Are you disconnected from your true self?

If you're honest, its likely you would admit you have permitted yourself to be moulded to fit into a crowd or community.  This often promotes discomfort and dishonesty on a subconscious level.  In such cases, misery, frustration and anger arise and you may repress them at the same time as you repress your dreams.

To recognize you feel disconnected from your true self is the first step to transforming your life for the better.  You can benefit from learning more about Robin Sharma's Seven Stages of self-Awakening.  Consider these highlights:

1) Stage 1: people are unconscious to the truths of life and have little idea about how the world actually works.  As you project your fears, misunderstandings and false beliefs into your surroundings, the result is an inaccurate view of reality.

2) Stage 2:  As you discern you are following the status quo and living a life that appears incompatible with who you are, you realize you have choices.  You can buy into illusions, continue living as you always have, or decide to redefine your own path and happiness.

3) Stage 3:  This is the phase where you recognize your perception is evolving.  Your sense of the truth is changing.  You begin to grasp you're meant to experience abundance, to seize opportunities and to make the most of your relationships and experiences.

4) Stage 4:  As you seek wisdom, you seek out mentors and teachers to help you progress.  You admit you are hungry for answers and healing.  This is where you grasp the revelation that a sense of confusion will always lead to new levels of understanding and clarity.  Its a process of revelation...yours.

5) Stage 5: To transform and feel reborn may strike you as a most challenging phase.  And yet, it may also be where you learn the most in ways you'll never forget.  This is where your true self makes itself noticed on a regular basis.  How you perceive yourself, your potential and the world will never be the same.

6) Stage 6: Here is where you acknowledge trials and tribulations.  This is where you need to confirm you've learned the necessary lessons and admit how much you desire to reconnect to your true self.  Many people give up and retreat.  Only people who truly believe in themselves persist.

7) Stage 7: Your awakening or period of enlightenment is where you evolve into the qualities and characteristics which are your true nature.  You become fearless, innocent, infinitely wise.  You harness the power of pure love and unconditional compassion.  To get here, you have to evolve to where you desire to be true to yourself more than anything.  Discover your destiny.

Find courage to see the truth

Analysis of the week on dream submitted by A.K. of Melbourne, Australia

Dream- I was talking with someone about films. My 'dream conversationist' had to name a film starring an actor we'd discussed. I admitted to this person I hadn't heard of the film. When I awoke, I was susprised to realize I had been duped by this person when he made up a film. My subconscious dream friend had substituted a plausible film name into the talk with no qualms rather than admit not knowing the answer.

Predominant Emotions- Fear, Inhibitions, gullability, disbelief, guilt and courage.

Interpretation-People in your dreams represent part of your personality. Its useful to reflect on each person's behaviour and which emotions this would evoke in you in waking life. Two people involved imply a kind of contemplation or indecision.

Films enable you to analyze your behavior from a detached perspective. You may fear putting yourself in a situation where you feel vulnerable. Why do you resist trusting your instincts? Remaining emotionally aloof doesn't permit you to see or experience the truth. If you allow your mind to imagine worst case scenarios like lying and betrayal, you prevent yourself from appreciating benefits of your fear and confusion.  What can you learn from limits you impose on yourself while awake?

This chat is a non-threatening setting where your mind is working out how to remove yourself from or reframe a source of discomfort.  Rest assured. You always have choices. You can learn to shed your inhibitions, to do those things which typically evoke guilt or other kinds of distress. Its possible you aren't being honest with yourself or someone else about your true feelings. Bring more of your authentic self into your relationships and pursuits. Practice listening with an open heart.

You may imagine it requires courage to express how you truly feel, to question some of your choices, to become accountable for past behaviour.  Other notions of courage may emerge in your head.  Nothing compares to finding the courage to get to know someone and to become known in ways that only happens when you're ready.

Shatter the myths

How you perceive yourself highly influences your life choices and whether you have faith in dreams.  To what degree you recognize and value your skills and abilities helps you understand your behavior patterns.  Why do you disregard your potential? Why opt to ignore aspects of your personality?  This all influences whether you struggle with your sense of self-worth.  Ready to shatter your self-created myths?

