Alysse Aallyn

Category: #Nightmare

  • #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 – “Preserve 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 –

      #Haiku: Resentment vs Gratitude

      Look back

      Bitter

      Maims

      Deforms;

      Gratitude

      Welcomes –

      Future

      Gift exchange

    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. #Dream Therapy – Dream Journaling With Alysse Aallyn

          The Shadow – Dissonance –

          Dreaming of reversals? Sudden surprises or a creeping sense of unease? Upsets? Do you wake with a sense of having forgotten something important you almost understood? Feeling lost?

            Some dreams just leave us unsettled, feeling “weird”. Something touched us, but we are of a divided mind as to whether it was pleasant or not.

            You Are A Sensitive Instrument registering seismic shifts and deep tectonic disturbances below the threshold of consciousness. Remember, what we call “consciousness” is many-layered. Beneath your conscious is your subconscious – the things you’ve put out of mind.. Below that is your unconscious –the things you don’t know you know – it is the unconscious that is accessible to us in dreams.

            The Subconscious is noisy, like a neglected child. It will occupy all your attention if you let it. But the Unconscious is a lot more interesting. Something always IS “going on” OUTSIDE YOURSELF and you are alert to the many warning signals! This can be exhausting. We have been dreaming of relaxation, peace and quiet, the clear blue sky with not a single cloud, and here are all these depthless mutterings.

            And there’s a deeper layer yet! The collective unconscious connects us to other people, living and dead, the memories of your relatives, of history itself.

            Challenge – We are not going to get rid of our spidey senses and we must refuse to numb, ignore or inflate them. The key to intelligent management of dissonance is to think of the world as an orchestra playing a symphony. The more able we are to distinguish the varied instruments and musical lines the more we will appreciate and enjoy the experience. Balance is always key. In this cacophony, YOU are the important one. We accept all the levels of consciousness without fear; they will not control us. They are asking us to control them. We will schedule regular periods of rest and renewal where we put problems far away from mind and give thanks for this body, this moment, this sense of appreciation and wonder.

            Danger – Avoid a “bunker mentality.” The universe has many bunkers, but is bigger than any single one. We cultivate a hierarchy of response. Get out of bed in the middle of the night for a fire alarm, not a phone notification. Don’t allow yourself to ever feel helpless but seek out advice and encouragement from others who understand a healthy growth process. All of us live in groups, curate your group to promote intelligent awareness in an atmosphere of hope. Dissonance is never doom.

            Opportunity – We each have a chance to spend our night on the watchtower, but you don’t need to spend every night there. Consider dissonance an invitation to maturity. We are putting away childish things. The sky is NOT falling, however the climate is under legitimate scientific threat. Strategize ways to band together to take useful action. This is an opportunity to show self-love, as well as love for the group, the environment, the world and the future. Open your Dream Journal. The attitude, “I care about you so I’m going to take care of you” keeps us sensitive to the message of Universal Love that is waiting to embrace us.

            Models & Mentors – Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to fads, trends and popular opinion”
            – Jack Kerouac

            “Better to fail in originality than succeed in imitation”
            – Herman Melville

            “If you don’t fit in, you’re probably doing the right thing” – Henry David Thoreau

            “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth”

            – John F. Kennedy

            Mantra – “I Hear You”

            Meditation –

            Haiku: Dissonance

            Nonsense;
            Clues disappeared
            Fragmenting circle
            Unsolvable
            Mystery

          1. #Dream Therapy – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

            Conflict – Do you dream of danger? Natural disasters like storms, volcanoes and flooding?  Do you dream of war, of robbery, home invasion? Or do you dream about your loved one’s face turning bitter and their words cutting sharply?  Conflict is inevitable.  It is necessary – birth pangs seem terrifying and sex can look like war. In dreams we rehearse our fears until some of us fear to dream.

              You are a Force Field.  You are a magnet for desire, change, for evolution itself. This comes byvirtue of being born, assuming your physical incarnational state. Others may tell you to standback, take your place in line or wait your turn but your appearance into this chaotic universetriggered no such guarantee. We are here to learn to use our power.

              CHALLENGE – Force stirs up resistance.  Actions create re-action as we swing back and forth inour determination and direction. We clash and crash.  Sometimes we regret it bitterly, “why did Ido that?”  Sometimes we fear loss or harm so much we are immobilized.  The challenge is toassume your stride, elucidate your goals and plan a direction. Get out your dream Journal. Consult your dream buddies.

