It’s a concept that seems simple and complex at the same time!   For me, in day to day life,  it translates into the reality that if I am feeling stuck I try not to rush to push or drag myself out of the stuck state.  If I do, something is missed and I’ve lost an opportunity to become more flexible or creative somehow.  I’m not suggesting that I would do nothing though!  The something I would be inclined to do is spend a bit more time with my dreams, hoping maybe to glean a little insight into the nature of the tension and provide ego and unconscious with the opportunity to engage in a dialogue of sorts.   As a result I might get an “aha” that gives me a more spacious viewpoint and in turn a more spacious feeling or I might just wake up one morning feeling that something has shifted and my outer life seems less complicated.  Things that seemed like a struggle just aren’t any more.  Maybe next time you find yourself in a situation like the type I’ve described you can try holding the tension long enough for something new to emerge – with the help of your dreams of course!

The dream I had was of leaving a kind of camouflage-covered shelter in which was the body of a dead girl.  I was leaving with several other people and we were off to a bigger, brighter place.  As I woke, I heard the words “leave your small life behind and get out into the world, make your life bigger, you’ve been hiding your light”.  Can’t get much clearer than that eh!   It made sense in quite a few different ways for me as there are transitions taking place in my outer world and some desires and plans being made for the future.  My first reaction to the dream was driven by a fair chunk of ego-inflation …  hey, destined for greatness in those bigger things!!!  That connected with some of the desires for sure!

As I pondered the dream however, I started to think about the dead girl I’d left behind.  I haven’t come to a firm sense of it yet, but I felt I could interpret it in two ways (a) that I had killed off part of myself in order to be able to leave (an old set of ideas, values or attitudes that have been restricting me)  which could be a good thing, or,  (b) that I could be killing off a part of me prematurely that hasn’t been fully developed and that my “matter of fact” arrogance as I left the camouflaged shelter was a warning that in my haste to move forward I might sacrifice something important.  Of course it could be both (a) and (b), drawing my attention to an inner conflict about leaving the safety of the small and camouflaged for the large and visible  and the fact that like any human being I can fall prey to a bit of an inflated view of my own importance . . . all of which I will continue to ponder until a grounded “aha” rises up to inform me!

So even though the dream looked straightforward for a definitive interpretation on first inspection, I know it is wise to sit with the dream for a while and look at it from lots of angles.   I can stay with a bit of mystery and not have to come up with a nice neat answer and the dream has still given great benefit.  I won’t be rushing into any major decisions about my future, instead I will consider the (a) and the (b) of the situation first!

I follow Jennifer Louden’s blog and subscribed to recieve seven questions for pondering over the festive break.  The last one was today (all seven can be found on the Week of Inward Looking facebook page).  Of course, it made me think . . . and what I thought about was the fact that I haven’t been brave enough about my art!  Not the art I spoke about in a previous post, you know, my painting and drawing – but the art of dreamwork.  Specifically I thought about running some more classes and introductory workshops for the coming year and paying more attention to my blogging.  I’ve been a bit of a cowardy custard really and my dream from last night confirmed it. 

I dreamed about my Jack Russell, Wilma, who often turns up in my dreams as representative of my creative energy.  In my dream I let her out of the front door and closed it behind her.  Almost immediately I felt worried, this was only the second or third time she had been allowed out on her own . . . she’d been okay before, but now I was terrified for her safety.  I looked out of the front door and called her and called her, she didn’t return.  Outside my front door was a busy road and hoardes of people, buses, lorries and cars thundering past and Wilma isn’t street smart.  I called and called and looked around frantically, finally I went back to the house, still calling her.  To my relief she came running down the stairs from the bedrooms which were reached by a staircase outside the house.  I realised that she had done her favourite thing, taken the opportunity to go up and lie on my bed for a snooze!!

