How I Quit Bedwetting

It was raining hard. Thunder rumbled loudly over the house like a lion whose food had been stolen. Lightning flashed in quick successiions, brightening the dark sky with flashes like a programmed camera. NEPA (the power agency) had cut off the power supply as usual (the rains were usually a convenient excuse). Not surprisingly, I trembled hard and my teeth rattled as the rains poured hard, venting the fury of the skies on us humans..

Then I woke up. It had been nothing but a mere dream. The night was clear and dry; there was not a sign of rainfall. But wait a minute- my bed! My bed was wet! Further investigations revealed that the wetness of the bed originated from my body. My shorts was in a mess and the stench of urine- my urine- oozed from the bedsheets and filled the air like a devilish perfume…

Hey, that was years- many years- ago. I was a kid then. And that was the last time I ever wet my bed. How come? After that day, anytime I dreamt it was about to rain, something in me would wake up and snap to reality. And I would go to ease myself!

Similarly, I grew up watching eerie Christian movies in which witches and wizards played prominent roles. One thing I learnt from those movies was that it was a bad sign to eat in a dream. So guess what? Even in my sleep, if you try to feed me, I will wake up. It doesn’t matter how deep the slumber is.

Here’s where I’m going: the subconcious takes instructions from the conscious mind. I’m probably not using the scientific expressions but I hope you get my point.

Let’s take it further: success or failure are states that can be programmed into your subconscious. So are wealth or poverty, health or sickness… Human beings are products of conditioning. I meet a lot of people who grew up hearing how bad they were. Such thoughts would dominate their minds. Over time, they would talk like failures (I’ve met people who actually greet their friends with insults and curses and as far as they are concerned, it’s just jokes). Eventually, these people end up failing in life and yet they wonder why.

A scientist, Pavlov, tried conditioning dogs. He succeeded at making them respond to the thought of food. Guess what? You can condition yourself to be successful. It’s pretty simple. Just:

1. Spend time listening to things that pull you up. They can be songs, messages, good news, stories of successful people etc.

2. Think good and think big: why should you dread the day you will have an accident? Why should you think you will fail your examination? Force yourself to think positively. Also, expand the size of your dreams. There is no bill for using your imagination, so use it! Why not see yourself at dinner with Bill Gates or Barack Obama?

3. Talk Positively: even when you don’t feel like it, talk in positive terms. You can speak about a bad situation in a positive way.

4. Move with positive people: Negativity is a virus. Associating with positive people helps you not to get infected.

Nigeria has been suffering from attacks by a terrorist group, Boko Haram. Their name literally means that “Western education is evil”. These people kill themselves and others because they don’t believe in western education. How did they become like that? Conditioning! They grew up hearing how bad the West was for the spread of Islam. They thought about it. It came out in their words. They moved with people who believed the same and formed an association. Today, they are terrorists. A similar but success-oriented process would have been required for a positive end point.

I quit bedwetting as a kid by learning to associate rain (even in my dreams) with the need to urinate. Pavlov trained his dogs by making them to associate the sound of the bell to the solution to their hunger. You can stop (or learn) any habit (drinking, smoking, drugs…), or become anything, by conditioning yourself. Hear it, think it, say it, associate with those associating with it- and you will be it!

I recommend that you also read:

• My Thoughts on the Violence in the North
• Wealth Myths
• Controlling Anger
• Is the Future in Trouble?
• Life as a Youth Corper