Vinegar and Vomit

Last night I dreamed there was a pot of disgusting, brown, chunky liquid on my counter, and I kept adding vinegar to it, but it never got fuller.  Every time I added vinegar, it fizzed and bubbled.

It's a powerful image that brought tears to my eyes today when I remembered it, even before I knew what it meant.  Still, I probably wouldn't have interpreted it, had I not experienced a synchronicity--I went over to a friend's house, and there in the sink was a crock pot that was soaking, waiting to be washed.  It was full of -- you guessed it -- brown chunky liquid.  It was at that point that I decided to interpret the dream.

The dream references a few recent events from my waking life.  One is something that happened sometime last week. I tried to make biscuits using baking soda instead of baking powder, and I used vinegar to try to neutralize the alkaline of the soda. When I added vinegar to the dough, it fizzed in the same way as the dream. Despite my chemical ingenuity, the biscuits still turned out terribly!  The other event this dream references is the stomach bug I got a few nights ago, that had me vomiting every hour, all night.  (The brown stuff in the dream was kind of like the vomit in the toilet. Very gross.) I am, today, still recovering, though I'm feeling better and haven't vomited since.  The dream happened while in recovery from my illness.

What does it mean? In the dream I was trying to neutralize a concoction, bring a balance between acid and base. The dream is about me trying to force a balance into an issue of life. This balancing effort will probably not be successful, like the biscuits, unless I look deeper and do some smarter intervention.  Now I'll examine the symbols.
First, the vomit.  It's something that's supposed to be inside, nourishing my body, but it has come out into the open.  I need to ask myself, "Where in my life do I feel like what is supposed to be inside, nourishing me, is misplaced?"
Next, the vinegar--acid.  Words I associate with vinegar are: burning, sharp, strong, and salad dressing.  The efforts I'm using are more sharpness, more strength.  It could be something good, if I mixed it with better ingredients, like when I make salad dressing with vinegar as one of the ingredients; but in its raw state, it is too harsh.  It creates bubbles and boils, rather than balance and beauty.  "Where in my life am I using too much sharpness and strength?"

Aha.  When I asked myself these questions, the meaning of the dream became clear.  The evening before the dream, I lost my temper at someone close to me.  I was already feeling physically terrible, due to being sick, and what this person did just infuriated me.  All I wanted to do was GET TO BED so I could REST, and he was putting all these obstacles in my path AND being mean on top of that!   On a normal day I probably would have managed it better, but I was not feeling well, and I blew my top.
I immediately regretted losing my temper, and apologized, but that guilt remained.  I don't believe in violence.  How could I have let myself be so harsh?  I know better ways of dealing with these situations.  Where did that anger come from? The dream is showing that, despite efforts I've made to the contrary, I still have a gut-level belief that harshness will "correct" bad behavior, even though I know, mentally, that it won't.  It shows that I am taking what should be nurturing feelings (giving into a relationship with someone I love), and making those feelings about ME, and then trying to correct that selfishness in an inappropriate way.

It's important to remember that every symbol in the dream somehow is about the dreamer.  The vomit in the dream is my view of the bad behavior. The vomit doesn't represent the actions of the person I was angry at, but rather how I FEEL about those actions.  The vinegar is my harsh strength that came spilling out through the weakness, called sickness, it found in my armor. When I use harshness to try to correct someone, I'm REALLY trying to bring relief and balance to my own feelings, not to his behaviors alone.  How much better to be "neutral" (pun unintentionally discovered!) and focus on his actions alone, without trying to bring my feelings into the mix?

What I can do to neutralize my feelings and lose my temper less?  Visualize that pot of disgusting liquid turning into a fresh, crisp, healthful, vibrant salad, and the vinegar becoming my favorite salad dressing (Annie's Green Garlic).  I'll visualize this several times a day for a month, until I feel a shift in how I respond to irritating situations.

What this exercise does: Changes my feelings about bad behavior. Rather than other people's irritating behavior being perceived as something disgusting to be eradicated, like vomit, they are opportunities to learn and grow, just as a salad is an opportunity to become more healthy.  My anger can be harnessed in healthy ways, as vinegar can be mixed with other ingredients and made into a delicious salad dressing.


