Image / gostica



As I look around the world, as I go about my life, here and there I can run into snags. I may encounter hitches and glicks, I may worry momentarily over something done or not done, or may I see something that seems like a problem coming my way. All part of being human, and to practice is to notice these moments, observe my reactions to them, to pause and breathe and choose a more skillful response. Nothing new there. But for a couple weeks now, there is something new, a thought I'd not had before. Lately, when I'm considering a problem (or considering whether there is a problem at all), I keep having this thought:

"Countless generations before you have dreamed of being here, where you are in this moment. Countless beings would kill and die in order to have this set of gifts and troubles in front of them, to have the chance to think about and discuss these issues, to have the freedoms to act and choose that you have in this moment. Countless beings have lived and died in hopes of reaching a moment just like this one..."

Every time I have this thought, it tends to shift my perspective about whatever I'm contemplating, pulling me back to a larger viewpoint, softening the heart and mind a bit, allowing a spacious clarity to arise. And it also brings with it thoughts of my ancestors - a sense of connection to them and an appreciation for their dreams and the efforts they made here before me. I know so little about so many of them, but I know that one doesn't leave home (especially lands of great beauty) lightly. What impelled them to leave all things known, travel to distant lands, and create a new life from scratch? How many of their dreams were realized in their lifetimes, and how many of their dreams might live in my own heart and blood? How much of my own path has been informed by the longing and support of those beings both unknown to me and yet woven into my bones?

For many immigrants, the desire to assimilate inspires a decided obliteration of the past. The old stories, the old knowledge, the old ways are left in the old land, and pushed into dusty corners of the hearts and minds of the relocated. I know nothing of the traditions, the habits, the humors of my Swiss ancestors. I know none of the colorful stories of my Irish kin, nothing of the loves and losses that inflamed their lives. We've been here too long, and those things were neither retained nor passed down along the way. At points in my life, this has felt like an amputation of sorts to me. An unsolvable mystery that surely held vital keys of understanding my presence here. Our past is a blank canvas.

While there's untold loss in that, there's also real freedom in it, and that is what I'm most aware of now. The spaciousness of it, the creative potential it must have offered to the several generations before me, that it offers to me now. For the first time, it occurs to me to consider that - freedom from the larger past - as a gift that my forebears hoped to offer. What could life be like if unconstrained by the demands and expectations of a tribe? What new dreams might arise out of one, were the old rules discarded? Where would we grow if we weren't looking only at models known to us? What would we do differently with our precious lives if we were unconcerned about the opinions of our elders?

It's a set of questions that I'm just beginning to explore in new ways as an individual, and perhaps they'll have relevance for other hearts and minds at this time, too. In my musing and thinking about these things over the past week, I found (as I'm wont to do) a poetic thread that relates: 

"The knowledge I'm interested in is not something you buy and then have and can be comfortable with. The knowledge I'm interested in keeps opening wider and wider, making me smaller and more amazed, until I see I cannot have it all - and then delight in that as a freedom."  -  Heather McHugh, Hinge and Sign

May you each enjoy your freedoms, and all the space you have to open wide, wider, wider still. And may you really live, may you truly delight in, every moment of this precious life. Happy Independence Day.


Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/

Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/

Image / Wissawa Cinnacotra


In the last post, we looked at what our dreams are, their importance in our lives, and what happens when we ignore or silence them. Hopefully, you were able to tune into some moments of inspiration and expansion over the ensuing days, and have an idea of a dream - however small - that wants expression through you. Writing down our inspirations is a wonderful way to begin noticing them, as well as remembering them for later tending. We forget easily, especially when we're first starting out on our dream-keeping path! From your list or from memory, call up one of the dreams that made itself felt to you. We'll use it today to learn how to begin keeping and cultivating, and what we learn can be applied to your future inspirations, too.

If at all possible, it's wonderful to stop and give ourselves a moment or two to be with, feel into, or listen to a dream when it first lands on our shoulder (or in our heart). We want to experience it as clearly as we can, letting it move us. This is a wonderful moment to write it down, sketch it out, envision it in our minds eye, or create any symbol that will help us reconnect to the essence of our dream later. How we record our dream will vary based on our personal creative strengths, so choose the method that makes the most sense to you. As we're describing or sketching or dancing our dream, we want to continue to feel it as fully as possible, merging our symbol or our notes with the feeling of the dream's essence. Some dreams take time to bring into reality, and this symbol or story or collage or video is going to help us stay focused on our dream with clarity when doubt, confusion, or lethargy arise along our way. We make ourselves a map of the dream, so that we can remember where we're headed.

