From Dreaming to Knowing

Fourth Week of May: Spiritual Aging Study Guide

Welcome to this week’s study guide. For more about our study and support group and the Spiritual Aging Study Guide, click HERE.

This Week’s Excerpt

“There are mornings when as the pitch black of the early hours dissipates into the new sun you feel yourself tossing and turning, not quite able to cast off unsettled feelings leftover from your restless dreams…

You may fear you have somehow gone astray. That there is some rule you’ve violated, some overdue amends to be made. But not necessarily. Just as likely, you have encountered a forgotten aspect of your authentic self that has evaded sunlight until this propitious day. Even these discomforting aspects of your dreams come in service of increasing your consciousness.

It is a sign of your psycho-spiritual growth that this newly exposed aspect of yourself has made its way back to the surface where it can be acknowledged…You could not see it in the dark, when the truth of who you really are was being chased, exposed or accused falsely. But you can feel it now, in the exquisite awakening that informs you plain as day that in facing up to your deeply held fears about the truth of your authentic self, flaws and all, you have not broken any laws—but broken free.”

—Excerpt “Fourth Week of May, Year One”: Spiritual Aging: Weekly Reflections for Embracing Life

Questions for Journaling and Discussion

1) Do you remember your dreams? If so, what is your relationship with your dream life, especially as you are growing older. If not, how do you feel about this?

2) What is your history with nightmares? (If you don’t dream, do you ever wake up with bad feelings that you can’t explain.)

3) Have you done any dream work? If so, what are your favorite methods? What have you learned about yourself?

4) Do you agree with dream experts who argue that all dreams come in service of psycho-spiritual growth bringing previously denied aspects of yourself to the surface where it can be acknowledged?

5) Whether or not you dream, what could be the value of identifying forgotten aspects of your authentic self—even the unwanted ones?

6) This reading suggests that in facing up to deeply held fears about the truth of your authentic self, flaws and all, you have not broken any laws—but broken free. Do you agree with this?

7) Has the nature of your dream life or the role it plays in your life evolved over the years?

Carol’s Commentary

This was a very personal reflection for me as the serious initiation of my psycho-spiritual journey through older age began with a nightmare so frightening I felt I had to seek help. Guided to dig deeper into the meaning, I encountered the part of myself that felt helpless in the face of questions of ultimate concern. Rather than ignore or turn away from my fears, I decided to face up to them.