              DANGER – It’s all too easy to make others fear you. The one with the biggest weapon THINKShe wins every fight. But what looks like compliance to you could be revolution – you will betoppled and lose your heart’s desire.

              OPPORTUNITY – Learning to use conflict constructively and creatively is a Superpower.  Otherpeople are force fields, too. If there is any way to blend these powers and head in the samedirection, we will be invincible. 

              Models & Mentors –  “I used to tell myself, boy, if you can survive this, you can survive anything” – Tom Lichtenberg

              “Laughter is the proof that our tragedies don’t define us. Laughter is the survivor’s language” – Josh James

              “Cancer didn’t bring me to my knees, it brought me to my feet”

              – Michael Douglas

              “If you want to awaken humanity, awaken yourself. If you want to eliminate suffering, eliminate what is negative in yourself. Your gift to the world is our self-transformation.” – Lao Tzu

              MEDITATION –

              #Haiku: The Storm

              Battle mode:

              Sludge

              Rears up

              Eyes bug

              Mouth gapes

              Shrieks

              “No!”

              Anticipates

              “Yes”

            1. Dream Group Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

              Loss & Suffering – Sometimes dreams are an escape from the unbelievable horror of existence. In that case, they are our art form, and we must curate them to prepare a bearable future.

              Ugly World – every religion and philosophical system has to account for the misery we see around us -storms, flood, volcanos, disease, human frustration an animal predation. Do your dream explore inner and outer pain? How much is fear, how much is anxiety, how much is collective unconscious and shared human history? We fear everyone CAN’T be happy at once. How do we educate ourselves to surf this intolerable dilemma? Let’s get out our Dream Journals.

              What’s the happiest dream you’ve ever had? Why? – How could it even more satisfyingly responsive to your present crisis?

              Lucid Dreaming –  Is dreaming when you’re aware of it. it’s trying to guide the dream and use it to replenish your spirit. Your psyche is accessible in dreams to those you choose to include. What spirits do you invite?

              Pain is Joy’s Shadow – Joy is an excess of feeling and so is suffering. When we long to “numb out”, we numb everything. If we live our lives in fear, we avoid the potential excitement of holding breath on the edge of discovery.

              Challenge – What would become of us if we allowed ourselves to feel it all? Poets feel they must indulge – artist of all kinds explore and expand the edges of perception and assessment. Possible philosophical coping mechanisms can be Buddhist – “It’s all illusion” “Practice taming the wild mind” or religious –  “Suffering brings us closer to God in developing compassion for all creation” and “Birth pangs are necessary to bring new life.” Any way we can keep our mind and soul responsive and deepening benefits the whole planet. Cultivate Dream Partners. Share your dreams with them.

              Danger – Too much suffering breeds helplessness. Our angel needs to recover from her burns and acquire some new feathers. If we stop even trying to better our human situation we attract predators to such easy prey.  Even worse, we become predators ourselves, bragging to the godless that we are the new potentates. Cruelty breeds endless cruelty. There must be a way to step off this treadmill – there’s enough suffering going around without manufacturing more.

              Opportunity – Imagination itself comes from discomfort, even misery. We see a need to expand our mental repertoire, to magically increase the very dimensions of thought that seem to imprison us. As a species we have broken through this many times. There must be further epiphanies awaiting. How does this apply to you? Ask your dreams. Open and relax your mind.  Keep track of your dreams in your journal – not just actual dreams, but your thought possibilities in reflection. What if you could not fail? Turn to your dream partners for ideas. Who are we really? Who could we become?

              Models & Mentors – “You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered”

              – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

              “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard”

              – A.A. Milne

              “Only people who are capable of loving strongly can suffer such deep sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heal them”

              – Leo Tolstoy

              “What we once loved we can never lose for it becomes a part of us” – Helen Keller

              “Death is not the greatest loss in life, the greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live”  – Norman Cousins

              Meditation –

              #Haiku: Acceptance without Exception

              Join us!

              Compassion

              Greets

              Suffering;

              Blends;

              Evaporates

              Tears

              Gently.

            2. Dream Group – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

              CREATIVITY – If your dreams are particularly imaginative and enjoyable, you are probably an artist. You have launched yourself already on the absorbing quest of reinventing the confusing realities that buffet us.

              We keep trapping ourselves in the maze but there is always a way out. Close your eyes. Breathe. Don’t we all possess inherently the goddess’ power of making Something out of Nothing? Think. Feel. Give yourself permission to explore. Look at the tactile world around you and reach out yourhands. You are the pilot of your own life. Create your own dream.

