Ep. 64 Haunted By A Dream? A Somatic Process For Unpacking Nightmares & Recurring Dreams - Solo Episode

Unlocking the Wisdom of Dreams: A Somatic Approach

In this episode of 'Healed, Now What?', Lisa Dawn explores the nature of dreams and their potential for personal growth and healing. She discusses her own journey with dream journaling and lucid dreaming, sharing anecdotes from her vivid, recurring dreams. 

Lisa delves into Robert Moss's Active Dreaming principles and Peter Levine's somatic experiencing techniques to emphasize how dreams can help process trauma and integrate our deepest subconscious thoughts. 

The episode provides practical steps for understanding and working with dreams through storytelling, body awareness, and emotional tracking, encouraging listeners to harness their dream experiences for a more fulfilling life.

Work with Lisa 1:1 

00:00 Introduction to Healed, Now What?

01:21 Exploring the Fascination with Dreams

02:17 Personal Dream Experiences

06:07 Understanding Dream Interpretation

06:58 Robert Moss's Dreaming the Soul Back Home

10:57 Somatic Experiencing and Dreams

13:50 Practical Steps for Dream Processing

21:39 Conclusion and Final Thought

Transcript

Lisa: 0:01

Greetings, my friends, and welcome to another episode of Healed, Now What?, a podcast where we discuss life, relationships, connection, and trauma through the lens of somatic and attachment psychology, nervous system health, relationships, and self discovery. I'm Lisa Dawn, and I'm on a mission to teach people how to transform their deepest wounds into their greatest strengths by first transforming the relationship they have with themselves. So whether you've had trauma, years of failed partnerships, or just want a better relationship with your body, I've got you covered. I am a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, Educator, Relationship Mentor, and Trauma Survivor. With a lifetime of experience helping not only myself, but countless others transform their lives by learning how to become the fullest versions of themselves. We do this through self awareness, connecting with their bodies and changing the way they perceive themselves and others. I have coached in numerous people how to heal their wounds and create lasting change so they can live a more joyous, passionate and fulfilling life. Thank you so much for tuning in and enjoy the show. Hey guys, Lisa Dawn here. Welcome back to the podcast. Today we're diving into something that has fascinated me for as long as I can remember, dreams. Specifically, what are they? How can we better understand them and what are a few processes, including a somatic one that can foster deeper understanding of what is underneath those wild dream states. I myself used to have many reoccurring dreams and I thought, why not share a few of them with you today? I mean, you're here, so I'm guessing you're willing to listen. Let's just pretend you nodded. Okay, great. How many of us have had those scary, reoccurring, or just plain weird dreams that kind of stick with us? I spent a few years diving deep into this topic. I had a dream journal. I was waking up in the middle of the night with my Pilot Pen, which is basically just a pen with a light on it. And you can get ones that have red filtered lenses on them. And for a year straight, I was recording my dreams, and through that process, I discovered so many things about myself, my life, my fears, my hopes, and my trauma. My husband and I even took a course on lucid dreaming through Mindvalley, and that was an eye opening experience. And as a child, I always had vivid dreams. I would sleepwalk. And back then, dreams sometimes felt more like reality to me than my actual reality. I was also dealing with some pretty heavy trauma, so that makes a lot of sense now as I look back and reflect. Anyway, fast forward to like present day now. And I recently had a dream about somatically processing a dream. It was vivid and felt prophetic. And I just knew I needed to take some kind of action from this knowing. And so here we are today. And from that space, I was chatting with a dear friend about this and he said, wouldn't it be amazing for parents with kids who experienced night terrors? And honestly, yes, I couldn't agree more. This is also helpful for anyone who has overwhelming dreams or reoccurring dreams. And I just wanted to share a few of my dreams with you for some context. So, one of my dreams was the bear chase dream. So, Yep, for years, I had dreams of running away from bears. Now the setting would change each time, sometimes a forest, sometimes a city, sometimes a village, but there was always. some inconvenient obstacle preventing me from fully escaping? Like one time I was on crutches, another time I think I had hurt my toe. Like why does Dream Me always forget how to run properly? And in this dream, it would build up to this moment where I'd find shelter, a building, a house, or even like a weird little shed. But the door, oh no, it couldn't just be a normal door. It had to have a handle like an old crystal knob or some flimsy latch that takes three hands to close. And the bear, always gaining on me. But here's the thing, nothing bad ever actually happened. The bear never caught me. It was like my subconscious was stuck on the chase scene and forgot to write the next part. So then there was this other reoccurring dream. And this one was always set in my grandparents old farmhouse. And we spent a ton of time there growing up. And as a kid, I was actually terrified of the basement. I would not go into the basement. And so my dreams often focused around what was going on in the basement. And after working with some of the dream practices I'll share with you today, both of those dreams shifted and they gave me powerful insights into