I woke from this dream, really glad that Wilma was OK and that waking life Wilma was asleep in her basket downstairs.  When I worked the dream I began to suspect that it is a comment on how my creativity has been snoozing away, while I have been frantically running around looking outside for it (instead of looking inwads) and I haven’t been taking it out into the world in a responsible way.  I think there is more in this dream for me (the meaning of dreams is never one-dimensional) but so far it’s a great reminder that practising the art of dreamwork needs some attention and courage to take it out in the world!

So this week I will be planning some introductory workshops and dream group dates . . .  watch this space!

Wishing everyone a brave art dream to inspire you for 2012!

Here are some steps to incubating for 2012:

1. Drag out your journal before bed and spend a little time reflecting on 2011 – what don’t you want in 2012, what do you want instead? – you could take a look at The Passion Test website where there is a free sample test that can get you thinking – do a bit of creative visualisation and imagine yourself at the beginning of 2013 looking back at 2012 contemplating what a great year it was for your growth and development and jot down some ideas
2. Now write a few paragraphs about your hopes for 2012 and then a few paragraphs about some small steps you can take to move in the direction of your hopes and desires if you choose to
3. Write a few paragraphs about the attitude you think will help you to move in the direction of your hopes and desires
4. From steps 3 and 4 you may notice some “yeah, buts” that arise!  Make a note of these in your journal as potential blocks to your hopes and desires that you may be creating
5. Now formulate a simple question that you think would encourage a helpful answer for getting past some of the blocks and self-sabotage that start to rise as you think about your hopes and desires  e.g. if you want to make your hobby your main income stream but can’t think of a way forward that will allow you to let go of the day job that sucks up all your energy, maybe a question like “how can I make the leap to working for myself” would be a good question to turn over to your dreaming mind
6. If you have a complex question see if you can break it down into a series of smaller, simpler questions and use one a night over several nights to incubate dreams
7. Before settling down to sleep, write your simple question 3 times on a piece of paper or in your journal, make sure your journal and a pen are on your night stand ready to record your dreams in the morning
8. As you fall asleep repeat the question to yourself, when your mind drifts away onto other things gently bring it back to the question until you fall asleep
9. In the morning write down any dreams or dream fragments and as soon as you can spend a little time exploring them and let the images work on you and in you to inspire some new ideas for moving forward . . . don’t expect a neat prescriptive answer, be prepared to stay open and curious.   Typically an “aha” moment arrives sometime later when you least expect it and it might not seem to make sense to you.  But keep an eye open for it and let yourself accept what you get as at least another breadcrumb that will lead you forward in ways you can’t yet understand (the understanding bit that our conscious ego likes usually comes with hindsight!)

Happy New Year and wonderful dreams!

Gaunts Summer Gathering starts on Thursday 11th August and continues over the whole weekend to the evening of Sunday 14th August you can take a look at the blog http://www.gauntshousesummergathering.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Do join us there!

Psychosynthesis, a therapy that seeks to help us develop an integrated and authentic sense of who we are that is balanced and harmonious, takes this idea further.  These Little ‘I’s take on a real life of their own and are described as subpersonalities – “Mini-me’s” that are self-contained and distinct apsects of our personality.   Piero Ferrucci in his book What We May Be: Techniques for Psychological and Spiritual Growth Through Psychosynthesis describes the concept of subpersonalities in this way: “Each of us is a crowd.  There can be the rebel and the intellectual, the seducer and the housewife, the saboteur and the aesthete, the organiser and the bon vivant – each with its own mythology , and all more or less comfortably crowded into one single person.  Often they are far from being at peace with one another.”  He then quotes Roberto Assagioli “We are not unified; we often feel that we are, because we do not have many bodies and many limbs, and because one hand doesn’t usually hit the other.  But, metaphorically, that is exactly what does happen within us.  Several subpersonalities are continually scuffling: impulses, desires, principles, aspirations are engaged in an unceasing struggle”. 

