Let’s Go And Dream – Part 2

“I have spread my dreams under your feet; 

Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.”

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

A beautiful piece of poetry and one we do well to remember.  Sharing personal thoughts and feelings with others should always be respected.  We value ourselves, so we should value others who share a part of themselves with us.

Last time we went over the basics of dreams – dreams are not aside from us – or come to us from an outside source – they are part of us and part of our everyday life.  But I don’t want to undervalue dreams and their importance.  They can give guidance, solve problems, give balance and a lot else besides.  We need to learn the language of dreams so we can begin to unlock their meaning.

It is important to record dreams in whatever way is comfortable and workable for you to do.  Once you have captured the dream you can then begin working on it.  I’ve found one of the easiest ways to begin is read the dream through until you have it committed to memory.  Then pick-out what is the most important part of the dream to you.  What stands-out the most.  Try writing out the top three parts of your dream and then whittle it down to the most important part from that.  Once you have that part of the dream….that is what you work with.An illustration of this is a dream I had years ago.  It was a recurring dream and I dreamed it often.  Needless to say it reflected my life at the point which I think you will easily see reflected in the dream itself.  Anyway here’s the dream:

• My three children and I [the kids at that stage were all under 6 years old] and my dog were trapped standing on something which looked like a sand dune.
• We were above the waterline of the waves
• But it was a constant battle to keep in that condition
• My kids, the dog and I were all huddled tightly together
• And we worked together to stay above the waterline

That, pretty much, is the dream.  During it I would experience all the emotions of fear, worry, anxiety and the sheer effort of keeping it altogether.  I also felt exhausted all the time during the dream.  So it created a tension between exhaustion and staying above the waterline.  The strange thing was the difference between me and the waterline always stayed the same and we were only above it by a matter of  feet.

As anyone knows being on sand is difficult.  It’s harder to walk on sand or run on sand than on an ordinary surface.  So the effort of keeping everything together was overwhelmingly tiring.

When I came to work the dream out I recognised the feelings in the dream.  At that time I had three small kids with my youngest who was a boy with hyperactivity with add.  If anyone out there has had a hyperactive child, I mean truly hyperactive, you will know how exhausting that is. I worked all the time, day and night watching my child.  I had to make sure he didn’t harm himself or harm anyone else – he was like this from the time he could walk! He didn’t sleep through the night until he was three years old, so for those first years of his life, neither did I.

Big Waves

So trying to stay above the waterline was easy to relate to – it summed my life up accurately – but when I worked it out what I looked at as being the most important was that we were never swamped by the water, we never got wet from the waves, [which is peculiar as with waves theres spray] so what emerged as the most important thing for me at that time to hear – You survive.  You’re going to get through this.  Incredibly it was exactly that assurance that I needed to hear at that moment because there were plenty of times I didn’t think I was going to survive or more importantly my son wasn’t going to survive. I felt often that this would never end.  Do you know that feeling that you cannot see daylight at the end of the tunnel?  That’s how I felt.

Highlighting these steps of what is important in your dream is a quick and easy way to help get you to the kernel of your dream.  Once you have what you need – write that down too.  It’s important to document and keep records of these things.  As it’s good to look back over records in the same way you may look back over old photos and films.

Penguins have no such problems
with waterlines. Elegantly in and out.

So there you have the basics of recording your dreams, extracting the information that you will find the most important for you and the beginning of keeping a dream journal.  This huge deposit of wisdom that we have available lies for the most part, untapped, within us.  Unless we find ways of reaching it – this is where it will stay.  

Untapped, dormant and of no use to you at all.

We live in a world where we are eager to relinquish control to so-called ‘experts’.  Yet the best ‘expert’ of yourself – is you.  Plus now you have the tools to unlock that chest of wisdom which lies within you ready to help, guide, comfort and help you out of dark and sometimes difficult circumstances.  It’s all you.

Thanks to everyone who has sent me comments on my blog – I love hearing from all of you.  I hope you’ve enjoyed the two-part on dreams.  We will revisit the subject from time-to-time.

Don’t forget to contact me if you want a blog on something of particular interest to you.  So long as it’s within my realm of experience I’ll do my best for you.  I mean I don’t know diddly-squat about car mechanics!

Take care – until next time.

Let’s Go On A Journey

Going On A Journey

I love the feeling of anticipation when we get when we travel where we’ve not been before.  The sense of anticipation and not knowing – the excitement of being somewhere totally different – the sense of adventure.  It’s wonderful, I absolutely love it.

When we’re talking about entering the realms of dream interpretation it’s the same thing, it’s a journey into the unknown.  It’s an exciting and incredible adventure.  What we humans have tucked away beneath the surface of our consciousness is like a wonderful treasure full of wisdom we didn’t know we had.

But before we dive into it.  There is a bit of background which is important for us to know.

The interpretation of dreams has been going on for centuries.  Yet it’s not something that we know about and practice today and is looked at as a specialist subject known only to a few experts.  I state here and now: I am no expert – I don’t have any degrees.  I don’t have any formal qualifications for anything I write about in my blog. What I do have though is experience – I have learned about dreams and what they might mean.  I have had my own dreams which have proved to have become important points in my life.  I have attended a Dream Workshop so I do know a little about recording dreams and trying to understand their meaning.  As usual then, my lack of formal qualifications take second place in the face of experience.

just luc’s photostream – flickr

Superstition surrounds dreams especially the symbols which are so important to understand their meaning.  In fact symbols are the key to unlocking them and putting their guidance and wisdom into practice into our daily lives.   There is a human tendency to fear interfering with the devil, or that we won’t  know what comes from the devil or what comes from the force of good.  This isn’t an irrational fear and I fully understand anyone who may have these fears.  We do tend to question the things we don’t know.  I’m sure most people have heard  ‘old wives’ tales’ on the subject of dream interpretation and delving into the subconscious in general.