why they held so much weight for me. One thing I want to mention that I found was a huge dream interpretation myth is that But, you know, we often will look to things like dream dictionaries or look online for different meanings of, you know, what's going on in our dream state. And I found that kind of useless because dreams are highly personal and individual. For example, if I dream of a black cat and black cats remind me of a cozy autumn day and magical vibes, that's my meaning. But for someone else. A black cat might symbolize bad luck or an ex's evil pet. It's all subjective. Dreams are like decoding our own subconscious language. So many years ago, I discovered Robert Moss's work and specifically one of his, his books, Dreaming the Soul Back Home, and this was a game changer. In Dreaming the Soul Back Home, Robert explains that dreams aren't just random thoughts from our subconscious. They're powerful tools for healing and personal growth. He believes dreams can connect us to deeper parts of ourselves, to other realms, and even to the wisdom of our ancestors. Through a practice he calls Active Dreaming, Moss shows how dreams can help us recover lost pieces of our soul that may have been left behind due to trauma or life's hardships. In this way, dreams become a guide. Helping us to feel whole, connected, and more aligned with who we truly are. And also, Moss describes intense dreams that spill over into our waking life as big dreams, or soul dreams. He believes these aren't just personal experiences, but messages from a deeper source, our soul, spirit, or even the larger universe. According to Moss, these dreams are often carrying guidance, warnings, or insights meant to wake us up to something important in our lives. When a dream feels vivid, emotional, or starts to echo in waking events like deja vu or synchronicities, he sees it as a sign that the dream is alive and asking for our attention. So he encourages engaging with these dreams through reflection, journaling. and active imagination, treating them as living stories that can influence and shape our reality. So I've gone through his process quite a few times and I felt it was really, really helpful and I wanted to share one of his processes here with you so you can try it out for yourself. So here is the gist of Moss's lightning dreamwork process. So you can do this in your own time, just come back to this, but I'll give you the steps. So when you're recalling a dream, the first step is to give your dream a title. So kind of like naming a movie. This anchors the dream into your memory. Step number two, tell the dream like a story. So present tense, focus on the key details without over explaining or analyzing. Just kind of tell it as it happened. Number three, ask questions. How did I feel in the dream? Or what's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of all the dream symbols that showed up? AKA that weird door handle thing. What meaning does that image hold for me? And there might be multiple images in the dream, each with their own meaning. Number four, even better if you have someone to share the dream with and see if they will offer feedback. So for example, the person might say, well, if it were my dream, I'd wonder about this. And this is so helpful for someone else to share insights that may not have been available to us. And also in many traditions, dreams were shared in a round circle of community. How beautiful is that? And then number five is to decide on an action. So that could be anything. Draw it, write about it, create a ritual, or hell, even do a podcast episode. So that is the, the lightning dream work process in a nutshell. So now enter somatic experiencing. Years later, I discovered that you could process dreams through somatic experiencing and wow, mind blown. I remember watching a demo of Peter Levine work with someone's intense reoccurring nightmare and it was like watching magic. This woman processed and integrated a nightmare that had haunted her for years and you could literally see the shift in her body. So, Peter Levine, my homeboy, the creator of Somatic Experiencing, views dreams as an important part of the body's natural process for integrating and resolving trauma. He believes that dreams, especially those with strong emotional or sensory content, can help release stored survival energy and complete unfinished stress responses. Peter emphasizes that dreams often carry somatic cues like physical sensations, movements, or feelings that reflect the body's attempt to process past experiences. So, you know, those times where you're trying to let out a scream, but you can't, or you're trying to run away, but you're frozen in time, things like this. So rather than analyzing dreams purely for symbolic meaning, Peter encourages noticing how the body feels when recalling a dream. So he suggests tracking sensations, emotions, and impulses that arise, as these can reveal where trauma energy is held and how it might begin to release. So in this way, dreams become not just mental events, but embodied experiences that support healing when approached with curiosity, presence, and somatic awareness. So after watching this demo and seeing this woman and her process, I figured it was time to work with the farmhouse dream because this one, it carried a lot of weight. It felt heavy and ancestral and big in a different kind of wear. in a different kind of way than the bear dream. And in psychology, dreaming of houses often symbolizes your sense of self, personal security, and your inner world, reflecting your current emotional state and potentially highlighting areas of your life that need attention, such as, you know, family dynamics, personal growth, self care. And so the specific details of the house in the dream can further reveal. the