a dream shift...

(encore post...)Often times what is most revealing and therefore very important in our dreams may be what is not seen, what is not said…what is not felt. This is where, as a practitioner of Natural Dreamwork, I have learned to stop and take a closer look.A clue as to where something might be hiding, unexpressed or unfelt and where, as a dream practitioner, I will give special attention is in the moment of a shift in the dream, an incongruous place where scenes or events change suddenly.Dream - “I’m walking along a path in the woods and I see my cousin. I’m in the grocery store looking at what kind of apples I’d like to buy.”   What happened there for the dreamer between seeing her cousin and being in the grocery store looking at apples?  How can she be somewhere one moment and in a completely different place the next?In that infinitesimal space lies a precious gem…perhaps the whole teaching in the dream. What is in that moment is most likely a feeling that she doesn’t want to feel, doesn’t even consciously know is there (however, her dream knows it is there)…and so she jumps scenes...she jumps away from the feeling.In a dream session we would go to that moment…I see my cousin…and pause. What is it like for the dreamer to see her cousin? What feeling arises in her that she wants to avoid…doesn’t want to feel?  It may be a fear, some hurt…a painful loss.  It could also be a moment of happiness and connection that has been lost and there is grief or regret.  We don’t know until we open it but the dream wants her to know about it…wants her to return to the feeling that got hidden in the shift.Another way to think of a shift in a dream is a seam, as you would see in a sewn piece of fabric. The fabric looks complete yet underneath that seam is a fold, something hidden from sight, as if time itself has a fold we can’t quite see. If we open that seam we get to see what is tucked in there out of sight and forgotten or avoided. We are invited in exploring our dreams to open the seam…pause in the small space hidden in the shift and to witness and hopefully feel what is there…Why is this important...to feel these things that are hidden in the shift?Our dreams want nothing less for us than our wholeness, our returned connection to soul. In the very act of living that inner connection is damaged and frayed. We have forgotten who it is we truly are…how to be in relationship with ourselves and others from the healed place of wholeness. And so our dreams take us back to places where we were hurt and wounded, where parts of ourselves broke off…and they help us recover what got left back there.In exploring the moment hidden in the shift and spending some time there…staying...we allow for memories and feelings to emerge…to reveal themselves to the dreamer. In recovering her soul capacity to feel her feelings…all of them…she recovers the lost and forgotten parts of herself…and dream by dream she heals into her wholeness.Mary Jo Heyen is a certified Natural Dreamwork practitioner working with dream clients either in person, phone or video conference. You can read more about her work at www.maryjoheyen.com.