Do YOU Know What Your Dreams Tell You?

Last night I dreamed I was driving one of those big honkin’ trucks that farmers, horse folks and lumberjacks drive – like a huge amped-up Ford 250. It was night black, and it had those dual rear wheels that stick out on the sides – a real don’t-mess-with-me kind of truck.

A big, nasty storm came up, and the wind shrieked around the truck and the rain slashed the air, but I was safe and sound inside. Enormous trees fell left and right like wind-blown matchsticks.

The road gradually became narrower and narrower. A couple of trees that had fallen to each side funneled me into a space so narrow the leaves and branches were noisily scraping the sides of my truck. Then a huge trunk appeared right in my path, and I had to do a full stop.

I looked back and saw that there was space to back up, but it was uphill and so slippery that I couldn’t get the truck to go – low gears or 4 big rear tires be damned.

Suddenly, I felt the whole truck vibrate and begin to inch forward, move forward, rush forward – as if it was impelled by some inward dynamic that made its surroundings completely irrelevant. And –*-blam!-*– I was out of stuck-mode and in the clear.

I was now standing outside my truck – which was now a new, sleek Toyota – looking in on my dog, Io (pronounced EE-oh), who was in my driver’s seat. Io was a mid-sized dog who looked like a small, delicate black and white Malamute, or one of those sheep dogs in the movie Babe, but with finer features. I had the honor of being her Human in the 90s.

Io was somehow lying on her back, with her lovely, soft, white tummy exposed, looking at me with her big doe-eyes in total bliss. I reached in and scritched (not scratch! Scritch!) under her throat, and she closed her eyes and did one of her signature doggie-snore-purrs.

As I did that, I simultaneously heard and saw a dog much like Io but with shorter fur and thicker neck, kind of as if he had a bit of pit bull in him.

He was looking at me intensely, growling and greeting all at once, like, “hey! Where’s MY pets and hugs?”

Then I was squatting beside him on the sidewalk rubbing his back and under his throat, and playing with him. He was a really happy dog, and loved to play, but got a little over-excited so I’d have to calm him down again. It was easy, and he was just a bundle of love.

I awoke feeling really happy and buzzing with a core-kind of affection for life itself. A sense of lingering wonder has permeated the rest of the day today.

WHY AM I WRTING ABOUT THIS and what does it mean for you?

Because I want to invite you to look at your own dreams and see what underlying messages they have for you. Maybe you don’t dream – that’s OK – I bet you day-dream! You can use them the same way!

Because there were certain really obvious elements in my dream that show me exactly where I’m at, what’s going on, and some underlying themes that have gigantic import. And I bet your dreams do the same for you. More about that in a moment.

You know, I’ll admit something to you readily – it isn’t always easy for me to do all the things I do. If my kids weren’t grown up and out on their own, I wouldn’t be able to do half of them. You’ll notice that the folks you see being so successful online either are single or have families who help with child care and office duties. I’m single and loving it after the years of diapers and teenage hormones and moodiness!

But sometimes I think I do way too much. At the same time though, when I ask myself what I could cut out of my life, my heart sinks when I think of letting go my EFT practice or my passion for creating EFT books, writing articles, creating sites and giving teleclasses. And to think about giving up my artwork? Ha! I don’t think so! It’d be like not being able to breathe!

So occasionally I get hung up in thinking about it all and I feel stuck. Part of the thinking is that I ‘have to do it all and do it all right now!’ or ‘I have to choose one or the other and focus.’ I get caught in those thoughts once in a while. That’s how I was feeling last night – stuck between 2 huge forces (the trees): EFT and my artwork.

Well, the mind is our biggest muscle! So when I feel stuck like that, it’s time to haul out the big EFT and bring that muscle back into training. But last night I didn’t. I did my Chi Lel Chi Gung and went to bed, figuring that the energy I had just drawn in would help it resolve. You’ll see what happneded in a second.

What did that dream mean to me? How do you pick apart a dream to milk it of its wisdom>

Well, there I am in my truck – my life-force-vehicle – huge, black (I think of black being the color of the Void of All Possibilities), powerful, strong, hefty, capable are words that come to mind for it – and I’m stuck! Between these trees! Huge trees, not little saplings – EFT and Art – and one more in front of me – my ego, limited thoughts and beliefs perhaps?

But all of a sudden, from the inside of the truck – my life-force – comes this compelling energy that doesn’t pay one whit of attention to the supposed blocks, and pushes me right through them into the clear! The blocks became substanceless, literally immaterial.

Isn’t that what happens when you stay true to who you are? You know you feel stuck, but you stay in your heart-space, tap a bit, stay calm, and ask yourself, “what would I prefer next?” And the next thing you know, you’re out of stuckness and into a clear space. Something lines up in the Cosmos that unsticks you and propels you into a new space – you and your Divine Self are aligned and congruent.

The next thing in the dream was the presence of my dogs. Well, in truth, I really had only one dog, Io. She was the sweetest Being anyone could ever conceive of, and came to me out of the blue one day and was my little angel for ten years. But that’s another story.