We'll place our symbol, story, or map somewhere that we can engage with it regularly. Perhaps we place it somewhere we can see it when we arise each day, so we begin our day giving energy and attention to our dream. Perhaps we have a sacred space for prayer or meditation, and we place our map there, to give it our best and most focused attention after our spiritual practice. Perhaps it works best for us to have a picture of our map on our phone, so that we can revisit the image of our dream throughout the day. Maybe we do all of the above! As we revisit our dream map, we'll allow ourselves to feel into the essence of our dream again and again, and to draw the vision of it into ourselves as much as possible. In this part of our dream-keeping practice, we're not planning and executing and making lists, but rather opening to and receiving the dream. Opening and receiving, opening and receiving, opening and receiving. If new layers or components of our dream make themselves known as we do this, we can add them to our map, being sure to express our gratitude for the insight.

Next, we want to determine what real-life action steps are necessary to bring our dream to life. Do we have the skills and information needed to create it already, or do we need to seek out some advice or training? Do we need the help of others to make our dream happen? If yes, who? What are the step-by-step actions needed to take us from right here where we are now, to there? We write them down, as clearly as possible. If at any point we start to feel overwhelmed, we can pause this part of the practice and return to feeling into the dream for a few moments - this should energize us and return us to an expansive state of possibility. We can also step away for a short while and do something fun and relaxing unrelated to our dream.

Depending on the size and scale of our dream, we pick a reasonable committment - maybe we commit to one real-life action step towards our dream each week until it's realized. Perhaps an action step a day is more appropriate for us. Some dreams, once mapped and outlined in this way, will demand all of our attention until they're done - we might go all in and do it now! Decide what makes sense for your dream and your life, and then commit - regular steps will keep you connected to your dream, and lead you steadily toward bringing it into form. At any time you begin to feel discouraged, too bogged down with details or overwhelmed with the enormity of what you've entered into, simply back up a little bit in your vision, broaden your view, and return to feeling the dream as you did in it's inception. Stay in this less-focused, less-detailed, feeling-centered place until you feel rejuvenated. And when your second wind comes, bringing with it the clarity of your next right step, return to action and take that step! Wishing you all productive play with all the dreams you allow to come through you!


Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/

Image / Wissawa Cinnacotra


When was the last time you had an idea that lifted your energy, made you feel excited, alive, expansive and capable?

Consider that this was a dream, an opportunity, an invitation from Life. Perhaps you dreamed of creating an experience or an environment, of connecting with another, of sharing or dancing or singing. Perhaps you dreamed of allowing words to flow through you that would bring laughter, healing, or understanding. Perhaps you dreamed of moving the course of your life in an entirely new direction. Perhaps, just for a moment, a whole new reality became visible to you, fully felt and distinctly possible.

How did you meet your dream?

As powerfully creative and intimately connected beings, we are often receiving dreams - visions and inspirations that could become reality, were they given the proper care and attention. Countless influences in our lives encourage us to turn our attention away from our own dreams. When we do this, we feel unfulfilled and restless. We feel as though our lives are lacking in deep, important and often nameless ways.

How and why do we turn away from, or orphan our own dreams?

We're diverted and distracted from our dreams in so many ways! Perhaps we give ourselves to the dreams of others, more or less unconsciously. Perhaps we give the best of our attention to the drama of the moment, constantly reacting to a plentiful and never-ending drama that has nothing at all to do with what we're here to do. Perhaps we fill our schedules so brimmingly full that we never have an intimate moment with ourselves - a moment in which our dream could present itself to an uncluttered mind, an open and receptive heart. Perhaps we're always running from this conversation with ourselves.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open...”
- Martha Graham

Often we're diverted by fear. Fear can tell us we're not capable of holding our dreams, of carrying them into the light of day. That we're not big enough, bold enough, or strong enough. Fear can say "who do you think you are?!" Fear can tell us we're nuts for even thinking about it. "Nobody wants your dream anyway!" - fear may tell us our dreams are silly or indulgent, meaningless tripe. Fear can say that dreaming is a waste of our time. Hooey.

Sometimes we're diverted by the fear of others in our lives. We may run into criticism and judgment from those close to us, if they fear that our dreams may require some of the attention and time they currently receive from us. They may fear our growth as a result of tending to our dreams - they may worry we'll grow in ways they don't like, or in a way that doesn't support our mutual connection in the form it's in now. They may fear that our dreams will be successful, and that they'll feel small or diminished in comparison. They may criticize us because they had dreams they never cultivated in their own lives. They may harbor guilt and anger towards themselves which they're projecting onto us, because that feels safer than owning it. 

