Dreams
Sleep Restores Body, Mind And Spirit
There is a saying ‘our issues are in our tissues,’ meaning our stress, fears and worries show up in our bodies. Keeping our body, mind, and spirit back in harmony and balance is essential for all of us. It ensures inner peace and well-being.
The restorative power of sleep and dreams has been a specific pursuit of mine in recent months. It has been my mission to reach that sweet spot for my body’s wake-sleep-dream rhythm and I have been discovering more of the magic that sleep and dreams can offer.
I find when I have good sleep, I remember my dreams more often. This not only helps with daily problem-solving, since my mind is at rest and not resistant, but I also receive valuable guidance and spiritual reassurance on matters I am worried about. Sleep and dreaming also help us process our emotions from our experiences of stress and trauma during our waking hours.
The dream state is also a time when we are free to explore and find new inspiration. We are in a world of our own making that belongs to only us. And the possibilities are truly endless; even time travel, prophetic dreams, loved ones coming to visit.
In the Harry Potter book The Prisoner of Azkaban, Dumbledore tells Snape not to wake Harry: “Let him sleep. For in dreams, we enter a world that is entirely our own. Let him swim in the deepest ocean or glide over the highest cloud.”
I’m a bit of a technology nerd, so that makes sleeping and dreaming even more of adventure. There are many cool technologies available these days to improve our sleep time. There are watches and other devices to create a record of not only time slept, but even quality of sleep, heart rate and other interesting facts. There are also amazing phone apps streaming sleep meditations and white noise.
I keep a journal to write down my dreams before I rise, and I also to jot down before I fall asleep those questions and life challenges I need answers for. It has further been my experience that you can even reach out in your dreams to loved ones who have passed for advice or guidance, especially if they had a passion for something you need help with.
Spirit’s Calling Cards Are Everywhere
Both experienced and novice psychics will tell you the spirit realm is in constant contact with the physical world. Although spirit may not communicate in the way we do, their messages are constantly here for us to see, hear and feel – if we know how and where to look for it.
The spirit realm exists beyond our time and space, but spirit is still able to interact with us. Hollywood movies would have us believe they can make objects float through the air, but it’s much more subtle than that.
Interference with electronic devices, such as clocks or laptops, is common when spirit is present. Take note if your computer seems stuck on a particular page or a clock stops at a certain time. Your spirit guardian may be sending an important message.
Static physical objects like family pictures may also change in the presence of a departed loved one. You may notice a photograph becoming blurrier or curling up on one side. Sometimes the frame is shifted or moved.
Take a walk outside every day. Are you seeing birds or butterflies? Both are messengers of spirits, so pay close attention to what you see, including their colors and patterns, and look up the meaning later. If you’re lucky a butterfly may land on you. Up in the skies, cloud formations, rainbows, and falling stars are all associated with spiritual messages.
Psychic or intuitive experiences is another way spirits speak to us. Have you ever felt like you ‘hear your name’ being spoken or called, or ‘feel the touch’ of a hand on your shoulder, while you are alone in a room? This is a sure sign a spirit presence is nearby.
Embrace Your Endless Possibilities
No matter how psychic we are (or think we are), we are not! We all have a lot more to develop and learn. The possibilities of the Universe are endless, and so are we. When I just begin to think about this, it becomes truly mind-boggling. There are a lot more to us than most of us realize. Only the end of each lifetime, when we cross over into the spirit realm, do we really comprehend the true purpose and potential of our chosen life paths. Until then the wise thing to do is make a real daily effort with our spiritual practice and personal growth.
I have been dealing with some physical health problems in recent years, but I refuse to think of myself as ill. I am constantly working on myself psychically, while I am also physically following the doctor’s advice. I just do what I have to do. A wisdom I must share is that when we are physically unwell, we should never just rely on the spiritual or metaphysical. We must also rely on our medical doctor and other professional healthcare providers. Modern medical science is a gift from God and we must use it in our lives for our highest good. Science and spirituality works hand-in-hand.
I have also been working on past life healing a lot lately using both meditation during the day, and dreamwork at night. Before I sleep, I ask my higher self or subconscious self to reveal information to me about my former lives, while I am in the dream state. It is fascinating. You know how we dream and forget the dreams when we awake? Well, those dreams seem to hang in our memories, and they come up in our memories throughout the day.
Recently, I dreamed of a busy, happy lady, walking through food markets, and all kinds of crowded markets. She looked like she was wrapped in a beautiful violet fabric. I saw a mark on her third eye. She was smiling, waving hello to everyone! Everyone was calling her “Anika.” I swear I never heard that name before, but it did seem like it might have been my name in a former life. I will continue to work on this; I guess my higher self feels it’s time for me to learn more about her.
Grandma’s Love Was The Best
I remember what Grandma was wearing when she passed away. I also recall exactly what she said and everything else that happened that day, right down to the violets I picked in the backyard to place in her hand. She was wearing an oversized Winnie the Pooh T-shirt that could have been a night dress, I’m not sure. She had her red robe on and black slippers lined with greyish fluff.
She was told she was being taken to the nursing home, but it was actually hospice she would be going to. She could no longer walk and had fallen, and no one was able to pick her up. Not even myself. I wish I could, but I just was not able to.
