Alysse Aallyn

Category: #Healing

  • #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

    Memory – the Past – Do you dream frequently of past events? Are they different – worse or better – than what you remember actually happening? Do you feel nostalgia for a past that never was? Do you have a favorite period in history or fantasy universe that you wish you lived in, instead of this one?

      You are the Hero of Your Saga – Open your Dream Journal and start writing. Accept your centrality in your own myth. It doesn’t matter what other people think – they are the bit players. Think of your past as a Quest Saga. What did you want? How did it change? What blocked you? What tools have you got at your command? Where do you go from here?

      Challenge – You absolutely CAN rewrite the past, but first you first must face its full horror. Generally, because we were children, we didn’t know what was going on, were co-opted by our persecutors and prevented from fighting back. Things are different now! The hardest thing to accept is that beloved caregivers didn’t want the best for us – they wanted us to be just like them.

      Danger – “I don’t believe in ghosts but I never met a person who wasn’t haunted” is a very wise saying. What haunts you? Or who? Ghosts are malignant – if they weren’t they would be power spirits, fairy godmothers or guardian angels. What malignancies from your past are out to get you and how do they make themselves known? One of Freud’s contributions was to point out that people prefer their neurosis – ie imprisonment – to liberation. Why? What’s in it for you?

      Opportunity – You became YOU. Yes, you have scars – these are bragging rights! You have been through the wars! ‘Rewriting” the past means understanding what really happened, the limitations of those who surrounded you, and exploring your chances and choices today. Just because parents, teachers or “society” sentenced you to play a role, you can step out of it at any time. Buddhist thought is very helpful here. Buddha teaches that life itself is an illusion – a dream. It changes depending on how we think about it. In the present, inside your mind, you hold all the keys to your own liberation. Re-visit Pema Chodron’s Noble Heart and Eckhart Tolle’s Power of Now to explore how you can assume immediate control of your life and your mind and turn your past into fuel to power your growth.

      Models & Mentors – “You never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory” – Dr Seuss

      “Nothing has happened until it’s written down” – Virginia Woolf

      “Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things” – Cicero

      “In the end, we’ll all become stories.” – Margaret Atwood

      “Your brain forms the same neural connections and muscle memory whether you are imagining a task or actually doing it”- Yo Yo Ma

      Mantra – “I remember”

      Meditation –

      #Haiku: Memory – Your Past Is Never Where You Left It

      Block Past subsuming
      Present – overwhelming
      Future
      Short circuit
      Change

    1. #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

      Cooperation – Division of Labor – Do you dream of Getting Help? You are engaged on any difficult task and Someone Else shows up to assist? Do you dream of villages and businesses running perfectly – everyone setting about their Daily Chores like the mailman, the crossing guard, the fruit seller, the fireman like characters in a children’s book? Looks like a Perfect World, doesn’t it?

        You Don’t Have to Do Everything – It’s an enormous relief when you first realize you’re not responsible for everything. Children are very solipsistic thinkers – they “assume” magical responsibility not just for parental divorce but for World Wars. But we are tiny cogs in a huge enterprise. Every task we assume is part of something much bigger. We are surrounded by helpers, if we could only see it.

        Challenge – In life we have Group Tasks and Individual Tasks. The challenge is to figure out which is which. Social pressure tends to ‘erase” our individual tasks because the daily round is so overwhelming. Yet we cling to our Personal Goals of maturation, Mastery, Learning, Finding Meaning & Bliss, Growing Love. Cooperation surrounds us in all these challenges if we could only see it.