              Artists are immortalized by their own thought and effort. If their productions are intriguingly beautifulthe rest of us are drawn in and our critical senses – our rejection and our fear – are tranquillized whilewe allow the artist to work their magic upon us. Artists aspire to be magicians of the mind and soul.

              CHALLENGE  –      If you create something unforgettable you will never be forgotten. You have thepower to open hearts, minds and brains as yours were first opened, when you looked upon this amazingworld for the first time  and tried to understand what you saw.

              DANGER – There is possibility here for such overweening pride that you place your own psyche aboveCreation in importance.   If you seek worship your own soul will be hardened unto death.

              OPPORTUNITY – You will join the gods in creating something really new that the world cannotlive without. The joy of sharing, the rapture of being known, the ecstasy of expression, of beingunderstood, will be yours.

              Models & Mentors – “Creativity is seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.” – Albert Einstein

              “Creativity can’t get used up. The more you use the more you have.” – Maya Angelou

              “Creativity is just connecting things.” – Steve Jobs

              “There is no innovation, no creativity, without failure.” – Brené Brown

              “What’s so fascinating about life is the constant creativity of the soul.” – Deepak Chopra

              MEDITATION –

              #Haiku: Creativity

              You: Immortalized;

              Fireborne

              Force majeure

              Create

              Become –

              Exalt

              You.

            3. Dream Group – Dream Journaling with Alysse Aallyn

              DREAM CONTENT – RELAX – Take a deep breath as you face the content of your dreams.  

                YOU HAVE INNER RESOURCES – FOCUS your power by closing your eyes and – relaxing. Are youafraid you might fall asleep? So much the better – we need these dreams to be our map and guide.Dreaming of hot summers, beach, umbrellas, ocean, sand? You are longing for a “getaway” and the verybest and most refreshing vacation is to disappear inside yourself. Let’s learn to “see” with that Third Eye– the Wisdom Eye. Like every effort, it takes not just concentration but practice.

                DREAMS OF REAL EVENTS –  Is your brain flipping through its memories, disguising them, trying to make sense of them or imagining horrific detours? These are anxiety dreams. You fear that the causality of existence is basically nonsensical and cruel. The cure? Develop a “human flourishing” worldview. Use your models and mentors to investigate the requirements of life enhancement. What about love? When your dreams fear it doesn’t exist, you need to develop loving relationships in your daytime life.

                DREAMS OF FICTIONAL EVENTS – Are you trying to process fiction read about and seen (often dystopian). Your shy heart is shocked to its core and your inexperienced brain is trying to make sense of it. But we know much online fiction is a race to the bottom, trying again and again to go over the top.

                PRACTICE SELF-CARE – Prioritize your well-being. If you spend four hours a day watching or playing nonsensical vitriolic junk, you should spend equal time on your improvement and self-soothing regimens. Think of it. EQUAL TIME. Obviously you need to start developing self-care regimens that are way more pleasurable than passive viewing.

                CHALLENGE – Check your immortal soul. Don’t think you have one? No wonder you’re scared, if you reduce yourself to chaff like yesterday’s lawn clippings!  You are certainly aware that all of human history has been devoted to exploring whether we have souls, where they come from and what happens to them. Probably you like – everyone –  is turned off by the idea that in order to have a soul you need to follow some religion’s requirements, laid down for you by its boss.

                But seriously, think about it. If part of yourself is immortal, with supernatural capabilities, doesn’t it, by definition, exist OUTSIDE all that stuff? Who put them in charge? If your immortal soul is the freest part of you, set it free indeed.  Use your imagination to imagine THOSE possibilities, instead of scaring yourself almost to death. And then – relax. 

                Inside yourself is you find everyone you have ever known, everyone you have ever loved, is there. Ifthat’s a tough one – and I know it’s making you gulp – here’s one tougher – everyone you ever WILLknow is in there too. You can learn to reach forwards as well as back. No, it doesn’t come immediately. But the exciting news is – you have all the time in the world.

                DANGER – You fear you will lose yourself. The worst fear is that you have no self to lose. You areyoung at this, and fresh, naïve and simple. A beginner. Accept that power. It is a wonderful thing whenthe baby begins to see. But what about Evil?  Isn’t that a thing? If I have Everything inside, then don’t Ihave Evil, too. And the mystic answer is Yes. But it can’t hurt you if you don the armor. The armor isLove, and I recommend you begin to study the subject. It isn’t strong enough yet, but you can strengthenit by Will. You must educate your will.

