she felt like they were helping me disarm a bomb. Yeah, it kinda felt like that. The process was calm, smooth, and effective. 🙂
At last, I returned to a peaceful sleep under the cozy covers.
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What is the smoke alarm in your life? And which skills are you needing to disarm it? Do you need support, guidance, or techniques to help you? Life isn’t about doing it all ourselves, nor can we even when we want to. Fortunately there are friends and guides out there ready to help when we ask.
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Jasjit Rai is a Life Coach, Nia Black Belt, and Personal Stylist. Contact her at info@joiworks.com to learn more or request an free introductory consultation.
Hilarious! I bet Allan, the amazing firefighter was your savior, but could be wrong. He is such a gem 🙂 Tiger-print velvet night suit hey… of course, what else would a fashion expert wear in her sleep. I think I’ll stick to my Mickey Mouse pajamas, since I’m pretty ordinary when it comes to dressing myself 🙂 I wonder if our hot pajamas set the alarm off? …so Funny! You may want to consider becoming a firefighter since you are into everything anyways.
What seems weird is how well orchestrated this whole experience became! Yes Allan did a great job. My work is happy being in the personal transformation field and art. The firemen, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and accountants 🙂 can all hold onto their jobs! Now…an international spy/detective, that could be exciting…lol.