        Danger – Our capitalist society is based on competition and scarcity. Politics wants us seeing others as competitors for scarce resources, instead of willing hands helping us build. No wonder Main Street is falling into disrepair, volunteer activities go begging and community resources are depleted! Without a sense of community we can’t see each other as anything but rivals. When looking for co-operators it is wise to re-visit the warnings of Wisdom seekers and avoid people who aren’t seeking helpers but hostages:

        1. Projection – There’ “right” and “wrong” and they’re never “wrong.” Nothing is ever their fault.
        2. Nonsensical conversations from hell – Arguers. Word salad, circular conversations, ad hominem arguments, projection and gaslighting to make them the gate-keepers of reason and you the thirsty aspirant. Prople only capable of vertical, not horizontal relationships. Someone needs to be “on top.”
        3. Blanket statements and generalizations – Thick layers of protective blather will keep you from getting through to discuss any task at hand.
        4. Misrepresenting your thoughts and feelings to the point of absurdity – You are a simplistic thinker and a deficient reasoner and they are the source of all wisdom. No cooperating with these people.
        5. Nitpicking and moving the goal posts – Different rules for everyone and every day.
        6. Changing the subject to evade accountability – “You shouldn’t have given me that job to begin with.”
        7. Covert and overt threats –“If people know what you REALLY are, say, do, no one would be your friend.”
        8. Name-calling – “Identity politics.” “You are a _” Fill in the blank. And that’s all you’ll ever be in this guy’s eyes.
        9. Destructive conditioning – Abuse, frustration and disrespect are this person’s calling cards but it’s never their fault that they live in a cloud of toxicity. They want you in there, too. Decline.
        10. Smear campaigns and stalking – “Office politics.” Need I say more?
        11. Playing the Martyr – “I have so many enemies!”
        12. Demands Immediate Unthinking Fealty – When someone stresses the fact that they are a “nice guy” or girl, that you should “trust them” right away or emphasizes their credibility without any provocation from you whatsoever, WALK AWAY.
        13. Baits and badgers you – testing your limits. Can you be made to lose control?
        14. Boundary testing – “Everyone does it” to drag you into unethical enterprise
        15. Aggressive jabs disguised as jokes – “Can’t you laugh about yourself?”
        16. Condescending sarcasm and patronizing tone – Know-It-Alls
        17. Belittling, Degrading, Shaming About ANYBODY. A very good piece of advice is watch how they treat wait staff. Underlings. Anyone totally in their power or people who can do nothing for them and you’ll soon get a picture of their inner world. Stay away.

        Opportunity – You will meet Your Best Friends Ever! This is even more important than Getting the JOB DONE! Because friends last for life and they change YOU. Reach out for advice and cooperation to all who treat others with respect. You won’t be successful ALL the time – no one is – but you will learn so much in the course of finding out How to Live In the World and Who to be.

        Models & Mentors – “The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation” – Bertrand Russell

        “Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success” – Henry Ford

        “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”

        – Isaac Newton

        “Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

        Mantra – “Go Team!”

        Meditation –

        #Haiku: Unlikely Friends

        You explain
        Each other –
        Crossed perspectives:
        Fireworks:
        Transmute –
        Osmosis

      1. #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

        Medicine – Do you dream of hospitals? Doctors? Shamen? Magic pills? Do you ache and shiver? Are you afraid? One of society’s proudest boasts is our seemingly magical ability to cure illness, or at least palliate its effects. Your dreams say you yearn for healing, that you recognize you need help.

        Challenge – How do we develop the confidence to choose the “right diagnosis” for what ails us? When do we request a “second opinion?” How can we stay on the “right” course, or even assess the “rightness” of any course, considering all our past mistakes? We need “heart strengthening.” Listen to your heart. What do we wish to ask? Who do we wish to be? Where are we trying to go?

        Danger – Can we tell the difference between a “strengthening” or “harming” path? TV pharmaceutical ads list grisly side effects for pills tackling vague malaise. How can we overlook these? Perhaps the ultimate “danger” is ignoring the warnings our malaise gives. What does “I want to be young again” really mean? We are all mortal. We have just so much time left to plan. To “become”.

        Lucid Healing – A lot of research indicates that when we ask for healing in a dream, we exponentially increase our chances of it happening. In your Dream Journal, set an intention. Write out exactly what you want to happen.

