I'm a fairly meek and mild person by nature, yet I seem to have dream rage. I tend to keep a lot of thoughts about things that happen to me and around me to myself, because I don't want to upset the apple cart. So I internalize a lot of my thoughts and feelings, which then seem to come out in my dreams. I get highly emotional in dreams and tell people exactly what I think of them and how they make me feel. Sometimes I even wake up crying because I'm so upset. Is this a healthy, appropriate way to release pent up emotions? Do feelings actually get processed when we release them in the dream state?
Thanks!
Lisa
Dreamchaser:
Venting frustration is a good thing, provided it does not physically or emotionally hurt someone else. I feel your dreams are telling you that you are TOO meek and mild in your waking hours. You were raised to be seen and not heard, to believe that women do not get angry, that we have to accept that "bad" things happen, and that anger is a "bad" thing. You are still living out that childhood training as an adult.
You need to face your own anger, Lisa. Doing this won't hurt you. I use a really simple method in my house. I get a big floor pillow or a pile of blankets, then I get a plastic bat and begin to pound away on the pillow. As I am pounding, I am verbally expressing how I feel. Most of the time, I wind up yelling, sweating and crying. It is a very healing process. I recommend it!
I also want you to look closely at WHY you hold your negative feelings in. You say you don't want to "upset the apple cart," but why? What are you scared the outside world will see in you? There is so much happening under the surface that you are afraid to look at. Once you see it and face it dead on, it will lose its power over you.
Holding in any type of emotion can lead to illness. My adoptive mother was incredibly sad and lonely most of her life. She would cry alone almost every day. She died of cancer at a very young age. My birth mother worked herself ragged her whole life, and had no time for personal attachments. She had a heart attack at a very young age, but she survived.
I'm sure both women manifested these illnesses by not honoring their true thoughts and feelings. My birth mother agrees that she created her own illness this way. She tells me all the time to vent what I feel, eat right, and maintain a good balance between work, fun and rest. If we are sick on the inside, it WILL manifest in our outer experience sooner or later. This could mean we get a simple cold, or it could mean something serious.
I'm not saying that by venting our true feelings we will never get sick. I'm saying that it is healthier on every level to express our truth.
I wish you successful venting.
*****
Astrea:
Lisa, our emotions are definitely processed in our dreams! Two centuries of psychiatric research back that up. A person can only take SO MUCH without blowing sky high. Your subconscious has relegated all the feelings you consider "ugly" to your dreams, where you feel "safe" doing what you can't do while you're awake. This often happens when we fail to set healthy boundaries in relationships. While there is nothing wrong with processing your feelings in your dreams, it doesn't solve any of the issues you're experiencing in your waking life.
In dreams you can tell people you don't like how you really feel about them. When you're awake, you're like most of us; you don't want to UPSET anyone! By letting your subconscious process your deepest feelings of anger and frustration, you release some of these intense emotions.
Is this good for you? It depends how you're processing other issues in your life. If someone is hurting you every day, wouldn't it be better to remove that toxic person from your Harmony? You must choose to either get OUT of that relationship or learn to stand up for yourself while you're awake. Sometimes we must TEACH people how to treat us better by facing our fears and letting them know our real feelings. Sometimes people don't want to learn to treat us with more respect, and then it's time to examine why we decided to be around them in the first place.
Of course, you can't divorce your family and most of us can't afford to quit our jobs so we can choose nicer employers and coworkers. I recommend you surround those people with mirrors in your mind, so that their negativity is reflected back to them. Surround yourself with White Light so that nasty people can't invade your Harmony. As you get stronger in your own resolve, those nasty people will start to remove themselves from your life, and you'll really be better off without them!
No one enjoys confronting people who seem to go out of their way to make us miserable, but we all have to learn to do that sooner or later. By making better choices for ourselves, we draw better people into our lives.
Astrea:
Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.
Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!
While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!
I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!
As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.
I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.
You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!
Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.
A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.
You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.