A few years ago our local library hosted a lecture series. One I attended was called, “Your Energy Body”. The topic fascinated me and still does today. In one exercise, the participants stood in a circle closing their eyes. The presenter asked us each to imagine a tiny spark of light in our heart. Then she asked us to allow the spark to grow bigger, like a ball of light. I loved this exercise. Although subtle, I felt a warm and comforting sensation right there in my heart. How could that be? Just by imagining something, I was able to physically feel it.
Dreamwork does the same thing. This was a big surprise to me. Dream images lead to physical feelings. I felt it from the start. My homework after my first session was to go back into a dream where I was driving with my eyes closed – so scared I would crash. A man appeared beside me (how I could see him with my eyes closed, I don’t know!). I was terrified thinking he was there to rape me. I didn’t know then that he was the Animus. Rodger told me that he was there to love me, not to rape me. I wanted to believe him so I did. The homework was to sit with the man, knowing he was there to love me. Doing the homework is like entering an imaginal world – allowing yourself to come back into your dream in the form of a daydream. I went for a walk in the woods that day and I stood near a small trickling waterfall. As I stared at the water, I imagined myself in the car with the man. Immediately I felt a warm feeling of love in my heart. This was a real physical feeling – and it came directly from an image in my dream.
This past summer I listened to a podcast titled, “Awakening Joy with James Baraz” on the Shrink Rap Radio program. In it, Dr. Dave, the host told a story that touched me. He explained to the guest that when he first found out that he and his wife were expecting twins, he was feeling upset and resistant to having more children. What surprised and delighted him was that after they were born, he became “smitten with love” by those twins. They awakened a spot in his heart, which he called his “joy spot.” He would lie in bed at night thinking of his twins and would feel that “joy spot”. I love what he did next!! He imagined tuning into this joy spot and then turning up it’s volume. As he did so, he felt the joy grow in his heart.
Since starting the dreamwork, my own joy spot has awakened in my heart. I can’t always feel it but when I do, I think of turning up the volume and often it works!
This warm, joyful, love feeling that we physically feel in our heart – our joy spot – is a gift that I believe we all have access to. My hope is that everyone who wants to can find his or her own way to discover it and turn up its volume.
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