Soul messages

~ Nicole Gnutzman
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Dreams are whispers from the soul

I’ve been working with my dreams for some time now, curious about and entranced by them because when I’m seeking an answer to or grappling with an issue in my life, they not only are more vivid, so that I recall them when I awake, they also are more profound. It’s undeniable that they have a message for me if only I can decipher it.

Some scientists and researchers believe that dreams are merely the body’s way of discharging energy or processing and organizing events of the day. If that’s true, then why do we dream about people we’ve never met or encounter things we’ve never experienced? Hmmm.

Our dreams may have more intelligence and purpose than mere energy dissipation or memory organization. If we can accept that the language of our dreams is symbolic and not literal, then dreams may have intricate messages for us that we can decode and from which we can learn. And that’s exciting stuff….

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“The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul.”  – Carl Jung

Dr. Carl Jung, the preeminent psychoanalyst, in exhaustively analyzing his own dreams, discovered that “the dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul.” He believed that our dreams seek to “express something that the ego does not know and does not understand” and that by looking more closely at the symbolism of our dreams we can begin to find meaning not just of the dream but for ourselves.

Jung determined that the figures in our dreams are not literal (your husband is not actually your husband in your dream), rather they are symbolic; they stand for an archetypal energy that is trying to get your attention in some way. Oftentimes, it is an energy or aspect of yourself that wants or needs to be acknowledged and integrated. So, let’s say your husband was a bit reckless while a car driving in your dream,  you may want to look at whether you have been reckless recently and if slowing down would bring more balance to the situation. With Jung, a healthy, integrated self is all about finding balance and wholeness. And that’s a good thing, right?

My dreams have allowed me powerful and clarifying insights into aspects of myself that I did not know I needed to acknowledge or accept. When I take the time to record my dreams, decipher their meaning–what the symbols mean to me, not what dream interpreters claim they mean–and come to that “aha” moment where things click, I do feel more whole.

“Only the dreamer can know what a dream means.”– Jeremy Taylor, Dreamwork: Techniques for Discovering the Creative Power in Dreams

There’s so much more to share about understanding our dreams and how these messages that come from our soul can restore us to our true selves. I have a dream that I very much want to share with you, but it can wait for another blog post. Sweet dreams….

 

You are beautiful….

~ Nicole Gnutzman

IMG_2310So, today I had my annual eye exam. Hmm, you’re probably thinking, what does this have to do with the soul’s path? Eyes are the windows to the soul? Yes, they are, but that’s not quite where this post is going.

During the exam, my optometrist and I talked about our families, how our teenagers were coping with school and my coaching business, and we shared stories about past and upcoming trips to faraway lands as we always do. She was attentive, authentic and genuinely interested in our conversation.

As I was paying at the front desk, I mentioned to the two assistants how much I loved my doctor, who clearly cares deeply about her patients. In fact, I have been so impressed by her caring soul and soulful practice that I have been going to her ever since I moved to the Bay area, which is over 10 years ago now, even though I no longer live in the city. Based on my glowing recommendation, my husband sees her too.

Her assistants enthusiastically agreed with me and said the reason they had worked there for so many years was because of how caring and wonderful both doctors are (she and her husband both manage the practice). They clearly loved working there. And that was when one of the assistants smiled and gave me a sticker that said, “You are beautiful.” It so touched my heart, I graciously accepted it.

Intrigued by its effect on me, I turned it over and spied a URL: you-are-beautiful.com. A quick Google search and here’s what it had to say, “You Are Beautiful is more than a little sticker, it’s an idea. It’s a way to brighten someone’s day, a way to pat a stranger on the back, a way to remind ourselves that even when things aren’t going great, it’s ok.” How beautiful is that?

And if you send them a self-addressed envelope, they will send you five stickers for free, so you can touch the hearts of five more people. I’m going to be all over that! We need more love and soulful expression in the world.

It’s amazing how a small act of acknowledging the caring soul of my doctor turned into a little love fest, stickers and all!

Did I happen to mention that the assistant who gave me the sticker was wearing fabulously stylish glasses, of course; a sleek suit with slim, fitted pants that grazed the ankle displaying to full effect his gorgeous turquoise socks? Now that was one outfit with pure soul. Right back at you, beautiful.

 

 

Synchronicity & the soul’s unfolding

~ Nicole Gnutzman
“To ascribe an intention to chance is a thought which is either the height of absurdity or the depth of profundity–according to the way we understand it.”
– Arthur Schopenhauer
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The soul unfolds itself like the lotus of a thousand petals. – Kahlil Gibran

When you travel all the way to Guatemala on a spiritual whim (one might more politely call it a quest) in search of clarity about your soul’s path and meet by seeming chance or coincidence someone seeking what you are creating and who offers to be your first client, that quite simply is the beauty of synchronicity….