So now I’m looking into my truck seeing her lying there on her back. The truck is now a beautiful new Toyota 4×4 pickup – totally practical for a sculptor who has to schlep big paintings and rocks around – capable and strong but not a macho machine – and Io is lying there in a state of bliss.

If you were to look at her as a symbol of my feminine inner instincts (thank you, Samantha for that idea), she’d be the perfect fit. Io, indeed, did save me from myself many times when she was on this planet. To have her in my life-force vehicle doing her funny little half-snore, half purr was absolutely delightful.

But then the other dog! What a surprise that was! I never had the male counterpart to Io, so seeing him there wanting attention, too, was awesome – and to be able to play with him and scritch and be able to keep him from being over-powering or sharp-teeth-scary-strong was even better.

I awoke feeling like there were all kinds of possibilities for me that I never even knew about, and that if I could just keep that thought, and do my best to stay in that state, all would be well.

There was a lot more to the interpretation, but I know you’d rather think and find out about your own dreams and what they mean to you. We’ll do that very soon.

I admire the heck out of online personalities and coaches like Ali Brown, Kathleen Gage, Fabienne Fredrickson, Jim Edwards, Yanik Silver and others – seeing how far they have come from zero to star-status – and I appreciate their example and their excellent products. It’d be really easy to get caught up in trying to be just like them and try to do what they do.

But I question the follow-them mentality. Would it be right, comfortable, appropriate or even fun for me to do what ‘they’ do? Don’t you feel a little strange about taking every step someone else has?I do, but maybe I’m more of a rebel. That’s not to say courses and program have no value! I just really ask myself if what I’m following is really for me. Parts of it can be, parts not. You have to stay alert and awake.

I kinda like being just my regular old, lazy, renegade, irreverent, weird, creative, frank, no BS, what-you-see-is-what-you-get floppy-aloha-shirt and paint-stained old black shorts-wearing, media-creating, painter-sculptor-unusual newsletter writer EFT maniac self. I’m totally OK with that. How OK are you with Being You?

That dream made me see once again that how I am is how I am. Period. And no matter what I THINK, that eternal Beingness is not only OK, but it will always prevail. What a relief.

How inspiring and enchanting that is! To know that there is that Something inside of you that you don’t need to boss around, guide, compel or manipulate! And that automatically (when you allow it!) sets you on the right track again and again and again if you’ll just LISTEN to it and pay attention to its message and take the appropriate actions.

I want you to be that OK with who you are, too. I know darn well how easy it is to do a gradual slide into feeling stuck (angry, ashamed, sad, etc.) and feeling like it will last Forever – and hating yourself for how you feel – been there.As if it isn’t enough that you feel down, to hate yourself for feeling down – and then hating how you hate yourself – man, what a mess.

So, since I used love to do Dream Readings for people for years when I lived in Sant Fe, NM, I decided I’d create a new Series of Dream Teleclasses that last night’s dream inspired. We’ll explore what YOUR dreams are telling YOU – and we’ll get you through the blocks and limitations you’re dealing with in order to get you feeling high and strong and grounded and peaceful and excited and calm and inspired – all at once.

Stay tuned, and be prepared to be amazed and inspired and surprised by what your Inner Self is trying to say to you!

aloha -
Angela

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© Angela Treat Lyon 2009 • I invite you to feel free to use this article as long as you use it in its entirety, including my © and contact information. Lyon at IDareYouRADIO.com • Thank you!

Consultants Help Their Clients Discover Meanings of Dreams

By Bill Spurr / Features Writer

MOST TRADE shows at the Halifax Forum are dominated by the smells of french fries and coffee.

But on Saturday at the Nova Scotia Holistic Health Show, it was the aromas of herbs and incense that were pungently present.

And among the booths on feng shui, hydrotherapy, crystal therapy and massage therapy, reiki, therapeutic touch and healing hemp were two dealing with dreams and nightmares and what they mean.

Mal Cohen, intuitive dream guide, believes everybody is “a potential Einstein or Picasso” once they discover what their dreams are trying to tell them.

Cohen has been interested for decades in discerning dreams and 10 years ago realized he had some psychic ability in that area.

“But it was only a few years ago that I came to realize my native innate ability is more intuitive than analytical. So that’s when I realized it was more effective for me to take on the role of intuitive dream guide, rather than an actual interpreter,” he said at his booth at the health show.

“There was a gradual realization on my part that I didn’t really believe in dream interpretation. I didn’t believe that I had the right or the skill to tell somebody else what their dream, which is a very private and personal expression of themselves, means to them. My skill was using my intuitive ability to actually dream the dream with the person, experience it with them, feel it with them and through that experience, help them understand what the dream means to them.”

Many of the people who stopped by Cohen’s booth wanted to discuss dreams in which they were flying or levitating.

“In all those cases, the individual had something in their life that was creating a spiritual search,” he said.

The first step to understanding dreams, Cohen said, is learning how to remember them after you wake up. Once you understand a dream, it won’t return.

