Written by Maeve Belshaw - Co-founder of Soulful Soundwaves
It seems I have a random attraction with the time 11:11. I am not a clock watcher by any stretch of the imagination, in fact I don’t even wear a watch. However, I go through periods when I constantly find myself checking the time at precisely 11:11. Some weeks, even months, I don’t see it at all and then other weeks I may see it five times. Today, I saw it in all its glory. I looked down at my phone and there it was – 11:11 in big white letters staring back at me. I smiled and started to write…
Have you ever experienced a moment that just seemed to be too much of a coincidence that it has left you feeling somewhat astonished?
A number of these events have happened to me of late, which has urged me to investigate why they may be happening. Why do I find myself looking at the clock at exactly 11:11? And why do I talk about something and then walk down the street later that day and notice the very same topic on a billboard, or appearing in the book I’m reading? My sister once thought I was secretly writing for a well-known health blog as one evening we’d be talking about something and then the next morning they’d publish an article on the very same subject. And this didn’t just happen once or twice.
It seems so many people give importance to 11:11, to the point it becomes a bit extreme. Statistics show that on the day 11.11.2011, there was an increase in the number of marriages taking place throughout the world and babies born on this date also received special media attention. I would call this an active adaptation of reality to a number rather than a passive observation of its occurrence. Nonetheless, this gives us an idea about how many people recognise a phenomenon recurring only twice a day.
First explained by psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875 – 1961), Jung described synchronicity as “an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see.” He was also a firm believer that the collective human unconscious was the paramount force affecting and creating “meaningful coincidences” or synchronous events.
Synchronicity /,sɪŋkrəˈnɪsɪti/ (noun): Coincidence of events that appear meaningfully related but do not seem to be causally connected.
By paying attention to when and how often the time 11:11 recurred, I started looking for out of the ordinary events that could be related. Funny enough, they appear to happen mostly in conjunction with the appearance of this moment in time. And even more interesting is that I wouldn’t have noticed those events if I didn’t start paying attention to them. Mind you, I’m not talking about things of major importance, just little things, sometimes just the smallest of details.
Let me give you an example. Lorenzo has a large hand painted picture of dolphins that he picked up on his way home one day as the current owner (or artist) had placed it out with the rubbish. Lorenzo loved it. When moving house, we often discuss whether to keep this painting and its been on the cusp of being donated to charity on a number of occasions. However, Lorenzo has always had an underlying urge to keep it and it hangs proudly in our studio. In addition, my brother took a picture of Lorenzo and I a few years ago of both of us looking out to a beautiful calm sea on a clear summer's day. I’ve always really loved this picture and we also have it up on the wall in the studio.
Fast forward a few years and we’re designing our logo and branding for Soulful Soundwaves. It took us longer than we expected and during this period we happened to see 11.11 appearing multiple times. When time came to create our colour palette, our web designer submitted a number of options for us to choose from. None of them were entirely convincing so we decided to combine two of the options provided into one.
When you start to join the dots, it seems there is actually a thin red line connecting everything. Our colour choice exactly matches both the pictures we’ve had a strong connection with for some time, and not only that. In one picture we’re looking out to sea staring at our company colours and the other has the animal that is often described as having healing powers and bringing healing energies.
This is just one of many examples. To me these connections are more than coincidences and I feel like these tiny synchronic events are guiding me to the right path. They’re little signals pointing me in the direction I should go.
Have you ever noticed a series of events happening to you that might be consequential?