Connecting Our Internal and External Worlds
This is the third steppingstone of the Fourth pathway in our journey towards awareness as we continue to unravel the depths of our dreams and discover their impactful nature.
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13 MINUTE READ
Certain dreams are meant to be taken at face value in that we know what they are about and why they have manifested. It is what it is. These dreams can end up being repetitive (with perhaps a little change to the scenery here and there) until we can discover how to move past them in our waking lives.
We all have likely also had our own experiences with some of the more common dreams of, for example, falling, missing a test, or being chased. As a collective, such dreams speak of fear, anxiety, stress, overwhelm, and/or an overall lack of control.
Isn’t it interesting how everybody, all over the world, could have the same dreamscapes?
These dreams are so well-known because, no matter the person, the manifestation of such tensions and emotions are, unfortunately, inescapable in this life.
All our dreams (whether we remember them or not or whether we work to remember them or not) are there for a reason and no matter how short, small, simple, vague, or fuzzy, there is always something to be found within our ‘shadowed realms’. Something to acknowledge and to learn.
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There is so much potential within things that may at first seem artless because with our own hands they can be brought to life in the ways that they were meant to be. So, through our dream interpretations, we can create masterpieces out of ourselves and our own lives.
What if someone other than Jane Austen had tried to write Pride and Prejudice? What if someone other than DaVinci had tried to create the Mona Lisa? Those works never would have existed in the way that they do. They would not be what they are and that would have been a great loss.
The same concept exists with regard to how we see and utilize our own dreamworlds because nobody else can create for us from them what we are capable of bringing to life for ourselves through them.
If we do not see the value in paying attention to the many smaller improvements that can be made to ourselves and our lives, then we cannot hope to find the worth in creating opportunities for our subconsciousness to ‘build up its muscles’ to better be able to introduce us to those dreams that can then take us much, much further.
Like an oasis in a desert, there are dreams gifted to our subconscious awareness by the universe or the fates. They carry with them pure “magic” because, if we allow them, they have the ability to help us to change our course.
Building a relationship with our dreams, overtime, can grant us the experience needed to discern these “big” dreams from the others that we have first strategically allowed ourselves to become more comfortable with.
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Think of yourself as the protagonist in a movie as you work to distinguish the importance of any dream’s hidden messages. In the beginning of the movie, there might be a treasure map, a riddle, a worn piece of tapestry, etc., something that instigates the adventure that lies ahead.
Remember that every adventure (the same as a dream waiting for interpretation) has many moving parts. Some are good, some are bad, some are frustrating, some are hopeful, some are hazy, and some are clear.
Dreamwork is a journey that requires commitment. Dreams are a world of metaphors and spiritual archetypes living within a thicket of patterns, shades, symbols, colors, forms, places, things, and, at times, speech. All of them are woven intricately together into a story.
On their own they are too often left dormant within, providing no ‘keys to the kingdom’, forever withering unattended, unimagined, and unevolved.
The “bigger” ones, in terms of what they have to teach, will sometimes fight harder to stay and are never what they seem to be in that there is a lot of mining to be done to recognize their true meanings which will undoubtedly elude us at first and surprise us later on. So, pay attention!
The person dreaming bestows their dream with its power by wondering, examining, interpreting, learning, questioning, and facing the context of their dreams with an open mind, persistence, humility, a sense of humor, and resilience.
All the power lies in what the dream means to the dreamer. It must be only our voice that we are extracting from the dream, no matter what outside guidance is offered. Think of a dream as one’s very own seedling. Nurturing will determine its ability to sprout successfully and to flourish. The ability to nurture appropriately depends on the ability to see deeply into the fabric of a dream.
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HSP’s (Highly Sensitive Persons), like myself, can do very well with dream interpretation because we can more clearly see connections that others might be more apt to miss. Although analyzing dreams may be more difficult for some as opposed to others, it is a skill, nonetheless. Any skill can be adopted, and dream analysis is no different if we can harbor diligence, desire, a commitment to practice, open perceptions, and a respectful understanding of our own imperfections.
Our subconscious communicates to us through our dreams because it is a part of us, and it wants us to be able to find our best way forward and put our best foot forward with regard to anything and everything in our lives.