Intrigued by my encounter with synchronicity, I delved deeper wanting to understand its meaning, and began reading Carl Jung, who intimately explored the concept and coined the term synchronicity to explain “meaningful coincidence.” And then just the other day, I came across a book in the library entitled Soul Moments, a delightful collection of real life stories about synchronicity by Phil Cousineau.

Cousineau describes an experience of synchronicity as “marked by elegance, symmetry, vividness, suddenness, poetry, or a truth that speaks to the heart.” One could add the word “profound” to his list of evocative terms to echo Schopenhauer.

Of course, there are those of us who vehemently deny meaningful coincidence, claiming it to be random, pure chance or patently absurd. Chances are that synchronicity might not show itself to that person, perhaps in fear of being mocked, or if it did, the person might be carelessly dismissive. Then there are others, who are oblivious or blind to synchronicity; they have lost the ability to gaze in wonder at the world and the mystery of life. I was one of the oblivious ones not all that long ago; in fact, it’s been exactly 10 years. And that was when my life began to unfold in mysterious ways. But that’s a whole other story for another time….

It is precisely when we are lost and most vulnerable and in our deepest, darkest moments that synchronicity most often shows up. Cousineau suggests that these synchronous moments are “the times of sheer grace when an outward event coincides with inner changes and it feels as if our very destiny is affected.” We receive an outward sign or an answer, sometimes that seems ridiculous and other times that is definitive and sublime, which informs us of what we must go do, often healing us in the process. And thus begins the unfolding of our souls.

If you have a personal story of synchronicity you would like to share, please send it along to nicole@soulscapecoaching.com as I would love to read it! And if you are still one of us who does not believe or is blind to it, perhaps synchronicity will come upon you in such a way that you are seized and gently shaken by the moment and see its grace.

This post is dedicated to a dear friend, who just yesterday shared a personal story of healing synchronicity, and who just happens to have known Phil Cousineau many years ago. To the beauty of synchronicity and her soul’s unfolding.

 

 

 

Celebrate the ceremony of life

~ Nicole Gnutzman
Ceremony creates change. Live your life as a ceremony, and this will lead you to a process of positive change, following a path of spirit, and allowing you to ride a different wave in your life.
~ Sandra Ingerman, Walking in the Light: the Everyday Empowerment of a Shamanic Life

I never was one much for ceremony. Sure, I cried at funerals and weddings, the emotion simply overcoming me, sometimes without warning and almost always surprising me, but pomp and circumstance would leave me dry eyed and even a bit bored. What was all the fuss about? What was missing for me was the meaning behind it all, a deeply felt connection to the true spirit of ceremony.

IMG_1545And then I discovered another kind of ceremony, and it involved chocolate, actually raw cacao. My life and my perception of ceremony changed forever.

I first came across cacao ceremony in the movie, Chocolat, with Johnny Depp (Roux) and Juliette Binoche (Viane)–I’m not sure which character I fell more in love with. In the movie, Viane’s father, a pharmacist, travels to South America to discover plant remedies, and is introduced to cacao and seduced both by it and Viane’s eventual mother. I too found myself seduced by its power to “unlock hidden yearnings and reveal destinies.”

I trained as a chocolatier because of that one line in the movie (I truly wanted to find my destiny and thought chocolate was it), and I began to seek out cacao ceremony, which at the time was a hard thing to find. When I found it, and a teacher, I went deep into that world.

Cacao ceremony opened a whole new world to me–one of infinite abundance, connection to spirit, reverence for the earth, compassion for myself and others, and a deeper knowing. It’s hard to believe that all that magic can come from a little cacao bean.

I came to understand that in the indigenous world, ceremony is a part of daily life, honoring the connection we have with the elements (earth, wind, fire and water), life and death, and rites of passage. The meaning and significance of each ceremony is clear and is a way to deeply acknowledge and accept change as a part of life.

Ceremony, in reconnecting us to life itself, allows us to feel compassion for ourselves and others, deepen our connection to our true selves, and understand that we are part of something much bigger and more beautiful. It is then that the change we want to open ourselves to becomes truly possible. Our fears slowly drop away as we realize, as Sandra Ingerman so eloquently shares, that spirit wants to guide us through change and we can ride that wave through life.

What becomes possible when we honor the ceremony in our lives? For me, authentic, meaningful ceremony offers and creates an opening to true connection, compassion and change. And that is a reason to celebrate.