This post is about two lessons I learned this week, both of which came from an unexpected source. That’s the thing about life lessons, they rarely appear when it’s convenient or expected.
The first lesson arrived while I was on a Skype call with an acquaintance who I know from a Facebook group I belong to. I had done a reading for her a year before and we had decided to re-connect for an update. I took on the role of a coach during this call but it was in the message I gave to her, that the truth of it resonated for me as well.
I told her that if she wanted to move forward with her life and live the dreams she was talking to me about, she would have to declare her intentions to the world and the universe and that any project, course or opportunity that presented itself, and that she chose to take on in the next year, should connect somehow with that focused intention. Once she showed real intent to the universe, it would reward her with synchronicities and serendipitous events that would help her along towards her end goal. That is how manifesting a dream works, you have to show up and pay attention so you can catch it as it flies on by.
In that coaching moment, I knew this message was as much for me as it was for her. It’s rather ironic when the universe mirrors back a message that you have just spewed from your mouth so that you instantly see it as a lesson you need to hear as well. I saw my reflection in my words and understood the image I was seeing; I needed to walk the talk, I needed to live my own advice.
It is not enough to dream, and think, and hope, and plan, for some day out in the future. To have your dreams come true you need to declare them to the world and begin living them today.
That lesson in itself should have been enough to kick me into gear, but no, the universe needed to give me some extra context as well. Thus the second lesson.
I have this recurring dream where I am in a very large, older, classic home on a lake. The house needs cosmetic work but the bones are solid. In the dream I keep going from room to room envisioning how I plan to renovate. Sometimes I spend my dreamtime on the ground floor and sometimes I am up on the second floor which always seems bigger than the main floor but requires more work to be inhabitable. The property that the house sits on is beautiful, peaceful and calm. The land is mostly level with a gentle slope to the water’s edge and large, stately maples shading the property.
I never actually do any work in the dream, just plan and dream. My emotions are hopeful and my creativity is cranked up on high but there is a feeling that this house and the ability to actualize my plans for it are out there in the world of one day and some day.
This week, I had the dream again but this time when I woke up, I recognized the dream and decided to do a little research to figure out what it meant.
Now before I go any farther, let me say that I believe that dreams use the language of signs and symbolism to send messages of wisdom and advice to the dreamer. The meanings are as personal and as individual as each person alive but there are some classic dream symbols with common meanings applied to them. What alters that universal meaning and makes it unique for each person is the outlook and perspectives of the individual.
A house in a dream represent the self and just as each house is different, each interpretation of a house in a dream may be slightly different for each person who dreams of a house. This interpretation is from my perspective and may not represent your experience.
The house in my dream represents me and as it was a very large house it is showing me that I am not utilizing my full potential. My foundational outlook is solid but I am not showing my best effort as shown by the house’s need for renovations. My outer environment is calm and grounded and my emotions, represented by the lake (water equals emotions) are for the most part harmonious and at peace.
I equate the ground floor as my lower chakra’s and the upper floor, with infinitively more space and possibilities, as my upper chakra’s. So when I dream that I am mostly on the main floor of the house, I may need to work on energies that reflect my outlook on life; my confidence, what I fear, my position in my family and society and how and what I create. When I dream that I am mostly on the upper floor of the house, I need to be aware of my limiting beliefs, my intuition and my connection to source (God or universe).
These two lessons gave me a clear message, it’s time to stop dreaming. Make a choice, declare it to the world and begin living it. The potential is there waiting for a little elbow grease and creativity. My personal foundation is solid but my old, outdated beliefs are sorely in need of being renovated and revamped into a more current, up to date mindset that better reflects how I want to live going forward.
Even though these lessons expose a vulnerable aspect of myself, I decided to share them with you because I know I am not the only one who needs to learn this. If you are not, in this moment, living the life you truly want, odds are then your life is operating from a set of outdated perspectives and beliefs.
Is it time for you to do a little internal house cleaning as well. Perhaps clear the cobwebs from the corners or maybe knock a wall or two out to create more space for new, and brighter possibilities?
Any project worth doing, is worth doing right.
Hunter S. Thompson
The message is simple: declare your intentions then focus your energy to manifest the desired outcome. But it is the outdated beliefs that are still clinging to you such as fear, apathy and worthlessness, like layer upon layer of peeling paint and yellowed wallpaper, that need to be pulled away first in order to create something completely fresh and new. You can gloss over them for a quick fix, but eventually they will bleed through to the surface once again.
As I said before, lessons come in the most unexpected places but like your goals and dreams, if you don’t reflect on why they appear and see them as opportunities to become a better version of yourself, they too will just add another layer to the walls of your internal house, and then they too will have to be peeled away when you finally do decide to declare to the world and the universe what it is the real mansion of your soul has the potential to truly be.