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. A miracle worker is an artist of the soul. There is no higher art than living a good life” - Marianne Williamson, from A Return to Love, p.165

Vitality and joy in our lives arise, in large part, from our relationship with the dreams and inspirations which have been planted within us. Even when they aren't successful, even when they're not what we'd envisioned. The process of tending to and developing our dreams grows us - in trust, confidence, and joy - with Ourselves and with Life. Chronically shrugging off our dreams begins to silence them, and brings us to increasing disconnection and dissatisfaction with life. Listening to our dreams, learning from them, and playing with them brings us some of the highest-grade energy we can experience as human beings.

In the next post, we'll look at some simple and specific ways that we can begin to play with and nurture our dreams. Over the coming week, I invite you to take note of the moments and the ideas that "light you up". Invite them to make themselves known to you, notice them when they bubble up, feel them as they do, and write them down. Keep your list handy to play with next time. Until then, breathe deeply, practice often, be well.


Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/   

Image / vegasisrael

I’ve been thinking lately about the power of individual and collective attention, about the importance of dreaming and visioning to any process of change, about the difference between magical thinking and the kind of hope and creativity necessary to plant and nourish what’s possible-but-yet-unseen. So often, my thinking brings me to this space - this online neural network we all create and support and feed on. When we log on, we effectively enter a larger nervous system - one that acts upon our individual system clearly and immediately - which accepts and weaves in our own individual impulses, ideas, and responses with those of our “friends” to create new states of being, new ideas, new rhythms of heart and blood, new possibilities. What we see, say, and experience here colors and informs our view of the world, our expectations about “where it’s going”, and our creative capacity to birth different visions for our lives and our world than those that are being fed to us by those who would profit from our fear and laziness, from our forgetting the power of our own word and thought.

I had a beautiful dream last week:

“A large crowd was gathered, sitting peacefully and attentively in a large room. This was like a town hall, but the meeting had more of the feel of an important tribal gathering. I had the sense that these meetings were happening all over the country, and as I looked around the room, I felt very proud of my community: Austin had arrived, bringing all of her healers and artists. The room was brimming with singers and seers, doctors and energy workers, poets and surgeons, photographers and midwives, mothers and painters and landscapers. Activists and architects. A child, perhaps 6 or 7, walked near me, and as she did so, I could hear all of the voices of nature typically beyond my ear, a music that took my breath away with it’s beauty. This little one, still playing with friends and going to school, was also a powerful medicine woman, under apprenticeship with another healer in the room. This room was bright and full of peace and love, the two woven into a solid and unwavering presence. While in my dream I did see faces, it was clear that this gathering was happening on a non-physical plane. We were all here to address the leaders of the world, to speak into being the world we knew was possible, a larger world like the one we’d already created within our small tribe. We were here to paint the vision for the leaders, to give them the dream. To hold it strong within our minds and hearts as it took root in theirs and among the larger land. To nourish it, fiercely. We were also here to say, and clearly, that THIS is the future we would accept. Without anger or violence, we brought a vision so strong that the other dream, the old one, could not continue to be held – that dream was lost. Into the world we were dreaming a people who cared for one another and treated with respect and honor all of the earth, her offspring, and all of her people. A people who valued harmony and creativity and recognized our responsibility to offer both to those among us. A people who saw their role as nurturers of the land, and of one another. A people who knew the great power of their attention, and who were committed to using it skillfully, never giving their power to lesser visions or to fear…”

This takes a great deal of attention and commitment on the individual level, yes. AND we have such wonderful opportunities here (online) to nourish our individual efforts with collective reinforcement.

What are you giving your attention to?

What messages are you pouring into our connected mind?

Are they building the world you want to dream us into?

If not, please let’s change that. We have a greater ability to connect and collaborate right now than ever before, at least in this real/virtual world. Let’s honor this space - this shared online gathering space, this collective nervous system, this mind-of-our-whole-tribe - as the sacred space that it is, with all the potential and power to respond to our shared thoughts and words that it does have. I am blessed to know so many incredible minds and gorgeous hearts that I hold great faith in our (humanity’s) ability to take back our dream, to redirect our attention, to revision our world. It is time now.


In Chains
by William Carlos Williams

When blackguards and murderers
under cover of their offices accuse
the world of those villainies
which they themselves invent to
torture us we must perforce either
join arms with them or bend
to their designs while our thoughts
gnaw, bite and snap within us
helplessly unless
from that we learn to avoid
being as they are, how love
will rise out of its ashes if
we will water it, tie up the slender
stem and keep the image of its
lively flower chiseled upon our minds


Dana Wyss Healing Arts
Breathe deeply, practice often, be well.
http://www.danawyss.com/