Its quite common for people to nurture false assumptions about their identity. From a young age, we're all labelled by others.  The words we permit to affect us are often those we allow to sink deep into our subconscious.  If you were ever told you weren't capable, you may have grown to believe it.  You don't have to feel permanently inept or inferior.  Rethink reasons for your insecurity or shame. Consider these three tips:

1) IQ tests don't accurately measure intelligence.  How smart you are isn't for other people to tell you.  Its for you to prove to yourself.  This isn't something you can pin down with a number, an acronymn, or any other test result.  It arises through life experience and choices you make that shape your self-confidence.  Many people have been labelled as one type of person and gone on to prove they are a completely different sort.  You are really the best judge of your own character. 

2) Historical & socio-cultural evaluations are misleading.  You may assume your sense of adequacy (or inadequacy) depends on qualities or skills deemed important by your community.  Not everyone works in a field that is socially-valued in mainstream culture.  The level of external approval doesn't have to influence your core self-acceptance.  Yet, lots of people wrongfully assume their earnings, gender, skin color, ethnicity, religion or other labels alone define self-worth. Identity simply is and begins within. As you permit, your emotional awareness grows with you.     

3) Who you are is not reflected in the mind's self-image. The latest trends don't define who you are. Your mind tricks you into thinking it controls the parameters of your life. You intuitively sense untapped abilities before you gaze into a mirror or read current media. Nobody, not the media or the ego knows you as well as the heart. As you imagine your physical body, envision how it functions ideally, how you know it is evolving in quantum leaps. Notice what happens when your thoughts are no longer the point of reference for health and well-being, time and space. Who or what exists beyond the mind's limitations? Can this be perceived or described?

Move beyond simply thinking positive

If you tend to spend a lot of your time imagining where you're not, allowing your mind to wander away from the 'here and now', then you may be missing the key to realizing dreams.  It may be time to take a new, more proactive approach.

People will ask me about short-cuts, about full-proof strategies, to achieve the key to their deepest longings or greatest passions.  No single mindset will necessarily work for everyone.  However going further than simply thinking positively can help:

Recognize when you're avoiding what you want. 

You may desire to be in a siutation where you feel more comfortable about who you are and where you are, yet constantly avoid what evokes the real fear and uncomfortable emotions. I'm not talking about your current job or relationship or what you assume is the source of disquieting emotions.  I mean the idea of avoiding the initiatives, the risks or other steps you think success would require.  Avoiding change may convince you you feel less vulnerable in the short-term, but this will not enable you to confront your fear or enable you to feel less afraid.

Let fear in your front door. 

Are you the sort of person who arrives in a new situation and is already wondering what you could do to leave?  Did you think you were ready to embrace new responsibilities and already contemplate how you could get out of them?  To intentionally take steps which invite change, which bring you face-to-face with uncertainty, can be a very effective way to go further than simply thinking. 

So, if you think about what it would be like to have a different job, apply for it.  If your mind repeatedly wanders to thoughts of a place you've never visited, boldly travel there.  If you ponder how your life would evolve in a more loving relationship, become the change you wish to experience. Take the next step.  Believe in yourself.

Choose to orient your destiny

You are here for specific reasons.  Are you consciously aware of your destiny already? If not, what do you think it will take? Each of us exist with the desire to do certain things, though we don't always know why,  or how we will manage, at least initially. 

The idea of dreaming you'll accomplish certain tasks, visit specific places, meet particular people, is all connected to an underlying emotional journey. Are you ready to consider that what you choose to experience is part of the bigger plan?

Take Responsibility

You'll get more out of your life as you take responsibility for your choices.  Where you go and what you choose to do make sense to you at a particular time.  No need to blame people for what didn't work out, for what you don't like about your past.  You were a different person then.  Accept what you have done and focus on what you gained from it.  Its all related to raising your awareness of your own evolution.

Think Before You Act

Discontent is a reflex reaction to worry and dissatisfaction. Its useful to think before you act and convince yourself that you'll make the best choice for the person you are now.  Be willing to consider different sides to a situation, to keep an open mind.  Being honest with yourself at a given moment brings the most clarity at that moment.  Live in the now.  Recognize each thought and choice orients your destiny.