Waking up is sacred business. In the moments between dreaming and waking, the universe changes. That is, the universe as you (and you really are a whole universe!) shifts consciousness in a truly basic and radical way. When we are asleep, we dream the world awake. When we are awake, we live it. How you surf the numinous bridge between your dreaming and your waking matters to the way experience meaning, authenticity, connection and fulfillment in your life. Do you live in and create from the architectures of your soul’s dreaming, or do you live as a lonely wanderer in a world that alienates your essence? The choice is up to you. It’s all about making the bridge between your true creative capacity and your daily life. The moments between sleeping and waking hold powerful keys to becoming the You that you dream you can be.
What do you DO with your dreams? Literally. What is the first thing you DO upon waking? The difference between really “inspired” people and other people is that inspired people DO something with their guidance. Everyone gets inspiration. But it takes focus to let that stream of big information flow through you into words and actions, blogs and art pieces, conversations and businesses. It takes attention and diligence to repeatedly create a living bridge between your dreams and the behaviors and physical forms of your life. But, it’s pretty much the only game worth playing while living a human life. That is, if you want to know and feel and experience the crazy awesome pleasure that comes from creating in integrity with who you really ARE. So, you might as well get GOOD at it.
How do you wake yourself? What thoughts are habitual at that tender moment of bridging this world and the other world of dreamtime? Do you pause to receive your dreams? And do you take the time to thank your life and pray your way into the day?
Here’s some tips from my own practice of navigating waking.
What do I do upon waking:
Listen. Stay as still and as quiet as possible and listen to the tender bridge between my dreams and my waking. Occasionally, I will write them down.
A yawning big-cat stretch. Taking a few moments to feel the soft animal of my body.
Here’s what my inner self talk sounded like:
Long listening silence, simply feeling.
“Good morning beauty. Good morning dreams. Good morning breath. (Big breath!)
Thank you for my life.”
Listening to my dreams:
What often comes for me, these days, is something like a directive. This blog, for example. This is what came through my dreams to DO, to SHARE, to co-create a more awesome and evolutionarily optimal conversation with my world. But, sometimes, what comes is visions that aren’t so easily translated. These are fun. Other times, what comes is the need to feel into something disturbing, or to let myself thing and feel long and hard about some old unresolved loss. It is always a healing opportunity. And, if I am honest with myself (about my honest feelings, pleasant or not) and present with the dream images themselves, the healing bundle always reveals itself. Dreams can be subconscious or superconscious, lucid or non-lucid. All of them are valuable. The more present you become to them, the more lucid and superconscious they often become, and the more powerfully they inform the living of your life.
Remember, even if you feel grumpy or stiff or a bit hung over, this is YOUR day:
All the world: the bird, the dawn, the smallest green thing, is saying to you, “LOVE YOUR LIFE.” All that life wants from you is that you soften and open to living.
It’s up to you to listen and to STAY AWAKE.
Samantha Sweetwater 