How Important are Your Dreams?

Dreams can be mysterious, but understanding the meaning of our dreams can be downright baffling. The content of our dreams can shift suddenly, feature bizarre elements or frighten us with terrifying imagery. The fact that dreams can be so rich and compelling is what causes many to believe that there must be some meaning to our dreams.

Enjoy Dreaming

To understand your feelings and yourself more deeply, pay attention to dreaming. Dreams are the keys to the doorways within. Dreams also serve as a world that is limitless, and they are a place of amusement where you can enjoy yourself. The healthiest people are said to be those who are happy, so why not enjoy dreaming! Record your dreams and have fun with them. Let them amuse you. Maybe even learn how to lucid dream, which means you are aware you are dreaming and can control your dreams. Dreaming can even put you in a good mood that lasts throughout the day, affecting psychological structure and leading toward all sorts of positive encounters.

A Source of Knowledge

Dreams are a valuable source of information that’s available to anyone who desires to decode their symbolism. Dreams are a place where you can learn about yourself. Some say that dreaming is more honest than our waking consciousness and that in our dreams we reveal our true feelings—especially about the most important issues in our life. Finding the meaning of your dreams is very personal.

Multiple Levels of Meaning

Once you can understand how your own associations work, you will have the ability to interpret your dreams. It is often stated that dreams have multiple levels of meaning woven into a single dream. It is not uncommon to dream about an illness in the body. Sickness can certainly have a somatic influence on dreams.

Dream Dictionaries and Journals

Only you, the dreamer, can know for sure what your dreams mean. Dream dictionaries may help a little and a dream interpreter who has both metaphysical and psychological knowledge of dreams and their meanings can help you figure out your dreams for yourself. But only you will make the final decision about your dreams’ meanings. Everyone has their own associations and symbols that the individual mind thinks and communicates through dreams.

If you are interested in decoding your dreams, consider making your own dream journal and dream dictionary. In your dream journal, record your dreams. Keep it by your bed with a pen, so that you can write your dreams down immediately upon waking. Be sure to have plenty of room to add to your interpretations over time.

Understanding the Message

Whether you get to know your dreams more intimately through understanding the messages that come from the subconscious to the conscious mind, or not, dreams are an important part of your being that contribute greatly to health and happiness.

Happy Dreaming!

What is I Ching and it’s History

The I Ching itself began life as the Chou I, or Changes of Chou. It was the oracle of the Chou people, which they brought together at the time when they were working to overthrow the corrupt Shang dynasty. Brilliant research by Steve Marshall (published in The Mandate of Heaven) has evoked the social and spiritual turmoil of these times – and even suggested a date when a total solar eclipse gave the Chou king Wu his mandate to invade: June 20th, 1070BC.

The Chinese I Ching, or Book of Changes in English, represents sixty-four archetypes that make up all the possible six-line combinations of yin and yang, called hexagrams.Yin/yang is the fundamental duality of the Universe whose dynamic tension gives shape to all phenomena and the changes they go through. Examples of the yin/yang polarity are female/male, earth/heavens, dark/light, in/out, even/odd, and so on. The interpretations of the sixty-four hexagrams describe the energy of human life divided into sixty-four types of situations, relationships or dilemmas. Each hexagram can be analyzed in a number of ways. Divide the six-line forms in half and you get trigrams (three yin or yang lines) that represent the Chinese version of the eight fundamental elements: sky, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain, and lake. These eight trigrams, known as “Hua,” also serve as the compass points in the ancient art of placement known as Feng Shui (pronounced fung-shway).

The I Ching is the oldest of all the classical divination systems. It is also one of the oldest books in the world. Its first interpretive text was composed around 1000 B.C. The I Ching’s actual discovery and much of its early history are the stuff of legends.

There are a number of myths surrounding the origins of the eight trigrams and the development of the I Ching divination system. In one tale, Fu Hsi, the first emperor of China (2852–2737 B.C.), is said to have observed a turtle emerging from the Yellow River. Knowing that true wisdom came from the direct and close observation of nature, he had a sudden realization of the significance of eight symbols he saw on the turtle’s back. He saw how the sets of three solid or broken lines, the trigrams, reflected the movement of energy in life on Earth.

A similar myth describes Fu Hsi’s contemplation of other patterns in nature, including animals, plants, meteorological phenomena, and even his own body. These myths describe how he identified the trigrams that arose from his understanding of the connection of all things, through the interplay of yin and yang.

There is evidence of early Chinese divination where tortoise shells were heated over a flame until they cracked, with the emerging patterns (presumably trigrams) being read. In some cases the shells were marked with their interpretations and stored for reference, and I have had the privilege of seeing a few of them preserved at the National Museum in Taiwan, China.

Another version also involving tortoise shells describes descendents of the “many Fu” — an ancient clan of female diviners — who read the shells of live turtles. According to the legend, they became the queens and royalty of the Shang Dynasty — which had been considered mythical until archeological evidence proving its existence was unearthed in 1899. Some say Lao Tzu, the enlightened forefather of Taoism and the author of the Tao Te Ching, was a descendent of this clan.

The Taoist/Confucian tradition posits that juxtaposing a set of the possible permutations of yin and yang with elements of Chinese creation mythology produced the foundation of the I Ching. Pairing up the various combinations of yin (the literal ancient meaning of which is the shady north side of the hill) and yang (meaning the sunny south side of the hill) gives you four primary symbols. With the addition of another yin or yang line, the eight trigrams emerge.