        Dream Therapy – Is there any reason you can imagine why your psyche would cling to this pain, this illness? Are you ready to release this demon? Before you go to sleep, settle the intention in your mind. Imagine you are burning the pages of your dream journal and those words rise up, written in fire and imprint themselves into your body. In the morning, when you wake up, think and write about your immediate feelings and memories. Repeat as necessary!

        Opportunity – Some people are more confident following an “experts recommend” course exactly, others adapt and customize as they go to achieve a path that feels more personally designed. I look for joy. Joy is the moment when planets and moments all click into alignment and we feel we accepted as a beloved child of the universe. Let’s unclog our ears, remove the plank from our vision and simplify our world to recapture the moments of joy experienced in childhood. Hunger, confusion and uncertainty were part of it, but a trusted loving, guiding force rescued us over and over again, prompting us to respond with a love as generous as we can summon.

        Models & Mentors – “Hugging is good medicine”
        – Karen Salmansohn

        “Medicine is the art of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease” – Voltaire

        “Medicines cure diseases, but only doctors can cure patients” – C.J. Jung

        “Medicine cures doubt as well as disease” – Karl Marx

        “The arts are as essential to everyone’s lives as clean food and fresh air”
        – Renee Phillips

        Mantra -“I open”.

        Meditation –

        #Haiku: The Doctor Says It’s All Your Fault

        Barbed –
        Snarled –
        Scorned –
        Swollen –
        Parasitic –
        Infant desire
        Destroys its
        Host

      2. #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

        Marriage – Partnership – Dreaming about weddings? Love, proposals, marriage? About The One that got Away? Dreaming about partnership enterprises in general – video gaming, tennis – where an Ideal Partner/Helper’s got your back? It’s very difficult to make it through life without a partner. We’ve got friends who come and go, sometimes special ones, but they’ve got obligations of their own. What if we had a Perfect Friend who made our Best Life their priority? What if we were not only willing to do the same for them but to promise this in public?

          Everybody Deserves Somebody – We come into adulthood with strong memories of familial dependence. We are all attracted to caretaking behaviors and easily seduced by promises to read our minds and give us what we really want – (even if we don’t know what it is ourselves.) Then we discover Desire. Not only for bodies, but for Persons, Lives, Individualities. Other people are a spice, other people are a medicine for everything our lives appear to be lacking. What if we could combine all our needs together in one appetizing package?

          Challenge – We rarely ask our friends to change their lives for us. They are VERY rarely willing to do so. But a partner is someone to actively plan a life with. You get to talk through all the Wants, the Possibles, the Fears. Heady stuff! The challenge is to know Yourself well enough to make any sort of honest statements about who you are, who you CAN be and who you want to be.

          Danger – A substantial number of partnerships fail. We all know this but we keep trying. Then there are the partnerships that evolve into Something Else, a Financial, Real Estate or Caregiving unit that is very necessary but also pretty far from what we originally had in mind. Our challenge is – can we know and be known? Can we evolve with another soul to a higher plane? Can we find our Soulmate? Does such a creature exist? Disappointment and betrayal are all too often the outcomes.

          Opportunity – Soulmates DO exist! And they DO evolve. We WILL change our lives for each other and they will change, blend, merge with us. Any interaction with another requires communication, boundaries, honesty, planning and “rules”. I put rules in quotes because a good partner keeps “transforming” the game and we keep transforming ourselves to meet it. The best way to honestly know yourself is to keep conscious, subconscious and unconscious in alignment. Purposeful dreaming – questioning the subconscious, confronting the unconscious and learning from the collective unconscious – is the best way to do that!

