If we hold a headset and tune into the inside of our head, we hear many overlapping voices speaking at once. It’s like being in the middle of a train station in rush hour in a big city. There is much commotion and action happening all at once. We race to catch the right train, arrive at the designated stop, and rush to our destination. Unlike catching trains, our mental voices don’t distinguish between what is the “right train” or best stopping point. Our mind’s voices cycle in and out of our heads with the agenda of making us crazy.
Let’s listen-in to our daily recordings. We’ll likely hear one or more of three themes:
I am unworthy.
I am exhausted.
I am afraid.
These themes overlap and claim head space ownership. It’s astounding how long we have permitted this barrage of negative noise. It repeats itself in different forms and cycles back in an endless loop.
- Stop the noise.
Consider that the head set possesses a pause button. Press pause to put the noise on hold, and grasp onto that quiet and powerful part of ourselves – our dreams. In the land of dreams we smile upon a vast blank canvas with endless potential to carry a rainbow’s array of color, images and sounds.
Our sights turn to hidden ideals and expanded vision for living from our deepest imagination. We uncover hidden parts yearning to be heard. We awaken to more than sounds fighting for attention and the calamity dulling our senses. Our Inner Being craves to take center stage, allowed to sing and dance to the unique tune composed with our own passion and knowing.
How do you know if your dreaming or merely listening to the worn-out head set?
- Empowered versus trash talking
Fantasies and illusions are escape mechanisms. They overtake take self-talk recordings and infuse them with allure and attraction. Ego convinces us these new recordings want to help. Not true. Fantasies and illusions heap added trash on top of our pain. If enough trash covers our ego thoughts we turn to outside forces – like eating, drugs, shopping, sex and gambling – to maintain the growing fantasy. Unfortunately, the only way out is not more escape. A hard crash may be required to jolt us past the pain and reconfigure a plan to start living from the place of dreams.
Dreams allow us to dump our trash, lift us out of pain and propel our souls into the limelight. They harness our best parts and encourage bigger dreaming. Full of wonder, dreams teach us how to move and breathe from a landscape of peace, love and joy.
2. Exciting versus daunting
Bad dreams are not nightmares out to get us. We think the fear behind nightmares conspires to keep us weighted down and in the dark. Nightmares are mere shadows of ourselves wanting to change into new form. What does this mean?
For example, if our nightmare looks like anxiety can we ask the dream called relax to appear? To answer this, we must turn to imagination for guidance. Imagination contains a file cabinet of stored dreams. We rifle through the files, locate the ones labeled calm and review our notes. Instead of filing these dreams back into the cabinet and forgetting about them, we can choose to map out a way to transform them into a form we can use more often. This aha moment of shifting instantly infuses us with excitement.
3. Energizing versus depleting
We don’t realize the extent to which our mental noise is debilitating. Once we decide to hit pause, we can assess the damage and determine how empty we are. When we are working with a whole lot of nothing we become desperate. We falsely believe we lack what everyone but us has.
Our true self recognizes we are designed to be dreamers. We are here to play our way through life – not wallow in drama and self-pity. Inside us resides a beautiful and never-ending tapestry of how to solve problems with ease, find new perspectives and evolve from our true north heart-center.
4. Enjoyment versus grind
A telltale sign we are not in a dream state is when time becomes a series of predictable habits. We think we are in control and happy with our fixed patterns until an event forces change. Our minds become confused. Our minds fear losing their precious guardrails. Are we truly lost in this scenario or did our inner compass ask us to get back to dreaming? Are we being summoned to crack open a jar of inspiration?
Perhaps it’s time to break out of our ruts and try something dynamic and delightful. Let’s ask ourselves, who and what do we enjoy. Let’s try to shed negativity and add enjoyment through ritual, connections and pleasure. Become curious about how to create a world of enjoyment.
5. Enriching versus indifferent
There are times when the noises of ego drown out our ability to stay in touch with humanity. We become cold, detached and self-absorbed in struggle. What’s the point of spending time with others when they want to talk about their problems, gossip about coworkers and spout off about the latest political debacle? We can’t take in any more noise. Our ears have reached their maximum limits.
Author Malcom Muggerige quotes Mother Theresa,
“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for and deserted by everybody. The greatest evil is lack of love and charity, that terrible indifference toward one’s neighbor who lives at the roadside assaulted by exploitation, corruption, poverty and disease.”
A life of indifference begs for the opportunity to dream again. Dreams offer hope and encouragement to use our original intelligence and intuition to expand our divine self. Without dreams, we isolate ourselves and are unwilling to give our hearts over to enriching the world with kindness and light.
Do you envision another life showing up? Do you crave meaningful work, or long to share your creativity? It’s time to look at your dreams and paint on your inner canvas.