"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." --Eleanor Roosevelt We spend ⅓ of our lives asleep, and much of that time in a dream state. In the dream state, our subconscious is in the driver’s seat: working on problems and communicating with our conscious minds through metaphor and without an understanding of the context of time and space. By using hypnosis and dream journaling, you can open the door to remembering and working with your dreams to reap the benefits of these messages and close communication.
Dream Work: Key Tips Set yourself up for success. Make sure you give yourself the optimal conditions for restful and uninterrupted sleep. Avoid eating any rich or heavy foods too soon before going to sleep. Sugary foods have also been known to contribute to strange dreams and fitful sleep patterns. Your mileage may vary. Dream journaling is essential. Soon after starting your dream work with a hypnotherapist or using self-hypnosis, it’s helpful to have a list of dreams you’ve captured over the previous few days, weeks or months. By documenting these dreams in your dream journal, you'll have a list to work with as well as a resource for deeper introspection and interpretation over time. Focus on one dream at a time. Working with a specific dream is the best place to start when developing your intuition around dreams and their messages, and will jump start the hypnotherapy process. An entire dream is not required. In fact, even a snippet, fragment or basic plot, theme or feeling will be sufficient, as long as there’s enough interest in pursuing it. The more “juice” (emotional or spiritual energy) around the dream the more likely you’ll see results. Create list of questions about the dream. Before a hypnotherapy session, write down what you’d like to understand about the dream. Don’t worry about capturing all of the aspects or nuances of meaning at first glance. The hypnotherapy process itself will help uncover each layer of meaning at precisely the right time for you to receive it. The dream “ego”. This is the main character in each dream - which may or may not be you in your daily life (it could be another person, animal or even an inanimate object). The dream ego is the dreamer’s self image or the consciousness of the one having the dream. Dream Work Hypnotherapy Program Session One - Meeting Your Dreammaker During the session: You’ll journey to a sacred Dream Temple and Garden Sanctuary to meet your Dreamweaver. While there, you’ll share your intentions for dream work and make any formal requests to the Dreamweaver about the types of dreams you’d like to have in the coming days and weeks. Post session: Set up your Dream Journal close to the bed, a booklight, and pencil or pen. In your journal, record the following: your emotions upon waking, how those evolve as you document the dream images, characters, messages and other insights (what type of dream is it? Have I had it before? What does it remind me of? etc). Consider making drawings of the environment or surroundings in your journal as well. Session Two - Dream Collaboration During the session: You’ll meet with your Dreamweaver and be guided to sacred Dream Temple. Here you will enter the dream environment, and absorb the full setting of the dream through each of your senses. Explore and access the entire map of the dream and discover key insights through re-experiencing it under hypnosis. Post-Session: Document in your dream journal through narrative and sketches what you discovered about this dream. What are the key takeaways? Insights? How did it feel to re-enter this specific dream? Session Three - Dream Work in the Sand During the session: Using a specific dream as a focus, you’ll re-create the dream environment, characters, and plot elements using a sand tray. In doing so, you’ll tap into your creative subconscious for additional understanding, healing, and integration of the dream and its messages. Post Session: After creating your sand tray, make sure to take a photo and/or map. Often you may discover additional insights that continue to unfold as you contemplate the dream environment you created in the sand. Document these experiences and insights in your dream journal. Session Four: Advanced Dream Work: Lucid Dream Skill Rehearsal OR Seeding a Dream During the Skill Rehearsal session: Your hypnotherapist will guide you through the process of preparing for sleep and a lucid dream. For the best results, skill rehearsal processes like this one are customized to your specific emotional, physical and spiritual experiences and choice of language with respect to lucid dreaming. Post Session: As with all other dream work sessions, document your experience in your dream journal. For the best results, listen to a sleep hypnosis recording to reinforce the skill rehearsal work you did with your hypnotherapist. During the Seeding a Dream session: Your hypnotherapist will guide you to meet your Dreamweaver and enter the sacred Dream Temple and Garden where you’ll choose the specific “seeds” and place in the garden where you’d like your dream to grow. Post Session: As with all other dream work sessions, document your experience in your dream journal. Draw the specific garden you experienced, with the dream “crop” growing tall and strong in the garden, or whatever the image might be (e.g. thick vines heavy with grapes, or huge root veggies digging deep in the earth, or juicy fruit dangling from tall branches, etc). Gaze at these images you’ve drawn and re-experience them right before you fall asleep. Are you ready to try Dream Work for yourself? If so, book an appointment today. As with many energy healing therapies, dream work will enable you to reconnect to your inner wisdom and help you stay tuned. Interested in learning how to become a hypnotherapist? There are lots of great hypnotherapy training programs - both online and IRL. For online programs, check out the iNLP Center. I received my CCHT certification at the HCH Institute, which offers online and in-person training in Hypnotherapy, Reiki, Shamanism, and other energy healing modalities.
