soulful

Twin dreams

~ Nicole Gnutzman
twins
From Carl Jung’s Red Book

I dreamt–my Canadian English is showing–of twin girls twice. About two months apart. What is it about twins and the number two?

In the first dream, they were clad in black robes (a bit scary) and in the second they were in a basement (a Jungian therapist would have a heyday with that) and I could not get to them because I was blind–clearly I was not seeing something.

In dream analysis, when a dream figure or scenario recurs, it means the dreamer has not understood and integrated the message of the dream. Dreams tend to exaggerate for effect. In other words, if we don’t get the message the first time, the next dream will be even bigger, bolder, and always more dramatic, so we pay attention.

So, I played around with the idea of twins. First, I’m a Gemini. It could be related, but this felt deeper and more significant. After all, the twins were either clothed in dark robes or in the darkness. Geminis tend to be more lighthearted than that.

Darkness, in the Jungian sense, connotes the world of the unconscious, the shadowy aspects of ourselves that we tend to ignore, repress or negate. Hmmm, there could be something there.

A bit intimidated by that and not really wanting to go there, I thought of Castor and Pollux, the twin brothers in Roman mythology, who became the constellation Gemini, but they are the wrong gender, well, only wrong in that they weren’t female. No aha’s there.

Perplexed, I decided to drink some cacao (I’ll be writing a post about my passion for raw cacao soon) and reflect. It was early evening and I decided to sit out on the deck of our cabin nestled in the redwoods. As I sat down and took the first delicious sip, two black buzzards (known in South America by the more majestic name, Condor, which I quite prefer) circled above me soaring and floating on the wind. Their twin flight was so devastatingly beautiful that I began to tear up. And then just as suddenly as they came, they were gone.

And do you know what? I made no connection whatsoever in that moment to my dream. It wasn’t until I told my husband, Scott, about the buzzards, ahem Condors, and he started laughing that I made the connection. Again, twins in black, only this time they were “clothed” in feathers and appeared in real life.

What came to me next in my cacao bliss was the concept of duality. Not duality in terms of good and evil, but rather in terms of emotions or states of being: joy and sadness, innocence and what? What exactly is the opposite of innocence? Wisdom? For an adult, yes, but, in the case of children, the opposite of innocence is a term I will loosely call, “grownupness.” And the twin girls were clearly children–about the age of nine or so.

And then it clicked. When I was nine, my father became very ill, suffering from kidney failure. He lived, but was on dialysis for many years until he finally received a kidney transplant. And everything in our lives changed. It felt as if a part of him had died. And a part of me. The joyful and innocent part. I had to grow up very fast.

The message that I deciphered from my dreams was that I needed to acknowledge and reclaim all my twin feelings to feel whole again. There is such awesome beauty in that.

Dreams can be such wonderful teachers, showing us where we are and where we need to go in terms of our self-development. My twin dreams became a beautiful gift to my soul.

 

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.