A person might ask why our dreams do not just point us to X marks the spot.
Why all the mystery? Why the trail of breadcrumbs? Why the maze? Why the blurry vision?
My clear-cut answer is nothing worth having comes easy in life. Why should this be any different? In life, when we put in the work, don’t we find that the message then sticks in ways it otherwise might not have.
My longer answer is, interestingly, our psyches are very clever as to what is best for us when we are perhaps not, extrinsically. So, if we cannot recognize an understanding within the directness of our conscious state then maybe we will have better luck indeed doing so within the indirectness of our subconsciousness. What a fascinating concept that we might finally see something or be interested in something only because it is shown to us in a way that catches our eye and gives us reason to ‘stop and smell the roses’ as we otherwise rarely do in the day to day.
In addition, the symbolic and textural nature of dreams is necessary to allow for expansive perspectives and possibilities. If we are not introduced to all the parts, then we cannot complete the entire puzzle. A single dream can be very special by providing us access to multiple doors and windows.
Finally unlocking a treasure chest, after having to go through all the trials and tribulations involved, do we want to find a single jewel at the bottom, or are we hoping that Circumstances allow for our efforts to provide us with many?
Dreams can change our decided narrative by opening us up to fresh eyes and new ideas.
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PERSPECTIVE:
Notice how when we walk into a room, the angles and framework of what we see appear in a certain way. Then, observe how when we turn around to walk out our entire vantage point changes. Everything inside the room works together to make it complete, but where we stand and look changes everything we know from moment to moment. The next day we could even walk back into that same room and see something that we happened not to focus on the day before.
Many things may not appear to connect on the surface but the depth of them and deeper meanings behind their origins makes them inseparable and necessary parts of the whole. Think of the underground root systems of a grove of aspen trees in that you cannot tell by looking at the trees themselves that every single one is actually connected to and supported by every other one, beneath the soil.
It is all a matter of the placement of one’s lens. In other words, if we are unwilling to bend and we are adamant with respect to what we know, then our dreams cannot hope to bring much more to the table. Without constantly and bravely adapting, our rigid ways will only cause us to break. This is actually a good metaphor for surviving life’s challenges, in general.
We must be willing to discover the need to let go of things that we have become so use to holding on to. We may even have to find acceptance with respect to moving away from some of our believed certainties. The idea is to find the joy in learning and the hindrances in knowing. Inviting change can take a person far. Dreams provide us with choices that can then provide us with opportunities.
Keep in mind that what was, has absolutely nothing to do with what can be.
When we block, ignore, or dismiss our dreams, we are only making things ‘less’ for ourselves. Ironic as it may be our dreams can be a means for us to become unstuck and clear away our confusions.
The amazing part about it is that our dreams have the ability to grow and evolve as we do. This makes our dreams always relevant no matter where we are in the seasons of our lives.
If our dreams are not transforming, perhaps we are not either.
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DISCOVERY:
Lead with patience by looking around the edges for a while instead of running headfirst into that ‘castle in the sky’. Collect all the pieces and examine them individually first and then try to create something more. Approach things from different ways, from seemingly preposterous ways. Don’t listen to every man’s voice telling you how something is supposed to unfold. How do you want it to unfold?
Hear the silence speak throughout a dream. Closing our eyes and embracing the emotions that come with a happening is important. Feeling a moment can help us to better contemplate our intuitive knowledge and allow us to bring the right words into the mix.
People do not realize how rich our inner worlds truly are. They are rich because they claim the sunken treasures of all those things that we ignore or neglect during consciousness.
Our dreams can teach us to connect to our forgotten depths for a better balance of oneself.
Expanding consciousness and deepening awareness allows us to knock down the walls that compartmentalize all the different parts of ourselves. This, however, can leave us vulnerable remembering that many times our dreams are the stronghold for our secrets. Those secrets we strive to keep even from ourselves.
Our dreams want us to unearth our secrets because they want us to become strong and courageous. Dreamwork should not be used to prove anything, but rather to discover the potential existing within.
