Covid Dreaming

 

Lately, my dreams have been peppered with covid images and feelings. In one dream, I was walking down the street with a mask on and it began to melt and ended up like chewing gum on my face, I felt really embarrassed. In another dream, I saw doctors performing a surgery without masks and I was trying to tell them to put them on. More recently I dreamed, the Taliban were knocking on my front door! 

Dreams mean many things but can they can certainly be a release for anxiety. I started researching covid dreams and below is a bit of what I found. It seems that strong emotions in waking life reach into our dream state. If you are having covid dreams perhaps it means you are processing your emotions in a healthy way. Be kind to yourself in these huge transformational times. Keep the faith, all things pass!

Excerpt from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-56600288

When coronavirus swept the globe last year, reports were everywhere of startling, vivid dreams plaguing us.

Faced with the Covid-19 threat, our brains were overwhelmed and they transferred the stress to our sleeping state.

Now, more than a year on, as many people have become used to pandemic life, we set out to find from you if your dreams had also adapted to the "new normal".

Are masks, empty streets and social distancing now simply a backdrop to our everyday dreams? What do you see when you nod off?

Here are a handful of the dreams readers sent us.

"I will be walking along a beach with water filled to the brim with sharks, and wonder why people aren't social distancing," says Fiona Ramage in Dundee, Scotland. She says the pandemic is now the backdrop of most of her dreams and they sometimes include a "casual, matter-of-fact" fear of coughing.

Sayaka, who moved to the UK from Japan with her family, says her seven-year-old daughter tells her about her Covid dreams. "She mainly 'stays at home'. Only her parents wear masks, and all members of the family wash hands in the dream."

While Mariela Cortés, in Santiago, Chile, says her dreams have taken a more surreal turn. "I even want the animals - cats and dogs - to wear masks, but they don't."

"I'm in a crowded space, like a shopping centre, and all of a sudden I realise I have no mask. Nobody around me is wearing masks either. I feel in danger and become suddenly extremely aware of people's proximity to me," says Diletta de Cristofarro in Nottingham, UK.

Valdas Noreika, a lecturer in psychology at Queen Mary University of London, explains there is a complex link between the waking mind and the sleeping mind.

"Some themes move between waking and sleeping, but there are some things in daily life that we never dream about, for example browsing the internet," he explains.

He and colleagues are collecting dream diaries for a study that will analyse whether daytime thoughts about Covid have affected what people dream about.

It is normally things that arouse strong emotions that cross into our dreams, he says.

"Someone who is very threatened in the pandemic is more likely to dream about it for many years to come, which is interesting but also sad," he adds.

A Spiritual View of the Pandemic

 

”When humanity drifts from nature and lives contrary to the way you were born to live, humanity’s immunity drops and the world becomes vulnerable to diseases to which it would otherwise be impervious.” Bashar, Spiritual Teacher

There is so much division around the pandemic in terms of it being a conspiracy, a tragedy, how it should be managed, the issues around vaccinations, lockdowns, who is right, who is wrong and so on. 

 Listening to the constant noise on the media, social media and the variety of people's opinions can be  exhausting to the body, mind and soul. The energy of fear, mistrust and paranoia seems to be at an all time peak. 

I believe when confronted with difficulty, it pays to take a step back and tune into the bigger picture. When I meditate and reflect about the current state of the world, I can't help but sense that this pandemic is about us changing the way we live, the way we think and also how we behave to our fellow humans.

The lockdowns have prevented us from running away from ourselves, they have forced us to connect more deeply with what we feel and have been an opportunity for healing and growth. It has given us time to re evaluate what and who is important to us. For many having to adapt to working at home, away from toxic workplaces, has provided more quality time and peace in one's life. 

I know its also been incredibly challenging financially, mentally and emotionally for many and I do not mean to minimise the suffering that has indeed taken place, but something had to give. The world was on a reckless fast train destined to crash and perhaps it still is BUT now is the opportunity for us to change direction.

I believe its true that world peace will come through one person at a time. We can now choose to do things differently, we have been given a clean slate to approach our lives from a more caring, compassionate and loving space. 

As my mentor Alan Cohen says here;

'The pandemic was not a random event or a punishment from God. It was a wake-up call for each of us as individuals and humanity as a whole to make necessary course corrections and live as our natural selves rather than deny them.  If we go back to working insanely and wedging in little or no time for the people we love; or fighting over trifles; or dropping into national or racial divisiveness; or becoming defensive rather than reaching out; or neglecting our physical well-being in favour of stress; then the pandemic will have served no purpose. Sadly, some other nightmare will come around until the voice for healing gets our attention. Let us avoid the need for another two-by-four whack, and extract the blessing from the challenge.'

