Don't Wake me Up

Sometimes our dreams feel better than our actual reality. When we dream, our minds are feeling, tasting, and breathing a world outside of our real one. Our dreams are connected with our unconscious mind tapping into a mood, a feeling, a memory, an intention, a desire, a need, etc. Sometimes it can feel like a play with different guest actors playing a role in your dreams-these people may be from your past, your present, or people you wish to meet in your future. Every symbol in a dream can have a specific meaning and some symbols clearly represent a developmental time of our life.

For instance, a childhood memory, a connection to a parental figure, a traumatic event, a good developmental period of happiness. For instance, I had a dream last night that I ran into my kitchen and my mom was standing there. I ran into her arms and shouted, "Mommy, Mommy." It is the child inside of me that seeks love, affection, and a parent-according to Freud this can be psychoanalyzed quite easily. Priscilla longs for love, support, and a warm embrace from a maternal figure. Bowlby believed with her studies in attachement theory that these insecure attachments presents themselves later in our life and this is accurate for most of us. While some of us build up strong defense mechanisms to protect ourselves, others are not as strong and this lack of attachment impacts their interpersonal relationships and need for belonging. Our dreams present our true needs and desires, which may be haunting our unconscious mind. This desire mayby present in our lives or we may try to repress our feelings towards this desire, but it comes out in our dreams. It all comes out in our dreams-it is quite fascinating.

Another interesting dream interpretation I have is when my relationships end, I am present with the person being sweet, romantic, and loving yet they are pushing me away in the context of the dream. The reality that this person is gone, but my unconscious reminds me of what is fact. While I may miss them, they are just not the right ones for me. But when you are in a dream with someone you really want to be with sometimes it feels like you just don't want to wake up. When you are experiencing a dream that makes your senses come alive, you feel so in touch with your desires, needs, and wants-who wants to wake up?

 

Always, Always Reward Good Behavior

When people come through and they demonstrate good behavior-they get rewarded.  This is most important with clients, but it also important with new people I encounter in Morocco. Usually, my contribution involves some kind of food, extra thank you’s, extra smiles, tips, and/or some kind of gift. Lately, I enjoy baking cakes and giving them away. That used to be my trademark “baking cookies and brownies” for teachers, friends, and co-workers. Traveling around and not having an oven-it all stopped, but now it is back.  It is truly important for me to give thanks and show huge appreciation to these people because I want to keep the goodness going.

Without rewarding behavior, some of these people may be motivated to continue their good acts of kindness and for some it may have no impact at all. There are truly good people who do not want anything from you in return and with or without a reward they will just keep engaging in good behavior.  These good people I referred to as "Grade A" human beings.  I recall some people in India who would not even accept a gift when given it in return, but not just India-Morocco, Turkey, and other countries as well.  From a human behavior approach-people need to be rewarded or given a positive response through ones body language and verbal words, but some people who are truly grade A quality human beings"do not require a reward yet their generous, kind spirit continues to grow. 

This is where both religion and psychology intertwine making a person live their lives in accordance to their religious morals and values and the psychological makeup of a person is positively impacted by the religion. People may just be living within their purpose, which involves being good to others, showing respect, compassion, kindness, and warmth towards the human race. It is truly beautiful to witness the beauty of religion and our higher power, which fills up a person's being with his divine spirit and greatness.

These beautiful people I come across in Morocco, I am so thankful to have met.  And it is important to note that most of these people are my students.  I will try my best to keep rewarding those who are good to me as it is a co-created relationship between new friends and students. When people come through, in this country specifically, it truly means a lot to me.

Big Smile and I can not say Thank you enough. Big rewards for those that come through.
You know who you are if you are reading this blog-Thank you!!!