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Thoughts on lots of things, especially education, psychology, culture, religion, and personal growth.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Free dream interpretation if you donate your account!

Well, folks, I've decided to give this dream interpretation business a real, concerted effort!  My friend, Shannon Ikerd, is a pro at media advertisement, and she's agreed to give me some advice on promoting my business.  The main thing I need for my little business right now is more awareness.  I'm going to need your help with that! 

There's a program out there that will allow you to "donate" your Twitter or FaceBook account to a campaign.  Basically, this means that your account will automatically retweet or repost messages from the campaign(s) you sign up for.  (You can control how often, how many, etc.)  Hopefully, via donated accounts, friends of friends will end up "liking" or "following" SleepingRealities, and I can get more exposure.  I'd be thrilled if some of you would do this for me, and I'm offering a free dream interpretation if you "donate your account" to the Sleeping Realities campaign!  You can choose between a Full Length Written Interpretation (3 pages of typed interpretation) or a Word of Mouth Phone Interpretation (30+ minutes of a recorded conversation interpreting your dream). 
 http://donateyouraccount.com/images/campaigns.png
I'm having a tough time, for some unknown reason, getting Donate Your Account to recognize my FaceBook page, so for now, the campaign is only available for Twitter users.  So if you want to donate your Twitter account to mine, go to Donate Your Account , sign in with your Twitter acct, find the Campaign called "Sleeping Realities," and then "donate."  This'll let your account retweet my posts. (You're in control of how often, etc.)

I'll let you know if I get the FaceBook thing figured out, as I'm sure many of you would rather use that than Twitter.  Meanwhile, do let me know if you Donate your Twitter, and we'll get a dream interpretation scheduled for you.

Thanks!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Going through the car wash

Have you ever brought your car through an automated car wash? You pull the car into the garage. The garage doors close in front of and behind you. The lights turn on. The enormous spinning brushes start approaching.  You hear them whirring outside of your windows as they get closer and closer... then the loud CRASH when they first contact your car. Soap is sprayed on, ... water... bubbles... brushes... noise... chaos...! 
Now (humor me,please, in a moment of silliness) and imagine YOU are the car-- can you feel what it might be like, not knowing what is happening, and feeling like you're being drowned, suffocated, pressured, scraped, bristled... with no end in sight?
And yet, when it's done, and the doors open, and you emerge, dripping, shining, and sparkling, that's when you realize, this was totally worth it.

Have you ever felt like YOU were being put through a figurative car wash?  Most people can look back on their lives and remember a period of time that felt like that.  You watched as the circumstances closed around you, preventing your escape. You had just enough light to perceive that the chaos was approaching, you braced yourself, and CRASH, it came tumbling over you, drowning your life with noise, emotion, turbulence, confusion.  Finally, when the season was over, you emerged, a very different person than when you started.

There are seasons in life that are like automatic car washes. Portals into new states of being.  Often we can't get to the clean, shiny, sparkling place we want to be without some serious scrubbing. That can be woundful to our pride, but it's true for every single human on earth.  Trials can serve to polish us, make us grow up, bring greater wisdom.

Unlike the car, though, which almost always comes out looking better than it did going in, we humans have some control in whether or not these car wash periods of life actually make us better or drown out our confidence in life.  We can try to protect ourselves by hiding away parts of ourselves from the power of the scrubbing brushes trying to clean up our lives.  We can use escape mechanisms, we can resist the process, we can do all kinds of unhealthy things, and these will hinder the very thing this trial could serve to empower--our growth.  If we don't respond in a healthy way, periods of trial can actually destroy our souls, rather than polishing them.  It's an ironic truth of life.

"Car wash" seasons in life are often portrayed in dreams as dark tunnels, narrow bridges, giving birth, or doorways.  A few nights ago, I even dreamed that I squeezed myself through a mouse-hole in the wall!  Have you ever dreamed of narrow portals? How did you handle it in the dream? Do you see how it applied to your waking life?

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

What are you fighting?

Take a close look at most dreams, and there's usually some form of conflict in it somewhere.  Some dreams, the conflict is front and center, with dream characters really trying to wipe each other out, and in some dreams, it's more subtle.  For example, in my dream last night, I was planning on going to a fun restaurant with a group of friends, and one of them approached me with his fears that he wouldn't have enough money to pay for the dinner, and also that he wouldn't be able to buy some gum after the dinner so his breath wouldn't stink.  In the dream I brushed aside his fears as irrelevant. But in the morning, upon reflecting on the dream, I paused and thought about what he said.  I really felt the conflict in myself between the desire to go forward and the fear that I wouldn't be able to pay the price.
It's interesting that within one person can live so many different desires and personality traits, and often these desires and traits can conflict with each other.  All in the same person.  (Now multiply one person's inner conflicts times 7 billion people in the world, and it's no wonder we have so much fighting amongst ourselves!) When we're aware  that we're conflicted, we can usually figure out a good path forward, eventually.  The problem arises when we aren't aware that we are internally divided.  We may think we're making wise decisions, when in fact, an unconscious inner player may be living out its fears through our unwitting reactions to life.  And sometimes, we may be dimly aware of an inner conflict, but the two sides seem so polarized, so desperately opposites, we don't see how we can please both sides of ourselves. 
Sometimes we repress one part of ourselves so deeply that the only way it can be heard is to manifest in our waking life as intense struggles with other people, organizations, or platforms.  If we could only solve our internal conflicts, there would not be such a need to fight externally.
It may seem hopeless, but it's not.  There's always a win-win solution, if we look deeply enough and are willing to bring all of our fears into the open light of day.  Dream work can be extremely helpful in this regard.  Sometimes when you solve an unconscious skirmish, your external anxiety and tension melts away on its own.  In my situation, a good way to work with my inner conflict would be to imagine I'm back in my dream, and talking to my friend.  I can ask all the other friends to contribute towards his meal.  Allow him to feel safe and comfortable and provided-for, so we can all go forward and enjoy the restaurant without anyone feeling neglected. 
Peace starts within.  Give every part of yourself a chance to voice its concerns and opinions, and then manage them all to find a wise, balanced approach to your life.  This is what it means to live consciously, and dream work can guide you on this path.
What conflicts are showing in your dreams?