We most easily recognise this when we are in obvious conflict, we say things like “well, I am in two minds about this” and feel huge ambivalence and inability to make a decision or take action.  But we can also be influenced in more subtle ways that show up as unconscious self-sabotage, “uncharacteristic” outbursts or breakouts of  various types after which we find ourselves saying “I don’t know what came over me”, depression, anxiety, loss of libido, sleep disturbances, gut problems, relationship issues, etc.

What Psychosynthesis proposes is that we find ways to recognise our own unique subpersonalities and work with them using imaginative techniques that draw out the needs expressed by them and offering them positive outlets.  Ferrucci says that we have to accept them (effectively recognising the psychological energy they represent) learning to “be able to free ourselves from the control of the forces which usually dominate us”  and “increase our integration by allowing our subpersonalities to become synergistic rather than antagonistic with each other”.  Furthermore he says that we can recognise the highest potential that each subpersonality has to offer and we thus “move ever closer to discovering our underlying core – our true self”.

So, you may be wondering, where do dreams fit into all this?  Well, every dream we remember is a nightly gift that contains a story about our continual “inner scuffles” and  the undiscovered subpersonalities that are involved.  A sub-personality in a dream may be represented by a person, an animal, an object, plant, place … in short any aspect of our dreams may reflect a subpersonality and its concerns.

Examples from my own dreams illustrate this.  At one point I started to have dreams about animals that appeared sweet and loving and then suddenly became all teeth and claws – a baby-eyed chihuauhua that bared its teeth and became extremely menacing.  A sleeping crocodile that awoke, chased me and threatened to bite me in two.  Eventually I started to get the message and finally came a dream in which I was browsing in a shop and found a little Zulu warrior figurine that I desperately wanted but would not buy for myself.  From working that dream I discovered that I wouldn’t let myself “own” the part of myself that was proud, fierce, territorial and protective – my own aggression.  Some imaginative subpersonality exploration allowed me to fully accept that although for a long time I had been directed by the subpersonality who believed “nice girls musn’t get angry or pushy” there was another part of me represented by the Zulu warrior that held an opposite view for self-preservation.  Now they work together rather than pull in opposite directions, because consciously I can hear the concerns of each in any given situation and I can use the energy of the Zulu in a way that is tempered by the part of me that wants to make certain I don’t alienate friends and loved ones (or stab them with a spear!).

It must be said that we are equally likely to ignore subpersonalities that represent positive qualities and more of the unowned potential in us – because of course it is (we are taught) impolite to sing our own praises, blow our own trumpet, enjoy our own talents, or in any way appear to have an inflated sense of self worth or importance! 

One of a series of my own dreams pointed out to me that I was ignoring some of my own creative potential.  My dreams started to remind me in obvious and not so obvious ways of the fact that at the age of 26 I was offered a place at art college but couldn’t get a grant and so my life went in another direction.  The thing is that I was so upset at not being able to attend college I shut the door on that part of myself completely and didn’t paint or draw again.  It wasn’t a conscious reaction, it just happened, probably a defence against the enormous disappointment I felt.   Again, I’d started to get the message from my dreams that this had happened and I’d been able to acknowledge my sadness about this part of my unlived life.  Consciously I thought that was all I needed to do, recognise and accept those long buried feelings.  My unconscious mind knew better and I had a dream in which I went to see the Doctor for some unknown illness.  The waiting room was full of sick people (lots of “Mini-me’s” !) all ignoring me as people do in a waiting room.  I was called in to see the Doctor, I can’t remember what I said to her or what she said to me but it was clear we were discussing my health.   Our conversation came to an end and she showed me into the waiting room.  As we entered the waiting room she said “here is your prescription” and handed me a box of paints and some paintbrushes.  Suddenly all the sick people in the waiting room were looking straight at me and appeared to be very interested!

I am  currently doing some creative dialogue work between  the “artist”  and the “it’s too late” subpersonality.  But I think the Doctor was spot on – I need to get painting again!  See if you can start to recognise some of the cast of thousands that appear in your dreams and what unknown part of you they may represent that needs some exploration.