          Models & Mentors – “It’s not lack of love but lack of friendship that makes for unhappy marriages” – Friedrich Nietzsche

          “What counts in making a happy marriage is not compatibility but how you deal with incompatibility” – Leo Tolstoy

          “A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short”
          – Andre Maurois

          “The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they’re the right person if you want to be with them all the time” – Julia Child

          Mantra – “I love”

          Meditation –

          #Haiku: Marriage

          Alone we perish
          Jointly immortal
          Heaven is
          Joy maximized

        1. #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

          Earth – Resources –Do you dream of wealth? Storehouses of goodies? Digging in the earth and finding treasure? Gold at the end of the rainbow? These are “resource” dreams. In DreamTherapy, the “Earth” represents resources because Earth is the source ofeverything mortal that is valuable to us. Where we are born determines the very language we will use to quantify, remember and share our world.

            You are a Wealthy Heir – We are all born into fabulous possibility. However the fear ofemptiness and the dread of exclusion also start immediately. Focus on the wealth we DON’T have prevents us from identifying the resources we already possess now. Lucid dreaming can help us here. We will dream our way to understanding.

            Challenge – Open your Dream Journal. Let’s figure out what we’ve got going for us. Health? Youth? Sight? Hearing? Intelligence? Talents? Love? Education? Family? Community? Faith? Roof over head? Food on Table? Money coming in? People we candepend on? Is there a patch of sky where we can see the stars? Is there a patch of ground where we can see the flowers?

            Danger – There’s no question all these benefits can be improved upon. They are also subject to depredation, depreciation and degradation. It is a positive force to desire improvements, but it is dangerous to turn “wants” into rage.

            Opportunity – Often the one difference between happiness and misery is gratitude. Are you grateful for all you have been given? Do you feel lucky or fortunate in any way? To put things in perspective, lottery winners one year out are usually NOT AS HAPPY as those who have been in a serious accident one year previous!  Obviously, the secret is perspective. The lottery winners thought a pile of money would “solve” everything, the accident sufferers thought they were destroyed forever. Lottery winners learned how wrong they were about what they needed, while accident sufferers were focused on what they still had and what new caring relationships came into their lives. Begin to cultivate apractice of gratitude. It starts with a “Thank You.”

            Models & Mentors – â€œPreserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” – Carl Sagan

            “I only feel angry when I see waste, people throwing away things we could use” – Mother Teresa

            “Earth provides enough to satisfy everyone’s need but not everyone’s greed” – Mahatma Gandhi

            “The Earth has music for those who listen” – Shakespeare

            “Earth sustains us and we must sustain her”

            – Chief Dan George

            Mantra – “I thrive”

            Meditation â€“

            #Haiku: Resentment vs Gratitude

            Look back

            Bitter

            Maims

            Deforms;

            Gratitude

            Welcomes –

            Future

            Gift exchange

          1. #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

            The Sun – Truth – Do you dream of a fully lit landscape? Are you basking in warm rays or are you trapped in skin-scorching light? As the Sun sheds light & heat it represents Truth.  It also sheds light on our efforts to locate, explain and exploit that mysterious force.

              You Are a Truth Teller and a Truth Diviner – Truth is complex. Dream are incontestably“real” but do they represent Truth? Can something be true on day and untrue the next?(see Ambivalence.) Is the storytelling child narrating “the truth”? Are myths true? Is the Bible true? Yes to all these questions. But No, also. Because the most important fact about truth is that, like us, it evolves. You easily recognize this in your own life. Something that was true of you twenty years ago is no longer true. You have changed. 

              Evolving Truth – Understandably, in a climate like this, people thirst for Unchanging Truth, and there are a few of these. Benjamin Franklin offered Death and Taxes, Jesus said evil can’t win, and Buddha said life itself is an illusion. The important factor in all this is Us – humanity. We are the eyes that think, the brain that evaluates, the mind that remembers. You are developing skills – Truth Seeking, Truth Telling and Truth Divining– and you are developing definitions. Congratulate yourself. Support yourself and otherson this noblest of enterprises. Because to die in the Truth is to pass eternally into the Light. You are literally making yourself worthy of immortality.