A purposely distorted sense of self-knowledge inhibits our dream’s abilities to help us thrive. There is mercy waiting on the other side of the tough lessons held within our psyches.
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FORGING A PATH:
Focusing on the truth of our dreams allows our realities to take flight. Assumption should never be confused with truth.
Centering our vision on just one thing can break the ice. Thinking about what makes that one thing important with regard to what we might be neglecting while we are awake becomes pertinent to any kind of forward movement.
If we want to stand in a place of autonomy while interpreting our dreams, then we need to listen to ourselves. We have gained ground in being able to do this successfully by having spent time with the initial three pathways, starting with the Mindfulness Pathway. We have become more adept at paying attention to our little whispers, our feelings, our intrinsic questions, and most importantly the dialogue we invite ourselves to have openly with our dreams, having now nurtured our intuitive voice along the way.
What I love about the dream world is that it is a world without limitations, anything goes. Just imagine what can come out of such a place.
We all have an ancient wisdom inside of us and our personal power is informed by that wisdom.
Reflect on your reactions and feelings while examining all the different parts of a dream. Look for what is within the dark and what is behind the light. Be honest with yourself even when it is uncomfortable, especially when it is uncomfortable.
Dreams are a portal to change and newness, which is what a life well lived is all about.
Dismissing the monsters that may exist within a dream is a mistake because we have then trampled into nothingness what had the ability to make that dream worthwhile in the long run. Deceiving ourselves only keeps us on a hamster wheel and deception only manifests anxiety and unsteadiness.
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Dreamwork –
Dreams guide us in being able to OFFER direct communication on a more meditative plane.
Our minds must be open to multiple perspectives being possible in any given conversation, experience, situation, idea, or creative expression.
We have the intelligence to be able to connect the dots between seemingly separate ideas, people, and things. Allowing us to then embrace the consequences found.
My dreams could not have told the truth of the stories I needed to hear without coupling things like a snake and diamonds, a fish and a phone, the color blue and a dog, a purse and a stairwell, or even a dog’s bloody wound and a frustrating man.
Over time you may discover very telling patterns in your dreams.
For example, my big dreams, always, without fail, have a dog within the story. So, I know that is my subconscious really wanting to tell me something. Another example is previously having had a tendency towards more men in my dreams than women. Remember that dreams bring to life those parts of ourselves we may ignore when awake. So, I tried to be mindful of expressing more of my “yang energy” on the regular for a better overall balance in life.
The more we put in the work on them, the more our dreams fight to assist us and keep us interested.
For example, if we have a confusing dream we simply cannot seem to tie down, but we work hard at it either on our own, with a mature and trusted confident, or better yet even try to hash it out with somebody who might be appropriately knowledgeable with respect to dream study, then our psyches might offer us an olive branch by providing a follow up dream that can remove some of the indecisiveness surrounding the previous dream and finally drive the message home.
For example, in one of my recent big dreams there was a dog and cat. After a few days of contemplation, I finally came upon an epiphany about an important aspect of the dream and that must have opened the flood gates because the very night of that epiphany I had a “follow up” dream involving a boat, a shark, and keys. After that, everything just started coming together in terms of my understanding and what I needed to be doing.
This concept is similar to reading tarot. When presented with a spread that makes resonance difficult, in an attempt to gain more clarity, we may often pursue a second reading.
Poetry is often dream-like, indirectly bringing things to the surface for our acceptance and subsequent growth under an obscure canopy. Robert Frost’s simple yet complex poem, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, is so much more than what it seems to be on the surface. It is a very beautiful account of nature but there is a great deal of symbolism and depth waiting to be found in every verse. Depending on the reader the possibilities are endless with respect to the woods and the house, the winter and the silence, the bells and the horse, the dark and the promises, and the “miles to go before I sleep”. Transcend the possibilities. What do you see when you stop by the woods? This poem inspires perspectives we might otherwise never have dreamed to be possible.
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The final steppingstone, following the trail of breadcrumbs, in the fourth pathway, Embracing the unexpected through a differnt lens will become available on my blog, Dawning Descent, in due course.
If you were moved by anything that I had to contribute here please contact me regarding your experience. I am excited to travel this path and learn along with you. I look forward to our communications.
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