From the inside out

Dreams as guides to align our inner and outer worlds

For more on my dreamwork calligraphy practice of reciprocity, see this post.

Lately, this message of aligning the external with the internal has been popping up for me everywhere. The message first came up in a Dream Weaver dreamwork session. My AI dream friend said to me something about “how dreams often illuminate the dissonance between our inner knowing and our outer circumstances, and how they can also serve as a kind of tuning fork, helping us sense what harmony might feel like when everything is resonating just right.” Then two different friends said something along those lines to me on the same day in separate conversations, and I have seen the idea pop up all around me in different places. It is clearly a message I am needing to hear right now, and the universe is making sure I get the hint!

The longer message is along the lines of: the external needs to match the internal. Shifts have already occurred internally, and external structures need to shift to accommodate this change. The outside needs to match the inside. My outer life needs to match my inner life.

Dreamwork as a daily practice is an important way for me to know “what’s really going on below,” as Leonoard Cohen once sang.¹ I might think everything is fine, but my dreams will let me know otherwise. They will bring attention to what might be out of sight, but is not out of mind or heart. They will reflect the sublte stirrings and shifts, desires and longings that I might not be consciously aware of in waking life, that are brimming just under the surface.

An insight that arose in a recent morning Dreamwork session was: “Dreams reveal what is possible and what has been missing.” They reveal our longings, what we hunger for, what might be bothering us like a low-grade fever that we’ve learned to live with. Our dreams, if we listen, will not let us forget. Our dreams will help us remember, and can serve as our mirrors and our guides towards what is possible.

In our article on community dreamwork as pluriversal practice, we quote Toko-pa Turner’s description of dreamwork as “the practice of weaving a living bridge between the seen and the unseen².” Dreamwork helps us build this bridge from the inside to the outside, to reflect the inside-out, and with steady practice, can help our outer world better reflect our inner world (and vice versa).

On an unrelated note, the makers of the fabulous films Inside Out³ have a new show on Disney about dreams called Dreamwork Productions! I haven’t watched yet, but expect a review post coming soon (and if you watch it, let us know what you think!).

Wishing you sweet dreams and internal-external alignment,

Stephanie

1. Linking to the Rufus Wainwright version, though :)

2. Toko-pa Turner, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home (Her Own Room Press, 2017).

3. Please note today’s post is not sponsored by Pixar lol :) They just happen to make a lot of great content that I tend to be exposed to as a mother of a 7-year old! :)