              Challenge – It’s so relaxing when you finally see the Truth. Suddenly you’re in the gulfstream, swimming WITH the tide! This is why fans love mystery stories  – they explain what was REALLY going on and you see all past events in a new light with a new understanding. Our daily life seems to request of us one hideous compromise after another until we wake up one morning feeling that we are lying to everybody – ourselves included.  Your challenge – should you accept it – is to bring your life more in harmonywith what you currently know to be true, all the while seeking a higher elevation of TheTruth.

              Danger – Nobody likes a hard-ass. Is your quest for truth turning you into a rigid, mean-spirited drill sergeant? I used to be authoritatively told by academic bosses that the mysteries I loved weren’t any good, that no way was Raymond Chandler as good as John Steinbeck. Worse, Jane Austen wasn’t as good as Philip Roth! Ugh! I did appreciate that what was “true” for them was NOT true for me but unfortunately for me, THEY did not appreciate that. So, be humble. You can never see (or reveal) all of the Truth. And it will evolve (as hopefully, you will) until you die and in my cosmology, are “perfected” and received into Bliss. You don’t have to believe in Bliss, by the way. Bliss believes in you.

              Opportunity – It’s probably dawned on you at this point that Truth, like everything funand worth doing, is a PROCESS. Welcome aboard! We’re all passengers on this exciting thrill-ride! So buckle up! Assemble a team! Get out your journal! Begin!

              Models & Mentors – “The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.” – David Foster Wallace

              “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” – George Orwell

              “Speaking your truth is the most powerful tool you have” – Oprah Winfrey

              “Truth is like the Sun. You can shut it out for a while, but it ain’t going away”

              – Elvis Presley

              Mantra – “I see”

              Meditation â€“

              #Haiku: Truth

              Truth is all things

              That happened

              Closely shadowed by

              All things

              That didn’t

            1. #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

              The Moon – Influence – You can’t feel it, but you can dream it. Something is pressing on you, like gravity, the way the moon’s pressure rolls the tide.
              Your Subconscious Knows – You are a secret to yourself but your subconscious has all the answers. She only reveals herself in dreams. Time for some interpretation. Object dreams are fear dreams, people dreams are love dreams, motion dreams are time dreams. The opposite of fear, remember, is attraction, the opposite of love is hate and the opposite of yearning is stasis. Each forward pulse contains its opposite.


              Challenge – With the knowledge of this assistance, you can interpret your own dreams. Open your Dream journal. If you are an artist, draw or paint it. Don’t look for rigid accuracy – we seek connections, not edges, walls and blocks. The purpose of dreaming is to address blocks. If you are a writer write out not only the dream but its connections, what it makes you think about, what if it reminds you of. If there was a prominent object, animal or person in the dream seek out a picture on the internet, gaze at it for insight.


              Danger – We seek to heighten, not damage, your self will. Others in your life – relative, friends, advertisers, politicians – are trying to take control of you. Don’t let them. The way to stop it is to take control of your fears yourself, so that you will not be ruled by them. Remember, the opposite of fear is attraction. We always seek a way upward. The direction of the spiral must be UP.


              Opportunity – This is a unique opportunity for self-definition and growth. Form a Dream Group where you discuss your dreams, offer positive (i.e. helpful and growth oriented) interpretations of each other’s dreams and attempt some lucid dreaming together. The way to do this is to promote s Sacred Circle with drumming, hand-holding, music and yoga. Choose a late evening hour when you are naturally tired. Like on the floor – protected by yoga mats, a comforter or a comfy carpet. Inaugurate a round of deep breathing, punctuated by soft, rhythmic chanting. “OM” is easiest and most effective. The first person to wake prepares a floral, herbal tea such as chamomile, puts on soft music and slowly wakes the others. Discuss and write down everything you remember. This is usually a dynamic way to take control of your dreams and begin dreaming as a group.

                Mantra – “Fearless”

                Models & Mentors – “Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars”

                – J. R. R Tolkien

                “Like the Moon, come out from behind the clouds. Shine!”– Buddha

                “Everyone is a Moon, and has a dark side he never shows to anybody”

                – Mark Twain

                “The moon gives pure solitude and tranquility”
                – Haruki Murakami

                Meditation –

                #Haiku: Dream Group

                Souls
                Wake
                Together
                Floating;
                Prison dissolved;
                Share
                Language with
                The moon.