                OPPORTUNITY – You realize now that our dreams are forcing a choice – it really comes down to thatone thing – you must choose between Evil or Love. Evil promises it will “get the job done”, it will offer“special” unique opportunities, single you out for goodies, bring you hostages and slaves. But here’s theFact about Evil – it breaks all its promises because IT BREAKS YOU. Love promises Eternity and Joy,and it takes effort. It takes discernment, knowledge, commitment and growth. Love asks you to enter aprocess. Evil says you can just “take”, or even lie inert and be showered with benefits. One choice makes you beautiful, an athlete of the Soul, the other makes you hideously ugly, a blot that sucks in lightand depresses all who look at it.  Will you make mistakes? Inevitably. But we have been assured by the greatest minds of all time that we cannot lose. So, relax. 

                Models & Mentors: “Everything you want is on the other side of fear” – Jack Canfield

                “What you think, you become. What you feel, you attract. What you imagine, you become” – Buddha

                “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn how to surf” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

                “It takes courage to say yes to rest and play in a world where exhaustion is a status symbol” – Brene Brown

                ‘You are the silent watcher of your thoughts. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the joy beneath the love and pain” – Eckhart Tolle

              1. Welcome to Dream Group – a Dream Journal by Alysse Aallyn

                Welcome to Dream Group

                Where we explore our dream together, uncovering meaning and enhancing psychic   and spiritual growth.

                YOU ARE A SEEKER – You are self-defining. You are on a quest. You wish to experience to the fullthe nature of having a self. You are becoming alert to the possibilities inherent in your particularmomentary incarnation and you wish to explore them.

                DANGERS – The danger of self-regard is that in turning our eyes inward we miss important signalscoming from other people and the world around us. Yet “retreating inward” is a vital path to self-knowledge and growth.

                CHALLENGE -The solution to this challenge is to set a Spirituality Schedule to reflect our needs andinterests. Appoint time to be absolutely alone, for meditation and reflection. If you cannot find a room toyourself, a closet will do. You can sit in the meditation position or assume any position that allows youto be comfortable enough to become physically forgetful.  Concentrate first on building a life that allowsboth inner and outer growth. Surround yourself with people who respect this decision.

                OPPORTUNITIES – This is a journey. Accept it. Begin a journal with 1. “I” and write down yourmeditation thoughts and desires. Tis can be a poem, a fantasy, a checklist – whatever pattern occurs toyou as supportive of your desires. Make a list of goals. Push shame away. This is about YOU. Of courseas you evolve, your goals will evolve, and your journal will reflect that. When you have completed yourTime Alone – ten minutes to an hour – whatever works for you – pat yourself on the back. What anachievement! You are started on a path of making changing Nightmares into Dreams and making dreamscome true.

                Get a notebook. We are starting our Dream Journal.

                Jung tells us that in your dream, you are everyone. You have dreamed of an Eye. The Eye is You. YourEgo is under threat. What does this mean?

                STUDY YOUR SURROUNDINGS  – Who? What? When? Where? And Why? We will begin mapping the people around you to determine whether you are in a growth or destructive environment, and building better patterns. Open your Dream Journal.

                WHO?  List the people around you and try to capture their chatter, their effect on you. It isn’t necessarily what they say directly to you, it is how they feel entitled to speak, it is what you are forced to hear. Sometimes we “correct” these oppressive effects with the conversation of dramatic personae in screen, literature & song. We flee into art to protect ourselves from the cruelties of existence. List these characters also – your heroes and villains – and what you like and need about them. We are going to assemble a ragbag team of defenders and collaborators for Dream Group.

                WHAT?   When you list what they say, note how that makes you feel. We are going to assume control over these emotions.

                WHEN?  At what time of day or night do these characters attempt to assume power over you? What is your state or rest or readiness?

                WHERE?  Where are you when this is going on? Work? Home? Friends’ place? Café? Bed? Inside your locked heart? Where do you feel safe? Where are you most yourself?

                WHY? How did you get here?  What was the plan? How has that changed? What’s the plan now?

                CLOSE YOUR BOOK – Close your eyes. Let’s end with a meditation.

                MEDITATION –

                #Haiku: Ego

                Pry:

                Beneath Eye:

                Compare

                My Shy

                Inside

                To your

                Wry outside. Cry.

                Why?