We have more power than we realise, we have the power of choice. I ask Spirit to help me choose the path of love...love for self, for others and the world I live in.  What will you choose?

Keeping Real in an Unreal World

"Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”

― Zhuangzi, The Butterfly as Companion: Meditations on the First Three Chapters of the Chuang-Tzu

I love this quote as it highlights that inner, burning question so many of us have asked. Who are we, and what is real and what is life about? The state of the world at present in some way feels surreal and unreal, so how can we stay real when chaos surrounds us?

Although finding these answers is perhaps a life time quest, I do believe that we know deep down when we hear truth. There is an inner ding, an inner radar that alerts us to something that is real. When we are the receiver of an act of kindness it feels real, it feels true. When we hug someone its easy to tell if they are loving it or feeling awkward. When someone is lying to us, part of us knows, even if we choose to believe them because its easier. 

So what is the part of us that deciphers truth and what is real? It's the part of us that observes, its the part of us that watches life unfold from a silent space within. Its the part that whispers 'you will be okay' when you are challenged beyond your comfort zone. 

I remember a car accident I had in 1988. I was hit from behind when I was sitting stationary in traffic at great force. My head connected with the steering wheel and I heard a loud, deep voice in my head simultaneously say ' You will be okay' Whether it was a Spirit Guide or my own higher self, I am not sure but I did appreciate the words at the time.  I suffered concussion and the car was a right off but ultimately, I was okay. 

It's the part of us that guides us subtlety even when we are not aware, Like the time I had a strong feeling to walk a different way home, not really knowing why. I discovered a man passed out on the footpath with a head wound. I was able to ring an ambulance and get him to safety.  How often are we getting guided without us knowing we are. There is so much more to each and every one of us and to the universe at large, that we have barely scratched the surface of.

So how can we stay real in an unreal world? Stay in alignment with higher vibrations such as kindness, compassion, truth and non judgement. If we can wake up in the morning and ask ourselves, how can I contribute to the world today, Maybe it will be as simple as smiling at a stranger or picking up some rubbish in a park or paying a kindness forward. 

Every time we act from love, we naturally feel good, its a normal state of being that often we have forgotten. Whatever we are focusing on becomes our reality so I try to remind myself to focus on what feels good. Not always easy but its a work in progress. Maybe we really are a butterfly dreaming we are a human. 

Healing from the Other Side

 

It never ceases to amaze me how much healing occurs through the undeniable connection to the Spirit World. It may be in the form of words spoken, a download of feeling, a release of emotion or a heart that is touched, sometimes without knowing why. When the relationship between our own Spirit and the Spirit world connects, magic can and does definitely happen.

Recently I witnessed a student deliver undeniable evidential information to another student. The recipient was overwhelmed with relief around a situation that had been causing them guilt for many years. In a matter of one or two sentences that drove straight to the heart of truth, the guilt was released and healing accelerated.

Guilt, anger unfinished business, sadness and hurt are often alleviated when a genuine connection takes place. It is a three way communication. The medium, the sitter and the person in Spirit. For me it feels like we are sitting in a bubble of light and within the bubble there are magical forces at work. Sometimes people cry before I have said a word because they feel the love of Spirit. Sometimes all any of us we have to do is sit and feel the energy to receive a healing. 

The healing that takes place for the person in Spirit is hard to measure but I know on some deep level communication to their loved ones still living helps them. I so often sense their relief when they have made contact. 

Healing can take place without getting a reading from a medium. It can happen when there is a sincere desire to receive help and guidance from our support team in Spirit. Simply asking from the heart is all that is required. 

My point is that mediumship is not only about making contact, it goes much deeper. It is about healing the heart and knowing a part of us is truly immortal. My hope is that in the future, our natural connection to the other side will be seen as something normal and a healing tool for our heart, our mind and our soul.

If you haven't already, you might find some comfort and tips for making that connection to Spirit in my latest book, Keeping Love Alive on the Other Side, Five Elements to Forever love. https://www.amazon.com.au/Keeping-Love-Alive-Other-Side/dp/1504323599

To find out more about my work, go to www.lizwintermedium.com