Many of us feel that we grow in levels of intolerance to certain things as time goes by. We become fed up with things and overly sensitized to certain triggers which activate our automatic intolerance patterns in terms of thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

Things which we might have tolerated in the past make us feel agitated, frustrated, angry or irate instead. We know that our reactions are possibly overly exaggerated, but somehow we cannot stop the way in which we feel, as this emotional reaction has become ingrained through experience over the years. It's as if our intolerance thermostat has been turned up to a high position and the slightest thing has the power to trigger its instinctive reactions.

We have learned to expect so many things as of right. We expect everything to flow like clockwork, to be on time and to work effectively and efficiently. But just because we are used to living at a fast pace doesn't mean that the environmental structure is designed to keep up. Nature, every so often, deals us a hand which effectively teaches us a lesson in tolerance.

We in Northern Europe have experienced a rather unusual and extreme amount of cold weather in this last few weeks and the effect of this upon our modern way of day to day living is dramatic. Trains fail to run to schedule, roads are closed, flights are cancelled. These are but a few of the immediate effects of a change in weather conditions. We are all taken by surprise.

It is at times of surprise and shock that one's basic instincts can very easily be seen. I have personally seen a diverse display of people's reactions, some of which have been heart-warming whilst others have been just plain shocking. Can you imagine that a young woman heavy in pregnancy could slip in an icy high street and find that nobody, nobody at all, would stop to help her up?

Well, that did indeed happen upon a busy street. How could those passersby not have felt a natural instinct to help? Had their feelings been frozen that badly in this cold weather? This is a sure sign of something very wrong within the community. A natural human instinct would appear to be missing in more than just a small percentage of people.

In contrast I have witnessed many a person reach out to help those who were less able than themselves; they spot someone about to slip and instinctively reach out to grab them. They pop around to see their elderly neighbors and make sure they are warm and well. That's a normal human reaction. This is how we all, every single one of us, should be; the instinct to care, to help and to assist in other's comfort and survival should be a natural, normal and instinctive part of human behavior.

I have also witnessed a relentless desire to blame others for the situations which have been encountered. Blame the airlines, blame the transport minister, blame the owners of the trains; blame, blame, blame. This has been a common theme. Certainly, some people have acknowledged that it's simply the weather and that we could not be expected to be prepared for such unusual and adverse conditions. But more seem all too quick to point and finger and find somebody to blame.

This whole situation highlights how intolerant so many of us have become. Perhaps this is nature's way of showing us what's wrong in the world and providing us with an opportunity to open our eyes, shake our heads and rethink our priorities in this life.

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in hypnosis mp3 downloads for happiness and well-being.

P.S. Discover how to relax and feel good with hypnosis; grab a free hypnosis mp3 download from my website now.