Energy

December 22nd, 2006

An Anniversary!

Next month will be “Dream of the Week’s” first anniversary. I hope you have been enjoying, and benefiting from the columns. On my part, it has been rewarding to take one small aspect of dream work and commit myself to explaining it by Friday noon each week. I find that the exercise -- not to mention the deadline -- concentrates my thoughts about dream work remarkably well.

Please Would You Take a Survey?

I have a request for a holiday present from you (your choice – Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice or other.) I know it's not quite polite to tell people what you want, but in this case, perhaps you would make an exception: Your gift would be your straightforward feedback about “Dream of the Week” –easily accomplished just by completing a survey at the link below.

I am trying to get a sense of what it is that you, the reader, find worthwhile about Dream of the Week and I would greatly appreciate your answers.

The survey probably requires 10-15 minutes of your time. Click here to begin: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=928203060126

And now for the dream topic of the week.

Taking Stock of Your Energy Level

During holidays your energy level is far more volatile than at other times of the year. In this column we'll take a look at dream energy.

In physics, the concept of energy is very precise, "E=mc2." Bodies in motion possess energy; potential energy is energy that is stored and can, in the right circumstances, be released. Even minute particles contain enormous amounts of energy;

Outside of physics, the concept is clear even though there is no way of measuring energy.

It’s easy to understand that different people and objects have different energies. Most of us can intuitively gauge the energy in people, even in animals and vegetation. For instance, someone who is sad has less energy than when they are joyful. An anxious person uses her energy ineffectively. Someone who is oppressed or blocked is prevented from utilizing the energy they possess. The energy from a lighthearted person beams and bounces.

The way energy plays out in a dream can affect us deeply. Some dreams give us energy and others take it away. One way of looking at a dream is to consider where the energy is located and whether it is working with or against the dream self?

Repossessing the Energy in the Dream

I dream that there is a tsunami coming and I need to get away.

The dreamer's energy is devoted to getting away. It's about panic. But the huge energy in this dream is in the tsunami. This suggests that the dreamer possesses an enormous reservoir of energy but, rather than being available, it is threatening to overwhelm the Dream-self.

Since the dreamer dreamt this experience, the energy is, in a way, part of him. Energetically, he needs to focus on retaking possession of this alienated power.

It is worth adding that many people have abilities and energy that are, so to speak, present but unavailable. Dreams are a great way to access that energy.

To Reclaim the Energy

Here are the steps I use with the tsunami dream. (This dream is fairly common).

Step 1. Think about the dream as though you are an observer. Visualize the situation and see the dreamer and the tsunami in that context.

Step 2. Again, as an outsider, focus on the tsunami. The tsunami is simply a wave of energy. The threat is impersonal, a force of nature.

Step 3. Separate the energy of the tsunami from everything else.

Step 4. Allow yourself to feel that enormous amount of energy. Locate where specifically in your body you feel that energy.

Step 5. Once you can feel the experience of the energy in yourself (really feeling it in your body), you can pass that energy over to the dreamer. The dreamer will know how to use it.

Step 6. In the next dream, it is quite likely that the threat to the dreamer will be far less (this dreamer's next dream was that he was changing a flood light) or even that the high-energy of the tsunami has been integrated (the dreamer might be flying).

These steps can be used whenever addressing the energy in your dreams.

Lois's Dream

I dream I burst in to tell my mother that I am going to the beach on a date. She says, "No, you can't, you promised to come to your grandmother's for Sunday dinner." I feel very embarrassed and don't know what to do.

In other circumstances we might engage in a negotiation with Lois's dream mother but from an energetic perspective, Lois's energy is being taken away from her. Her joy, vitality and initiative are being stopped in their tracks.

Lois had that energy at the beginning of the dream. Using similar steps to the tsunami dream, she has to "go back into the dream" and find a way of maintaining that energy.

Lois firstly went back to the beginning of the dream and created a clear sense of that energy separate from the dream events.

Then she began to replay the dream with the awareness that she should hold on to her own well-being. She took her "good" energy and, in her imagination, infused it into her mother. Much to her amazement (her mother was not the happiest of people) her mother said "In that case, your grandmother and I will go to China for the afternoon."

This made not the slightest sense to Lois but, for the first time ever, even if only in fantasy, she saw her mother and her mother's mother possessing the ability to enjoy themselves.

Why Focus on Energy During the Holidays?

Holidays greatly affect our energy level. For some of us, it rekindles our spirit. We reconnect with old friends, and, in the depths of wintertime, we are reenergized.

For others, the holidays "force" us to revisit painful old memories or reconnect with people who are experts at taking away our energy.

Your dreams will be an accurate barometer, letting you know how well you are doing. If you find that your dream self is lacking energy, regaining it will help the waking self have better access to her own energy.

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DREAM GROUPS

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Best wishes

David Jenkins

Dream RePlay

email: davidj@dreamoftheweek.com

phone: (510) 644 2369

web: http://dreamoftheweek.com