Longings, Dreams, and This now moment

Recently one of the bright light teens that I have the pleasure of working with said this:
“I need to stay aware or I am risk of slipping into something I can’t get out of”.
Though, this one teen often has amazing bits of wisdom that just fly out of her mouth, this one stayed with me.
Over the last 30 years of being a therapist, I often saw women who wound up in situations that they always feared but never thought would come to fruition. In reality, they did not “stay aware and they did wind up slipping in and staying in something that they thought they could not get out of”.
Here are some examples with all identifying factors changed: husband leaves after she has supported his career for 30 years; mom dies of Alzheimer’s disease and she fears that she is now getting this diagnosis;
cat dies and she is painfully alone because her 4-legged was her only “child”, and she feared when the cat died, she would be alone; the only living member of her “family of origin” dies and she wonders if she will die all alone.

What each of these women (again examples changed) had in common is this: Each of these women also had a dream that they believed was very important to fulfill. Each person, had deep longings about this dream, and each believed that someday, they would have time to act on this dream, yet they always made other things in their life more important than the fulfillment of this dream. They chose to not be aware of what was really going on within themselves.

And had each of these people taken steps to listen, to listen deeply to this “now moment”, they would have heard two things. One, I believe they would have heard deep within that their dream was not something to put on the back burner but to take tiny actions now. *** And second, I believe that they would have realized that the essence of their fear was with them right then and the time was “NOW”, to take action to make sure this fear did not manifest. We are often surprised when some tragic event happens, and in most cases, the essence of that tragic surprise had been with us a long time. And the time to act on it was a long time ago, when we first heard our fears about it but chose to not listen. ***
This blog is about listening, listening to oneself.
Also, please know it is never too late to listen to your deepest dreams and longings and it is never too late to rise above any fears that have manifested. The very presence of the Divine is within you and this presence is greater than any challenge that has manifested in your life. Further, because the very presence of the Divine is within you, you have the ability to allow your dream to come true.

*** And all that you need do right now regarding any challenge that you are facing OR and most importantly, regarding your dream, all that you need do is take your next step. We often think, oh that is so big (either the fear or the dream), that there is nothing I can do. The time is “NOW”, and if you are reading, this, you have enough clarity of mind to take your next step. And, sometimes, IF, we take the next step in the fulfillment of our dream, this courageous step has the ability to begin transforming the challenge. For, when we act courageously, we are acting out of love, and love has the ability to transform everything unlike itself.
So, if you are willing, here is how to begin listening to yourself.
There are four ways to gain understanding about ourselves; four ways of knowing.
These 4 ways of gaining understanding are:

*Thinking (has to do with our beliefs and thoughts and intellect)

*Intuiting (has to do with our gut level knowing or a deep Inner knowing that I describe in my book: All Children are Gifted)

*Sensing (bodily knowing)

*Feeling (our emotions & feelings)

These are called the 4 functions of consciousness as described by the famous Swiss Psychiatrist, Carl Jung. The healthiest person will have a good balance between all 4 functions. The challenge today is that the mighty intellect dominates the way we get information and getting information from feelings, intuition and our body is seen as somehow inferior compared to getting information from the mighty intellect. If I were an artist, I would paint the following picture: I would draw a HUGE computer on top of (but disconnected from) a body. The computer would signify the way most people access their own Inner knowing.
For some reason, in this lifetime, I have always found myself standing up for feelings. I did this in my High School Psychology class, my Graduate classes in Psychology and then in Unity ministerial school.
As I said, our society teaches us to allow our thoughts to dictate what we believe about ourselves, about others, about the Divine. Our society nearly insists that mighty intellect is the only valid way to know. So, what happens is that we let the mind highjack our experience of this now moment. We let our mind tell us that our fears, feelings, intuitions and bodily sensing are all inferior. This is how so many of the women in my practice let their biggest fears come true and how they completely ignored their own dream fulfillment.

So, I want to suggest that you take three steps to take within the next 24 hours.
1. Be willing to listen to your feelings, intuition and bodily knowing. I said “be willing”. If you are willing, get a journal to journal what you hear your feelings, intuition and body telling you.
2. Answer this question: “What would you do if nothing were standing in your way?”
3. Talk with a safe friend who believes in you about what you have discovered by answering the above two questions.

Finally, be willing to listen to your longings. Your deepest longings are so important, they can guide you to what your next step is. Women, especially have learned to ignore their longings. And, when women stop ignoring their longings, and listen to them deeply, our world will change. Our longings most likely come from our dreams and maybe they are the same but I don’t think they are exactly the same.

In closing, I want to remind you of two very important things.
1. You do have the very presence of the Divine within you and because of this, you can allow your dreams to manifest and you can get out of the challenging situation you are in
2. Your awareness is the key, as my young teen suggested to me.