Finding the man inner child wants to be
I was reading Marc's "My little guy" thread, and it occured to me that we often talk about our inner children here (and it's great to do so), but we rarely talk about projecting that beautiful self into the present.
Then I started thinking about a dream I had about two years ago...I was out in the woods playing some sort of commando game, or maybe it was real commandos (I sometimes have these great adventure story dreams)....anyway, there was this guy there with me and he had the most amazing smile...totally free and easy and comfortable and ready for anything. I could tell the dream was ending when the wierdest thing happened. He turned to me and said, "Don't ever forget me!" Then he smiled at me again and faded away. I've never forgotten his face.
That's never happened to me before. I meet lots of people in dreams, but no one has ever realized we were dreaming and warned me about it before the end.
I was in the middle of working on a novel at the time, and it was immediately clear to me that this guy was my main character, but it was only after lots more work on the book that I realized he was my inner self, that untouched totally free and easy person I could have been.
He's become a real example to me through working on the novel. As I see him move around and respond to things, it's as though I'm watching my best self in action. It's very different from my inner child, who I also know pretty well. Instead he's complete, an adult like me, but perfected.
That dream was the coolest and most wonderful I've ever had. I found a friend in it who's never left me, and now when I work on the book, I know I'm making him a beautiful world. A nice gift of return.
I think that dream came out of a series of meditations I had been doing with my inner child. I would imagine him very clearly, till sometimes I could feel his smaller hands inside my skin, then I'd imagine what he would be like all grown up and without ever having faced the pain of abuse. I'd ask that new self all kinds of questions about who he wanted to be, what he wanted to be like, even simple things like what he'd wear, what kind of hobbies, all kinds of things, then I'd try to do them just like he would.
I can't tell you how amazing the effect of all that has been on my life....literally transformative.
Then I had that dream, and it seemed so clear and actually pretty easy to be that way instead of the way I was. After all, that self is deep down clean and easy with himself...he's never had to question himself in those terrible ways of abuse. So now my life is different (it's not super radically different, as it happens most of what he wanted I'm already doing...fortunately!!
), but I'm so much more focused on it all and without the doubt about the rightness of my life that I used to have.
Anyway, I know that clean self is deep down inside all of us...he's the man the inner child really wants to be. And I've found that once you see him, like I did in the dream, there's no real doubt about where to go. He has all the right perspectives. He knows where he wants to go, and he doesn't look back. He wears your face, but the changes are so amazing... freedom is a beautiful thing.
Here's to discovering our best selves and letting go of the history that keeps us locked in old habits we no longer need to survive!
Danny
Then I started thinking about a dream I had about two years ago...I was out in the woods playing some sort of commando game, or maybe it was real commandos (I sometimes have these great adventure story dreams)....anyway, there was this guy there with me and he had the most amazing smile...totally free and easy and comfortable and ready for anything. I could tell the dream was ending when the wierdest thing happened. He turned to me and said, "Don't ever forget me!" Then he smiled at me again and faded away. I've never forgotten his face.
That's never happened to me before. I meet lots of people in dreams, but no one has ever realized we were dreaming and warned me about it before the end.
I was in the middle of working on a novel at the time, and it was immediately clear to me that this guy was my main character, but it was only after lots more work on the book that I realized he was my inner self, that untouched totally free and easy person I could have been.
He's become a real example to me through working on the novel. As I see him move around and respond to things, it's as though I'm watching my best self in action. It's very different from my inner child, who I also know pretty well. Instead he's complete, an adult like me, but perfected.
That dream was the coolest and most wonderful I've ever had. I found a friend in it who's never left me, and now when I work on the book, I know I'm making him a beautiful world. A nice gift of return.
I think that dream came out of a series of meditations I had been doing with my inner child. I would imagine him very clearly, till sometimes I could feel his smaller hands inside my skin, then I'd imagine what he would be like all grown up and without ever having faced the pain of abuse. I'd ask that new self all kinds of questions about who he wanted to be, what he wanted to be like, even simple things like what he'd wear, what kind of hobbies, all kinds of things, then I'd try to do them just like he would.
I can't tell you how amazing the effect of all that has been on my life....literally transformative.
Then I had that dream, and it seemed so clear and actually pretty easy to be that way instead of the way I was. After all, that self is deep down clean and easy with himself...he's never had to question himself in those terrible ways of abuse. So now my life is different (it's not super radically different, as it happens most of what he wanted I'm already doing...fortunately!!
), but I'm so much more focused on it all and without the doubt about the rightness of my life that I used to have.Anyway, I know that clean self is deep down inside all of us...he's the man the inner child really wants to be. And I've found that once you see him, like I did in the dream, there's no real doubt about where to go. He has all the right perspectives. He knows where he wants to go, and he doesn't look back. He wears your face, but the changes are so amazing... freedom is a beautiful thing.
Here's to discovering our best selves and letting go of the history that keeps us locked in old habits we no longer need to survive!
Danny