I sensed she wasn’t to going be with us very much, and I was very upset about it. But constantly having to give her blood transfusions and her being in so much pain, it was the right decision at the time. I have made peace with that now.
Settling her into the hospice, Grandma was adamant the bed be taken out, as it was unbearably uncomfortable. She kept saying, “I just want to go home and die. This is no way to live. I’m ready to go.” She also told me, if I ever needed her after she had gone, all I would have to do is call her name, and she would be there for me. Grandma kept her promise to me. To this day I still feel her around me all the time, especially when I think of her and call her name.
I think the worst thing I ever experienced in my entire life was walking into that hospice room after she had passed and seeing her shell of a body. She was no longer there, obviously, but she was still around. I felt she was somewhere in the room looking at us and saying her goodbyes.
Pain had made her very bitter towards the end of her life. She wasn’t herself anymore because she was on so many different strong medications and invasive treatments. I sensed that she longed to be with her departed husband and her dear mother who passed when she was just a young girl. Her mom was also a psychic and apparently really good with things like Numerology and dreaming lucky numbers. I loved hearing all those stories.
When You Hear Things…
My grandson, his wife and their two-year-old boy, as well as their cat and dog, recently all came to live with me for a couple of months, while waiting to move into their new home. Normally my house is exceptionally quiet, so I absolutely enjoyed the noisy hustle and bustle of having a young family under my roof.
Because both parents work, their son goes to day care twice a week. They leave just after 6am in the morning and he is picked up again at 3pm at the end of his mom’s workday. The entire time they stayed with me this schedule never wavered.
Late one morning, just before noon, I was sitting quietly in my chair catching up on some knitting. I was home alone and there was little going on in the house, aside from the regular activity of the cat and dog. It therefore took me by surprise when I suddenly heard a child crying?
The wailing sound briefly came from the kitchen area, where the back door is located. I thought I was imagining things, so went back to knitting. All was quiet for a few minutes, but then the crying started again! Subconsciously, I assumed it must be my granddaughter who was home early with her son, so I expected them to come into the living room soon. But nothing further happened.
Then I heard the crying again. This time it was loud and clear enough that I had to get up and investigate. But there was no one to be found in the kitchen. I looked out the window thinking maybe they might have gone back to the car, except there was nothing in the driveway. I then opened the back door, but there was no one there. I then decided I was either imagining things, or maybe it was the cat or dog I heard.
Lucid Dreaming
When we experience a lucid dream we are aware that we are dreaming. Dreamers also report that when they are having a lucid dream, they seem to be able to control the dream to some extent and they also tend to remember them better. In my experience it is like being half asleep and half awake. One time, I actually got up for a drink of water in the middle of a lucid dream, went back to bed, and continued my dream right where I left off!
For me lucid dreaming feels like being in the state of hypnosis – a ‘light’ state of hypnosis in which you have some control over how the session goes. You are in the dream state, but still aware of things around you. You are in a have heightened state of awareness.
Everyone I have discussed the subject of lucid dreaming with usually say they enjoy the experience. Some even say they wish they could stay is that frame of mind longer. When you lucid dream, write down your experience. Enjoy the movie of your mind.
The term ‘lucid dream’ was coined in 1913 by Dutch psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden in his article A Study of Dreams. It usually happens during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. When we sleep cycle through phases of non-REM and REM. REM sleep happens about an hour to 90 minutes after we fall asleep and this is when we tend to have vivid dreams.
It is estimated that at last 50 percent of adults have experienced at least one lucid dream in their lifetime. I have them all the time. The first lucid dream I can remember was when I was about thirteen years old. I was having a lucid dream of talking to my dad. But unlike our normal waking interactions, this conversation went exactly as I wanted it to go. I asked if he would let me go to New York for three weeks, and he said yes!
Since that time, it became increasingly common for me to slip into the lucid dream state. For me it usually happens in the morning, as I am waking up, but then going halfway back to sleep.
Strategies For Manifesting A Successful Relationship
Over the years I have worked with many clients who either want to improve an existing relationship or manifest a new relationship. In these readings, spirit consistently suggests three simple spiritual practices that can radically change our relationships and romantic energy.
We tend to get stuck by over-analyzing and over-thinking our love lives, to the extent that we develop a lot of emotional charge and resistance in relationship matters. With the guidance of spirit, I have found these three simple strategies to be very helpful in moving our love energy in a more healthy and happy direction, in a very short time. Try these strategies in your daily spiritual practice. It could help you finally step into the love life of your dreams!
Dreamwork
Begin your relationship work in the dream state. Before going to bed each night, ask your angels, guides and higher self to invite your current love partner, new love interest or a future partner to join you for an ‘astral date.’ I like to think of it as ‘etheric couples counseling’ on the astral plane.
Meeting your lover in your dreams can ignite a significant energy shift in your relationship life, which will eventually translate into the emotional, mental and physical realms. In this altered state of consciousness the higher selves of you and your partner do the work with the support of spirit. The limitations, judgments and preconceptions of your ego or ‘lower self’ are all deactivated while you are asleep and in the dream state, and therefore unable to interrupt or interfere with the process.