What a gross dream!  Have you had a gross dream you would like interpreted?  Go to my website to learn how I can help you!  www.sleepingrealities.com

The top 5 things you DON'T want in your dreams

Believe it or not, monsters, death, ex-lovers, and all kinds of scary, disturbing, and disgusting images are all perfectly normal, and even healthy parts of dreaming.  When I see these kinds of things in dreams, I'm not necessarily too concerned.
There are some things, however, that you don't want to see in your dreams.  If you dream these things, you know you need to address some issues in your life.  Here's the top-5 list, and what you can do about each one:

Free dream interpretations

I will be choosing one dream per month for whom to give a free short interpretation on this blog.  If you are interested in submitting your dream for use on the blog, just email me at sleepingrealities@gmail.com
If I don't get to you this month, it might be next month!  Pass the word!

You kinda had to be there

Have you ever had a dream that was so deep, so strange, or so complex, it was really hard to explain?  Maybe you saw a big jumble of colors that had a kind of shape or movement to them.  Or maybe you were in a place that felt really familiar, but there were so many things around you it would just take forever to describe them all.  Or maybe something "worked" in the dream that when you try to replay it in real life, it makes no sense.
Dreams are our mind's interface with what is going on with us at the energy level, so it's no surprise that they sometimes go beyond our rational mind's ability to make sense of them.   We feel dreams, sometimes, more than watch them.

Go get your shoes on, ... PLEASE!!???

I have a 3-year-old with a stubborn streak deep as the Pacific Ocean.  (Can any other parents relate?)  Here's a scenario that happens often at my house--
Me: Johnny, go get your shoes on, please, because we need to leave.
Johnny: [keeps playing]
Me: Johnny, I said get your shoes on, please. 
Johnny: [keeps playing]
Me: JOHNNY!  We need to leave!  Shoes! Now!
Johnny: [looks up at me briefly, turns around and keeps playing]


At this point, I, as a parent, have many choices.  Many parents don't know they have choices, since nothing kicks a person into auto-pilot (i.e. unconscious programming) like the stress of parenting.

Whatever you do, DON'T touch the plants!

My youngest child is 9 months old, and while he can't walk by himself yet, he's almost there.  His most-favoritest thing to do is teeter around the house, holding an adult's finger in one hand, and exploring the fascinating objects that he passes by with the other hand.  This is cute, and it's alright, as long as all unsafe objects are out of the way.  When we go to my mom's house, however, there are several potted plants at just the right height for a 9-month-old to grab!  My first reaction is to say, "No! Don't touch the plant!" and pull him in a different direction.  My wise and experienced mother, however, has a different approach, which I've recently noticed.  She says, "Pretty plant!" and holds Baby's free hand, so he can touch the leaves without grabbing them.  In a few seconds, his attention span has been used up, and he moves on.

I like my mom's approach, because it tells Baby, "plants are good things that we are not afraid of. We can learn to touch them in the right way."  Of course, this is an obvious statement to an adult, but how much easier is it just to tell Baby "NO!" and pull him away before he shovels Miracle-Gro-infused potting soil into his mouth or picks all the leaves off of that rare hibiscus hybrid?

Found: Personal Demon. Someone please claim. It showed up at my door, and I swear, it's not mine...

We all know people like these... People who are constantly a victim; everything in their life is someone else's fault.  Then there are the people who keep themselves so busy, they never have time to relax and just be with themselves to think. Then there are those with rage always simmering just below the surface, ready to boil over and burn the people around them at the slightest offense.  These (and more) are all signs of what I'll call "unclaimed personal demons" at work.


Ah, the demons.  Lurking around within some of us are traits we'd rather not identify with.  Pains we'd rather not feel.  Problems we'd rather not face.
As humans, we'd do anything not to take responsibility for our issues.  "What? That's not MY demon! I don't know where it came from. Must be a stray."
So we deal with them in one of two ways.  We either "exorcise" them so they are constantly outside of ourselves-- causing perplexing havoc and destruction to follow us everywhere we go.  Or we deny they even exist, essentially banishing them to the basements of our minds-- where they knock around, howl, and haunt, trying to be released.  Unruly things, these demons.


You'll see them in your dreams.  (What, you don't think YOU have them too?)