meaning. So I decided to work through The Farmhouse Dream and a few others with a somatic practitioner, and it was actually incredible. Life changing, actually. And so here today, I'd like to offer a simplified version of this process so you can practice it on your own and with caution if it, if even the thought of it feels overwhelming, consider reaching out for somatic support. But if you're game and it feels good to try this on your own, here is the process. So step one, recall the dream. that you want to work with. So just kind of have it in the back of your mind. And then create a container, like a safe, grounded space where you feel present. So you can establish this by just taking a few breaths, maybe feeling your connection to the ground or chair beneath you, noticing your environment to anchor yourself into the present moment. Step two is recalling the dream gently. So just letting the dream come to mind without forcing every detail. And just focus on the parts that stand out the most. This could be images, emotions, or sensations. And it's okay if some parts are blurry. Just work with what's there. Work with what feels most vivid. Just give yourself some time there to see what comes up. And sometimes it's only one image or one emotion that we can remember from the dream. And that's fine. That's enough information to work with, with any dream. So step three is to begin to track your body's reaction or sensations to the recalling of the dream. So shifting your attention from the story of the dream to what's happening in your body as you recall it. Do you feel tightness, warmth, tingling, heaviness, or lightness anywhere? Just take a moment to check in. Are there shifts in your breathing? Heart rate or posture, and just taking a moment to notice that as well. And step four, perhaps there aren't as many bodily sensations, but maybe there are emotional states that are coming up. So just gently observing any emotions that surface. Is there fear, sadness, relief, curiosity, or even numbness? So just stay with the feeling without trying to analyze or fix it. Now we're just going to allow in step five your awareness to move between any intense sensations or emotions to more neutral or pleasant ones. So if the dream brings up something overwhelming, pause. And focus on something soothing, like the feeling of your hands resting on your lap. Or perhaps it's the way that your feet are being held by the floor. Or maybe there's a picture or a plant you really enjoy looking at. And then you can touch back in to the overwhelm briefly, and see how that feels. And then go back again to the something soothing. And this back and forth helps to regulate the nervous system. So just notice as you kind of pendulate back and forth between those two states, anything else that comes up. And this leads into step number six. Sometimes the body may have an impulse to move. And just see, maybe there's something like reaching, pushing, using your voice or curling up. These are natural expressions of the body's attempt to complete some kind of response that was interrupted. So see if you can follow the impulse slowly and mindfully and just notice how it feels. And just taking your time there, no need to rush. Are there any impulses for movement or to use your voice? And this leads into the next step, number seven. So after that processing is, feels complete, just take a moment to notice if you feel more settled, more spacious, or different in your body. And if you feel called to, perhaps getting a pen and paper and writing down some reflections, not just about the dream story, but about how your body responded. And the last step to this, step number eight, is just to close out with some settling back into the present moment, some grounding. So ending the session by fully orienting to the present moment. You could do this by looking around the room. Maybe even naming some objects you see, or even touching something with texture to bring yourself back, rubbing your fingertips together, taking a few breaths, just really feeling your connection to the here and now. And this process honors dreams as embodied experiences, allowing the nervous system to release trapped energy without getting stuck in the mental analysis. Now, more meaning may emerge over the following days, weeks, and months from this simple process. So it might be helpful to just journal a few more times or make note of, of what's coming to the forefront. Whoa, right, wild. Dreams are mysterious and full of wisdom if we know how to listen. So I wanted to leave you today with a couple of quotes from Robert Moss. Everything that enters our field of perception means something, large or small. Everything speaks to us. If we will take off our headphones and hear a different soundtrack, everything corresponds. We travel better in the forest of symbols. When we are open and available to all the forms of meaning that are watching and waiting for us. And the next one. Strings of coincidence can strengthen us in the determination to follow our deepest intuitions. Even when they run counter to conventional wisdom and logic and cannot be subjected to rational explanation. That's all for this week, folks. Until next time, sweet dreams. Stay curious and be well.

23:01

As always, thank you so much for listening. Life is busy. So it means even more that you're carving out time in your day to be here. Listen, we've got so many great episodes coming up, so please make sure you subscribe to follow along on Apple podcasts or Spotify. And for those of you who like to watch your podcasts, we are now uploading them to YouTube. And if you appreciate these episodes, please do us a favor and leave a rating or a review and share it with anyone you think could benefit. See you again next Wednesday. outro music