              1. #Dream Therapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

                Winter – Dormancy –


                What’s happening when nothing’s happening?

                  DREAMS – Why isn’t it spring yet? Sometimes the blossom withers. Why? Your dreams remain lively, so, let’s consult them. Do you dream of endless sleep? Deep snows? Hibernation? Do you identify with the drowsy bear and the sleepy sloth?

                  Now’s the Time – This is the sacred moment before a burst of creativity. You are gathering your forces. Compare it to a pregnancy. Things are happening, but so slowly and deeply you are not aware of them, with the result that you may feel confused and frustrated. Instead, revel in this burgeoning becoming in the midst of sleepy peace.

                  Challenge – We cultivate our desires without pushing our extracting them. We curate our sensations. Spin through pictures of animals – what jumps out? Who is speaking to you? What are they saying? Wat are you afraid of and why? Make notes and collect images. A collage creates a deeper, more resonant picture. Sometimes it’s all in the eyes.

                  Danger – In sleep we are entirely vulnerable and we have cultural and historic reason to fear that state. Guard your dormancy with supportive beings, with sleep music, with healing rituals. The triple-locked doors, the blackout-curtained windows, the silenced devices protect us in our chosen nest. This is “think-time” not “party-time.” We will create a “protective spell.” Don a bracelet of “worry beads”, then summon your happiest memories and tell them by touch, eyes closed, one by one. Send every ounce of your remembered love and joy out into the universe with a command to come back to you a hundred times. A thousand times so that your love can spill over and be shared with all you touch, near and far.

                  Opportunity – You create yourself. The fetus of this pregnancy is YOU. In every dreamy hibernation second you are rebuilding yourself, adding visions, promoting fresh understandings and positive interpretations. Life offers us the chances of joy and misery – use your consciousness to accept this tool and allow dream-time and prep-time to penetrate ever deeper into your subconscious, to the unconscious, and down down down, deepest of all, to the collective unconscious where we recall in our bones and teeth and cells everything that has ever happened to every living thing as if it happened to us. This is the source of all imagination and creativity, accessible to you in your dream state.

                  MANTRA
                  “I dream deep”

                  #HAIKU : Dormant

                  Embrace the cold,
                  Without regret,
                  Secrets kept.
                  Sharp, white;
                  Freshening
                  Sleep.

                1. #Dream Therapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

                  Dreams – Imagination-

                  Let’s learn to enjoy our dreams, to look forward to dreaming. I like waking up in the early dawn because when I go back to sleep I can set an intention for dreaming – all the best dreams (and the most memorable ones) happen at the very end of sleep while you are coming up through the lawyers of sub- to semi consciousness.

                  Lucid Dreaming – Is when the dreamer realizes it’s a dream. Dreamers often use their lucidity to “manage” the dream – and that’s an important step – but don’t forget we’re here ultimately to find out what the dream is trying to tell us.

                  Remember – You’re the Pilot – Do you long for caretaking? Are you eager to give over the reins of your life to someone else? If so, your dreams are likely to become scary, unmanageable and unsatisfying. It is time for you to take charge of your power – you are in control of your own brain.

                  Challenge – Open your Dream Journal. Date it, and write, “I want to dream about…” Fill in the blank. Be as detailed and specific as you want to be. It is perfectly OK to allow your waking mind to construct desirable dreams – great works of art got their start in just this way! You may hear a voice… someone from the past who discouraged your “day-dreaming” and wanted you to focus on your work, on the present and on them. Explore this memory fearlessly. It is not rejecting or “hating on” that person to disagree with them – there are certainly times when the priority is to focus on other things – but right now you are exploring your own brain and testing out its powers. Clearly that’s an important and necessary project. Gently take control from this Remembered Forbidder and say, “This is my time now. I am in charge.”