“When adults have nightmares, they’re wake-up calls,” he said. “Scary as hell; however, once the individual gets a handle on the dream and learns from it and gets the message, there’s no more reason for it and it never comes back. Sometimes you need to suffer a little in order to grow.”

Cohen usually works with people in his home. A session lasts about an hour. “Any less than that and it’s very difficult to fully understand and help the person understand the dream and develop a relationship with the individual,” Cohen said of the sessions, which cost $50 and sometimes require a follow-up visit.

Ruth Main, dream consultant, does believe in dream interpretation. The former United Church minister took a two-year Dream Work course at the Haden Institute in North Carolina, after she started having “immense” dreams while on a medical leave.

“Dreams are pushing us toward psychological and spiritual growth, so I would say the common factor would be a need for this growth,” she said of the people she works with and the dreams they talk to her about.

“They may have similar themes and be similar types of dreams, but I’ve never heard the same dream twice.”

Main, who has worked with hundreds of people, believes there is no such thing as a dream with only one meaning and that dreams are messages from the unconscious.

“Dream work helps us grow to become the people we were born to be. It leads us toward that,” she said, adding that many people are afraid of what their dreams, once interpreted, will say about them.

“Dream work is not for the faint of heart. It requires real commitment and, many times, real courage to face the issues that our dreams are bringing up for us.

“If a person has a dream and doesn’t get it, and it’s really an important one, it probably will occur again, often in the very same images as the first one. Generally, that kind of dream will go on until the person has some kind of insight into it.”

Main, who also charges $50 an hour, organizes dream groups, in which groups of four people discuss their dreams for a couple of hours at a time.

“Your dreams are uncensored and they are always honest,” she said. “They tell us the things that we don’t know about ourselves that we need to know.”

1. Before going to sleep at night, tell your subconscious what you want to work on. If you are aware of having a master, guardian angel or Higher Power, ask its help to find an answer. Be persistent. Only on rare occasions does someone with no prior training get something the very first time.
2. Develop the habit of recording something every day when you wake up. All new habits take a minimum of 21 days to develop so commit yourself to recording somethings for 21 days. Even if you do not recall the dream, write something down immediately upon waking.Remember, feelings are as important in dream interpretation as are images and words. In fact, they may save you a lot of work. The ideal is to wake knowing what the dream meant.
   But if you get none of these, then write something even as simple as “I do not recall any dreams today.” What you write is not as important as the act of writing because you are trying to train your subconscious into giving you something to record.
3. Keep pen or pencil and notebook or recorder conveniently placed near your bed. Especially when you are just starting to develop the skill of remembering your dreams, you need to record them immediately upon waking. Dreams flee from memory rapidly, often within seconds of coming awake.
4. Train yourself to wake before your alarm goes off . The shock of the alarm clock or the music and talk of the radio can cause you to forget what was happening in your dreams when you woke. By giving yourself the the command to wake up at a certain time, you can actually get your subconscious to wake you several minutes before your alarm turns on.
5. Try to remember your dreams after a nap set an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes after you lay down for the nap. While this sounds contradictory to the above point about alarms, everyone is different. If several of these techniques do not work for you, this one may.
6. Command your memory to recall your dreams upon waking. This again is a matter of training. You must work at it before you will master it. Think of your dream memory as muscle which must be exercised to get strong. It rarely happens overnight but only after repeated drills.
7. Instruct yourself not to remember any dreams. If the above techniques do not seem to work for you, use ‘reverse psychology’. Sometimes your subconscious is perverse and refuses to do as it is told, so tell it not to do what you really want done.
8. Read something spiritually uplifting before going to sleep. This may help raise your consciousness above the concerns of daily life which are crowding out the very dream messages to help you handle these concerns.
9. Before going to sleep, sing or chant a sacred word to raise your awareness. Some sounds or words to choose from include “Amen,” “Om,” “Mana,” or “Hu.” The same principle applies as in number 8 above.
10. If you recall a feeling but no memory of any dream, try to imagine a situation that could create this kind of feeling. In this case, you are trying to draw back to memory more of the dream. Such a ‘mock up’ imagery may prime the (mental) pump.. Something you imagine may thereby bring back a snatch of the dream.
11. Try to imagine a favorite or common expression for various emotions and experiences. By imagining how you would picture these expressions, you may trigger recall of a past dream. Try picturing the following emotions and experiences: anger, change, fear, love, training or preparation, and work. To spark your creativity, the following are some examples of expressions which can be visually depicted for the above emotions and experiences.

• Anger – Add fuel to the fire; blew up; bullied his way through; dark cloud of anger; madder than a hornet; “see red”; snorting fire.
• Change – Death (major change), earthquake; move or trip, as to a new home or another stare; tornado or “wind of change.”
• Fear – Being all tied up; grizzly hear; suffocating; “Wolf is at the door.”
• Love – Candlelight and roses; green with envy; puppy love; rose colored glasses.
• Training or Preparation – Camp; college; school.
• Work – Military career; field of real estate; construction industry; “A man’s work is his mistress.”