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“What does the wind look like?” I didn’t know how to answer. My young and curious friend often asked me these types of questions and I was always so happy to answer them. Her questions helped me see the world in an entirely new light. A light that only the blind could see. “C’mon, tell me. What does the wind look like?” Another long pause. And then an impatient sigh. "No one will ever tell me for some reason. That can only mean one thing.” “Oh yeah?” I asked. “What?” “It must be really ugly. But what’s confusing is that it only seems ugly in the winter.” The sun was warm on our skin, and the wind brought salty smells of the ocean which was not far away. When I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine the gentle breezes kissing my eyelids. “Whenever something or someone is ugly, and I ask someone to tell me what they look like, usually all I ever hear are either barely audible gasps or awkward pauses and starts and stutters... But actually you’ve been completely silent this whole time.” “Wind is invisible to the eye.” I responded. “Mostly, it’s invisible. To be more precise, you can’t see it but you can see its effects.” I provided a few examples, covering the wide spectrum of these effects: from the ugliness of harsh storms to the sweet summer breezes we were experiencing now. She took it all in. After a few moments, she spoke, with confidence this time, without a trace of the irritation she shared with me earlier. “The most powerful things in life are invisible, aren’t they?” Yes. When I think of powerful, invisible forces that have consequential impacts that we all see, hear, and experience, emotions are the first thing that comes to my mind. Emotions are truly powerful, and their sources are often hidden and mysterious yet they drive behavioral impacts that we all see, hear, taste, smell, and experience.
Speaking of seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling, there’s a very close connection between our senses and our emotions. In fact, one of the first lessons we receive as hypnotherapy students is how to use our client’s senses to deepen their hypnotic experience and facilitate healing. The term we use for this process is AVKTO (pronounced “avocado”) which represents: A = auditory (hearing) V = visual (sight) K = kinesthetic (bodily sensations) T = tactile (touch) O = olfactory (smell) So, as I'm inducing relaxation with my clients, and guiding them along a path to greater self-awareness in their “special place” (counting up from 1-10), I'm also activating their senses as much as possible. For example, “1, notice how the path feels on the bottom of your feet, 2, look to the left and the right of the path, 3, deeper and deeper relaxed, 4, imagine the sounds you’ll hear in your special place…5,..." Throughout the hypnotic experience, I’ll ask my clients to notice what they may see, hear, sense, feel, or smell. This deepens their relaxation, as well as tightens the connection between their subconscious mind, their emotions, and their body - all of which facilitates healing. It’s important to note: not everyone experiences hypnosis in the same way, every single time. For example, some folks are primarily visual, some are visual and auditory, others may be primarily kinesthetic, and still others may incorporate all of their senses under hypnosis. And each time you experience hypnosis you may have a different experience, depending upon how deeply relaxed you are, or what the particular issue you’re working on happens to be. What is clear is that the more you experience hypnosis and hypnotherapy, the faster and easier it will be for you to relax, and the more rich the experience will become. Other key take-aways: *Keep an open mind - try not to have too many specific expectations. The more open you are to whatever happens, the more expansive the possibilities for healing. At the same time, trust your gut and make sure you feel protected, grounded and focused on your intentions for healing. *Avoid comparisons - you may hear from others about their amazing, other-worldly experience that has completely opened them up, and you may feel a bit jealous or left out. This is your ego talking, don’t take the bait. You’re getting what you need in precisely the way you need it. *Remember, you’re in control - this isn’t stage hypnosis where the intention is to entertain the audience (often at your expense). As your hypnotherapist, I’m your guide. I facilitate the process and follow your subconscious wherever it takes us. With your higher self and inner wisdom directing us, you’re in full control and can stop the hypnosis - by opening your eyes - at any time. *Use self-hypnosis - with self-hypnosis, you can work on flexing your hypnotic and sensory muscles - all on your own time and in your own way. I wrote this article which outlines each of the steps in the self-hypnosis process in case you’re ready to give it a whirl. In the meantime, stay tuned. |
Sandy HawkeThese blog articles offer pragmatic tips on how to tune into your own inner wisdom. Archives
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