The path of resistance

I resisted, I struggled, I thought the task would be too tough, no part of me really wanted to do it, my heart counselled no. I have other creative projects that bring me joy, and shouldn’t we follow our bliss?

And, questions of bliss aside, was it really necessary to do this thing? For a couple of days I convinced myself it wasn’t, and my heart felt the relief. Surely this is a good thing?

I had the classic dream of walking with heavy legs, glue feet, dragging myself through viscous air, every step a huge effort gaining me only a few centimetres, while everyone around me walked with ease.

This used to be a recurring dream theme for me when I was much younger. It was odd to find myself back there, in the thick of resistance, conscious or unconscious. My resistance to the task was beautifully dreamed in metaphor, but I didn’t recall enough detail to identify the deeper, perhaps unconscious cause of my resistance. Doubt, fear, burnout?

If I were to take the ‘follow your bliss’ approach, or the ‘listen to your heart’ approach, each of which are fabulous tools for navigation, I might have happily dropped the task there and then.

If I were to follow a popular approach to dream interpretation and ask what guidance my dream was offering, or what my dream was telling me to do, I might have decided to drop the task, release the heaviness, listen to the resistance of my soul, follow a lighter path.

But that’s not the way I approach dreams.

My research and decades of experience in working with dreams informs that dreams do not offer guidance or tell us what to do. They show us what is. They reflect our conscious and unconscious mindset back to us. They reveal our patterns, our beliefs, our emotions, our experiences, our limited thinking, our personal perceptions, our unique wiring, the big picture of the self as it sits at the time of each dream.

My dream was accurate. I was resisting majorly. But was I resisting something that would actually be good for me to do? The dream invited me to explore my resistance, to examine the underlying factors, to take time to replenish and re-energise, and to decide on what to do. I had the inside-information all laid out in my dream, making it easier for me to make a decision, to take guidance from exploring the insight gifted by my dream rather than to look for a guiding message in my dream.

I also did dream alchemy: once awake, I visualised myself walking that dream road but easily, with lightness, and with uplifting, refreshing breezes to carry me forward. I summoned up a feeling of excitement and expansion in contrast to the resistance and restriction I felt in the dream. And I left the dream alchemy to communicate with my unconscious and do its transformational magic.

The next day I realised the task was necessary. The thought of it being complete felt exciting and expansive. My heart counselled me yes, my inner bliss meter voted in favour. I still thought the task would be tough, but I trusted in the dream alchemy to take me through.

Like housework and other necessary toils, this was a job that needed to be done, and done by me. And like housework and other necessary toils, I decided to make it meditative, to focus on the deeper reason for doing the work, to polish my soul by taking the alchemical challenge.

So I sat down and began, and within five minutes I was in the blissful flow, surprised by the ease of the task and the creative buzz it delivered. By the time it was complete, I realised how absolutely vital this task was, and could hardly believe that, only a couple of days before, I had convinced myself that it didn’t need to be done, and that it didn’t fit with my bliss.

By now you must be wondering about the task. I’ve painted a picture of immense difficulty, which is exactly what we do when we resist and duck and dive, isn’t it?

You’ll laugh, I know you will, but here it is. The task was to write a multiple choice test for people completing the e-learning course (How to interpret your dreams) that we’ll be launching soon. It’s a self-test, you do it, it gives you a score, you get to find out how much you have or haven’t learned.

We’re mid-filming the videos for the course, and you’ll hear all about it soon (added later: here’s the course), but thanks to a dream and dream alchemy, I’m back in the creative flow and loving it.

PS

Talking about filming, here’s the video clip of this month’s national television dream segment.

Note: The TV clip is no longer available to view.

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