                  Danger – We all know the cautionary tale of Scary Guy Who Live for Video Games and Doesn’t Have a Life. Do you fear the power of dreams and the pleasures of daydreaming will suck you away from Real World Competence? They won’t – as long as you are reality centered. Some people dream of different outcomes, things that are impossible – instead of finding workable avenues of growth and advancement. Positive dreaming deepens and enhances, doesn’t evade reality. It’s just that reality is so much wilder – and we are so much more powerful than we can credit!

                  Opportunity – Here’s a chance to reveal your True Self. It’s OK to be scared – it won’t harm you to recall the helplessness and confusion you felt in childhood so long as you also remember the joys of accessing power – swimming, bike riding, sports, lovemaking, dance, joint projects, creation of all types. These are models for your future. Some of us believe this growth goes on and on – even after death.

                  Models & Mentors – “I dream things that never were and I say, “Why Not?” – George Bernard Shaw

                  “A dreamer finds his way by moonlight…sees dawn before the rest of the world.” – Oscar Wilde

                  ‘You have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world”
                  – Harriet Tubman

                  “I’ve had dreams, and I’ve had nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams.” – Jonas Salk

                  Mantra – “All things are possible”

                  Meditation –

                  #Haiku: Imagination

                  Dreams bloom
                  Across brain; sinking
                  Sands of wakefulness
                  Glaze;
                  Leave behind
                  Pearl

                2. #DreamTherapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

                  Duality – Ambivalence –


                  What Kind of Nightmare Is This ? We dream about things we don’t want and people we aren’t. Strong feminists dream of rape, vegetarians dream of meat, pacifists dream of fighting. It’s confusing. What gives?

                    Language Isn’t Subtle Enough to Explain You – Your personality contains all feelings, all thoughts, all ideas, rippling through you in a vast subconscious well. Your unconscious connects with the “collective unconscious” of other peoples – dead, alive, even fictional. Why isn’t “hate-love” a word? You experience that regularly. How about “fear-attraction”? Common! What I’m suggesting is that we need to accept the fact that a “personality” is a dynamism, not a slogan. Ambivalence is natural. It’s healthy.

                    Challenge – Facing this might seem the toughest part, but it isn’t for artists, who routinely “play” along their edge, peeking over it and imagining life on the other side. Art is the best way to express this, an enormous relief since it’s non-committal. Of course you’ll have to face the surprise of your relatives when your work becomes public: “Where did THAT come from?” But if truth be told, we’ve always been surprised to be related to these people.

                    Danger – Society seeks to label and stigmatize. We need to explore our fear but we are afraid of becoming our fear. A simple safe word can’t work when people – bankers, politicians, therapists, employers – are so fundamentally untrustworthy. That is why our identification of ourselves as Brave Explorers is so vital. The vastness of our potential cannot be controlled by language. We will never be butterflies pinned down in a museum box for the instruction/curiosity of others.

                    Opportunity – Appreciate your self. Don’t slam the door on yourself too soon. Sometimes the worst labeler, the most determined jailor, is Us. We are deeply afraid of wandering in the forest and losing the way to get home safe. But Brave Explorers carry Home within them. As Nelson Mandela used to quote from his prison cell, if we are the captains of our souls we can be the masters of our fates. We can learn to tolerate a little ambiguity/uncertainty/ambivalence. (Henley.)

                    Models & Mentors – “It seems we are capable of immense love and loyalty and as capable of deceit and atrocity. It is this shocking ambivalence that makes us unique.” – John Scott

                    “Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own.”
                    – Erica Jong

                    “The Simpsons is about alienation and the ambivalence of living with a family who you love but drives you crazy”
                    – Matt Groening

                    “Poetry is the home of ambiguity, ambivalence and uncertainty.” – Billy Collins

                    Mantra – “I am Everything”

                    Meditation –

                    #Haiku: Contemplate Duality

                    Causation;
                    Polarity;
                    Suspicious distrust;
                    Embrace
                    Growth process