However I can assure everyone who reads this blog, that the way I do things is based on the guidance of  Erich Fromm.  Fromm [1900-1980] was a German-American psychoanalyst.  Some of you may have read his classic works: Escape from Freedom which he wrote in 1941 and The Art of Loving which he wrote in 1956.  I first discovered his particular genius when I was training to become a counsellor and read his book The Art of Loving.  Anyway he was a brilliant man and I hope as we go through this dream work some of his genius will shine through.  The book I’ve based most of my knowledge on is: The Forgotten Language.

Erich Fromm named his book The Forgotten Language purposely because he believed that learning how to interpret dreams is like learning a foreign language.  He also believed that just like other foreign languages are available to learn at school so the language of dreams should also be taught on the school syllabus.  This is a revolutionary thought but so wise once we understand the importance dreams play in our lives.

soaring high

Dreams do not come to us during sleep from some place ‘up in the sky’, nor are they ‘messages’ from anyone else whether they be a representative of Good or of Evil.  It would be hideous to think we could be controlled in that way and have no free will of our own.  Dreams may show certain information to us – but they never ‘tell’ us what to do.  It is always left up to us how we treat the information we unravel – we can take it and use it.  Or we can discard it and put it away in a file for ‘later’.  The choice is always ours.

So a dream is actually a part of us.  It is a part of us that can only be accessed through dreams.   Dreams have an amazing capacity to take parts of our lives from the past  and weave them into present events seamlessly presenting a picture which cover long periods of time.  The events of long ago especially in our childhood years are normally things we have forgotten or, even things we didn’t know, but maybe heard from some other source.  So dreams capture these vastly different events and put them together to form one complete whole picture. Dreams can be in such imaginative detail  your creativity will surprise even you.   You can ‘be’ anything in the dream state which might not bear any resemblance to who you think you are in the ‘real’ world.

However, as you begin to get the ‘hang’ of understanding the dream language you will be ‘blown away’ by how the dream works to show yourself in ways you never thought possible.  These new insights invariably lead to new directions and new choices or inducing a need to change an idea or attitude that has now become outdated.

And the really great part of it is that this is all you.  This is your ‘inner wisdom’ that talks to you through your dreams.  Nobody else.  Only you.  Because this is such a precious thing some people like to look at it as getting in touch with a higher part of yourself.  It doesn’t matter really how you view this part of yourself so long as it is respectful.  For myself I like to think of that part of me as ‘The Little Professor’.  I like that.  However, it is up to you to name and identify that part of you – and it will probably come to you as you become more proficient at learning the language.

More next time,

Take Care.

Christmas!

What a fabulous time of year Christmas is. Just the time for revisiting the child within and rejoicing once again the wonders of new birth. Whatever way you wish to celebrate new life within you whether it’s a new project, a new attitude a new goal, I trust that it will begin this Christmas.

For some Christmas is a time of lonliness remembering yet again the loss of all our loved ones we shared this special time with all those years ago. Spare a thought for those who are in this position as one day it could be you or I.

For others the joy of Christmas is blurred by the manipulation of some to make sure that it’s celebrated in exactly the way they wish. Without giving any thought to others who may wish to do something different. For some it could be a stressful time of worrying about getting the turkey perfect and the trimmings dazzling which of course is a big deal. Especially like me, years ago, when I was newly married and the family all came to me for the big day and I made a complete mess of the turkey. Which of course proved that I wasn’t capable just like they all thought.

Yes it can be an emotional day in a negative way – maybe you are sick and tired of spending it in the same old way, but are locked into what tradition dictates and God help anyone who tries to change things! I’ve also experienced that – along with all the keeping of the peace. Being a member of the UN is nothing compared to what some of us go through at Christmas time to make that one day magical. But in the end I wanted to spend Christmas in my own home doing what suited my family and I. It wasn’t easy, but it was done with compassion and sensitivity so turned into a healing process for a lot of the family members.

Sometimes it just takes one to be brave enough to speak out. Others then often follow. Even the older generation after they’ve vented their feelings often feel a sense of relief that somebody has finally stepped-up to take the burden off their shoulders. So if you are in that situation remember to be gentle and kind, but also be firm.

For families it can be hard because we all are struggling financially and this makes Christmas extra difficult as we have expectations to meet for our kids and don’t want to let them down. Of course the older the child the higher the expectation. So as joyous as it is – it also brings challenges. Encourage your children to prioritise so it gives you a chance to at least meet some of their expectations even if its not the favourite. But you know better than anyone what your kids like. Right? Or, do you also find yourself being manipulated into buying what somebody else thinks is right for your kids.

As you can see, this manipulation runs through our lives, what are you – one who is manipulated? Or one who is the manipulator? Think about it to see honestly where you stand.

People are being manipulated all the time, it causes a lot of problems in relationships and can be a factor in any relationship. Maybe your boss at work. Maybe one of the in-laws. Maybe one of your parents. Even perhaps your partner.

Not all manipulation is negative. We all are manipulators to a degree. But when it becomes one-sided with one person always losing and one person always winning, then it can become a problem.

This is going to be the next blog. But not until next year. I am going away for Christmas and wont be back until the New Year. So please until then take care and I wish you all Health, Wealth and Happiness for the New Year.