OVERVIEW INTERPRETATION
Hi Lena,
The people we meet in our dreams bring us face to face with our own beliefs, often ones we’re not consciously aware of. You know this woman as a workaholic, suggesting your dream is about meeting your own workaholic beliefs and how they may be affecting your life today.
It helps to think of people in your dreams as being mirrors. So, Joe is not Joe, and Mary is not Mary, but each are simply mirrors in which you see a reflection of yourself. But why is this?
It all depends on what you think, feel and believe about Joe or Mary in this example. You might see Mary as a workaholic, but I might see her as a highly motivated person. Whether Mary is a workaholic or a highly motivated person doesn’t matter when it comes to interpreting a dream in which she appears. What matters is how you and I experience and perceive her. When you look at Mary you think “workaholic” and all your beliefs about workaholics come up. When I look at Mary I think “highly motivated person” and all my beliefs about motivation are triggered. So, in your dream mirror you see your beliefs about workaholics and in my dream mirror I see my beliefs about motivation. We each dream about Mary but for each of us she is a different symbol, a symbol of workaholism for you and motivation for me.
So, in your dream you meet your beliefs – conscious or unconscious – about workaholics. Your friend pulled up behind you, suggesting she is from your past, or that your workaholic beliefs (that you may have not been considering) have now caught up with you for examination.
The cinema is a place where you go to see movies. Dreams use word play and I’m struck by the movies (movement) on the one hand and you waiting in your car (stopped) on the other. A great approach to interpreting a dream is to look for opposites, such as moving and not moving. When you identify a pair of opposites in a dream you identify a possible issue the dream is addressing: in this case, the issue of moving forward versus waiting. Is this an issue in your life right now?
A car often symbolises drive and motivation so waiting in your car may reflect a situation where you have lost motivation or made a conscious decision to hold back on driving yourself for a while.
Once you meet your workaholic beliefs, change is in the air (she wants to change her clothes AND you drive your car). Have you been a workaholic in the past or have workaholics influenced your approach to work? For example, you may be fearful of becoming a workaholic. Could your old beliefs about workaholics (your tendencies or your fears) have brought you to a standstill and a need to evaluate where you are going, a need to make some changes?
Your workaholic beliefs were clothed in business attire and they now seek a change. Are you considering moving away from working in the business arena to work in a non-corporate environment? Or are you fearful of working in the corporate world because you fear (consciously or unconsciously) becoming a workaholic? If so, are these fears well grounded, or is it time to change the beliefs underlying the fear to free yourself to enter the corporate world or to release you from being driven into the opposite camp – the non corporate arena?
Your workaholic wore grey before she made the change. What feeling does the colour grey give you? How do you feel when you wear grey? Your friend wore a light grey top over a darker grey skirt, suggesting “shades of grey”. Shades of grey may be ways of blending black and white thinking, or they may be shades of grey because they lack the colours of the full spectrum. Contemplate grey and shades of grey and ask yourself how these help you to understand your beliefs about workaholics and how these beliefs have affected the way you feel about work.
Focus on identifying a belief that has been a foundation for your own working style. If you are ready to change this belief you may wish to do a Give Back the Belief dream alchemy practice, as suggested next:
DREAM ALCHEMY PRACTICE
Giving back the belief:
By now you have probably worked out a belief relating work attitudes from your past that is affecting your current situation.
First write down that belief in one sentence, “I believe that …” Then write down the name of the person who you learned that belief from. Then write down a new belief to replace the old one. Now you’re ready to give back the original belief. Use the example below as a guide on how to do this.
How to do this:
Here’s an example. You can adapt it to suit the belief you are ready to give back:
(From DREAM ALCHEMY, page 67.)
“A little boy was taught that ‘boys don’t cry’ and ‘fathers don’t hug their sons’. Of course this little one desperately needed to cry or be hugged along the way, but he grew up to hold back his tears and keep an emotional distance from those he loved. On the surface all was cool, but deep inside that little boy lived on, still crying rejected, unloved tears. He took on the beliefs of his father and suffered as a result.
To perform this Giving Back the Belief dream alchemy practice this man imagines going back to meet himself as a little child and hugs this child. He tells him that he can now give his father back this belief that boys don’t cry and fathers don’t hug because it belongs to the father, not to the child. The grown man helps the child to do this, in the visualisation, and sees the father agree to take back the belief. In its place the grown man must give the child a new belief to replace the old. He chooses to give the belief, ‘It’s good for boys and men to cry when they need to and to hug and express their feelings’.”
Make sure that when you give back a belief you replace it with a better belief, otherwise it is likely to be filled by another unsuitable belief.
How does this work?
The beliefs you carry are not set in concrete. You borrowed them from other people so you can give them back. Since dreams usually show the person you borrowed the belief from, that person is the perfect symbol to use to communicate with your unconscious mind. Like any symbol, the person lives on in your mind not as the actual person, but as part of your unconscious language. By communicating with the person-symbol through dream alchemy you give back your belief – you reprogram your unconscious mind.
More details on Giving Back the Belief as a Dream Alchemy Practice in: “Dream Alchemy”, by Jane Teresa Anderson, pages 336-7.
Jane Teresa Anderson
You can consult with Jane Teresa or her Dream Team and receive your interpretation by email within five working days.
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