Wishing you sweet dreams and inspiring introductions!

We think we know ourselves!  What we tend to know is the person who is socially adapted and acceptable.  We do our best to fit in.  When we are kids we need to, it is an inbuilt survival strategy.  As adults there is more freedom, but by adulthood we have lost touch with our essence, our essential nature.  The person we think we are can be a far cry from our essence.

Dreams put us back into connection, if we choose to give them attention – even a little bit of attention helps.  The meaning of dreams is multi-layered, multi-faceted and deeply rooted in our essence.  Maybe I should mention that dreams are also guiding threads to our deep potential.  The difficulty is how do we recognise those threads, that potential, that essence when we are working our dreams?

In dream circles it is known as the “dreamers aha” – but what is that exactly? how do we recognise it when we have learned to ignore such promptings from the part of ourselves that doesn’t always like our conscious choices?  Well, it is usually a combination of sensation and emotion.  Coach Martha Beck describes exercises for recognising what she calls a “shackles on” or “shackles off” feeling in her book Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live.  Each of us has a version of these two sensation/emotion prompts and when we learn to notice them these prompts are a reliable source of information about what aligns us with our essence and potential.

When it comes to dreams these prompts can alert us to the personal truth about the interpretation and meaning of one of our dreams or a dream image.  Because we are socialised animals there is a strong programme in place that leans us towards agreement with another person’s viewpoint.  So much so that we will abandon our own at times.  When someone else is talking about your dream the only thing that they say that has any relevance is something that gets an “aha” reaction – whether it is what Martha calls “shackles on OR off”.  Both types of reaction are helpful, sometimes the negative is more enlightening than the positive (more about that in an upcoming post).

A simple way to get a sense of these sensation/emotion prompts is to do the following little exercise and write down your observations or speak them into the recorded memo feature on your phone:

1.  Find a quiet place, sit down, rest back and prepare to engage your memory.

2. Think of  something recently when someone asked you to do something you don’t want to do, like come to a party with them, clean out a cupboard, do the washing up, lend them your favourite album …. etc., etc.  Tune in, how do you know you don’t want to do it – what happens in your body?  Pay attention to the smallest sensations.  Try and decide if there is a describable emotion present. Write down or record your description.  Watch for other examples in the next few days, check if you get similar results – there is usually at least one identifiable sensation that is present each time.  That’s what Martha calls “shackles on”.

3. Think of something recently when someone asked you to do something you do want to do, repeat the above process.  That’s what Martha calls “shackles off”.

4. After you have finished your research write out a description of your two responses, just in case you are apt to forget.

During the next few weeks observe yourself and notice how often you deny, delete, discount or devalue those subtle cues and begin to think about how you can use them, especially when interpreting your dreams.

This may occur for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is simply that we are unwell or out of sorts generally or that we waken abruptly to a knock at the door or an alarm clock and our attention is diverted.  If none of these elements are in evidence then usually we can be sure there is something cooking in our unconscious that we aren’t yet ready to engage with.  On these occasions patience is required, a short entry in our Dream Journal recording the way we felt when we awoke or just a statement that there were no dreams recalled is enough to stay open and invite dreams later.  Keeping a regular journal of our daytime thoughts and feelings helps the “cooking” process and encourages dreams to rise and be remembered.  Working a dream recorded prior to the “dry” phase can be fruitful and unblock us too.

The opposite anxiety also arises – there can be periods when we recall epic dreams every morning and don’t have the time or energy to record them all or work them all.  However, if we can at least manage to write a title and a few of the symbols appearing in the dream each day then we are paying due respect to our dreaming mind and its process.  Working with one or two dreams a week, especially those that seem most vivid or emotionally charged, is enough to keep us deeply connected with our inner world and notice the interaction with our waking life in positive ways.

The message is relax and trust the process, it is all good!

Sweet dreams, Jane