The earliest composition of I Ching interpretations is attributed to King Wen. Toward the end of the Shang Dynasty, when the unjust emperor Zhou Wang imprisoned Wen, he reportedly used his confinement to meditate on the trigrams, pairing them up to produce sixty-four possible hexagrams. Each pair of trigrams took on a meaning specific to their combination. In what we might assume was an enlightened state of mind, King Wen assigned each of the sixty-four hexagrams a name, adding a few sentences to explain its meaning. It is said that his son, King Wu, added additional interpretative text, bringing the I Ching closer to its current form.

Confucius, who came a few hundred years later, was possibly the I Ching’s greatest patron, taking the interpretative texts to the next level with the addition of his extensive commentaries. Confucius was primarily interested in the I Ching as a manual for how to live a life of the highest virtue, as opposed to its usefulness as a divination system. According to his Analects (VII, xvi), Confucius, who lived to be an old man, is reputed to have said, “If some years were added to my life, I would devote fifty of them to the study of the oracle, and might then avoid committing great errors.”

Historical evidence substantiates the theory that the Book of Changes and its sixty-four hexagrams were part of an ancient oral tradition that predates recorded history in China. The basics of the I Ching text — the names of the hexagrams and their judgments — were likely composed in the eighth century B.C. However, the practice of using the hexagrams to refer to specific interpretations probably didn’t occur until the fifth century B.C. Between 475 and 221 B.C. (known as the Warring States period), the I Ching texts were consolidated into a book to make it easier to consult and share with others during that time of extreme upheaval. Shortly after, the I Ching was spared in the Ch’in Dynasty’s massive book burning because it was considered one of the five “Great Classics.”

The Book of Changes was canonized and studied intently by scholars during the Han Dynasty of 202 B.C.–A.D. 220. Between the third century B.C. and the turn of the millennium, significant additions, known as the ‘Wings’, were written regarding the individual lines in the hexagrams, and the meaning of the trigrams. These commentaries are generally attributed to Confucius, who lived around 500 B.C. More work was done, and the I Ching we use today is not substantially different from the 168 B.C. version. The main difference is that the hexagrams appear in a different order. The order in use today was first proposed around 100 B.C., but was not the standard until the third century A.D.

Throughout what we know of Chinese history, the rulers of China, as well as the general public, used the I Ching as best they could before printing was available. It is woven into the fabric of this ancient culture and its influence has been fundamental to the Eastern worldview as a whole. It has only been in the last 150 years or so that Western culture was even exposed to basic Taoist concepts — such as German and English translations of the I Ching and Tao Te Ching. Carl Jung’s explanation of the I Ching’s psychological validity and value, and the widespread open-mindedness about all things spiritual during the 1960s, made using the I Ching a common experience in the Western world.

Nowadays, the most common method for casting the I Ching involves tossing three coins six times to create the six-line pattern, or hexagram. A traditional technique for deriving a hexagram, dating from about 500 B.C., involves a fairly complicated process of selecting and sorting fifty sticks, usually yarrow stalks. The best yarrow stalks for this were the ones that grew on Confucius’ grave, but the supply was limited! After the coins or stalks are tossed and sorted out, one looks up the interpretation in the sacred book.

All Amazing Facts About Your Dreams that You Might Not Know

Dreams are Mysterious, bewildering, eye-opening and sometimes a nightmarish hell. Your dream’s length can vary from a few seconds to as long as 30 minutes. The average person goes through 3-5 dreams a night, mainly occurring in the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep; it’s in this stage where the brain is at its most active, almost as if you were awake.

Below are a 20 Interesting Facts About Dreams that You Might Not Know:

1. You Forget 90% of your Dreams

Many people keep a dream diary by the bedside table to help them record their dreams, and with good reason.Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream is already gone; within 10, you will have forgotten 90% of it. Freud has theorized that dreams are forgotten because they contain repressed feelings or thoughts that we don’t want to remember anyway. Dream researcher L. Strumpell, on the other hand, blames the vagueness of dreams; because we tend to remember things by association and repetition, remembering dreams can be quite challenging.

2. Women have More Nightmares than Men

In a 2009 study conducted by Jennie Parker, British researcher and psychologist for the University of the West of England it was discovered that “women in general do experience more nightmares than men”. Women’s nightmares were also reported to be more emotionally intense than men’s. The test involved 100 women and 93 men between the ages of 18 and 25, who were asked to record their dreams in diaries.

3. Night Owls Have More Nightmares

A study conducted by the Yúzúncú Yil University in Turkey has shown that those who stay up and wake up late have a higher chance of belonging to the 2-6% population who has weekly nightmares. The study states that, although cortisol levels rise in the morning, irregular sleep patterns disturb circadian rhythms and lead to the stress hormone affecting dreams.

4. Your Dream Might be the Next Big Thing

Several game-changing ideas came about from dreams, says Harvard University psychologist Deirdre Barrett. In a weeklong study conducted on college students, Barrett asked the students to incubate answers to school assignments and other problems they were facing at the moment. The study concluded with 50% of the volunteers having a dream about their problem and 25% actually dreaming of a solution.

5. Dreams Can Help You Lose Weight

For those looking to lose some extra pounds, you’ll be glad to know that dreams do burn calories. In a study conducted at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York, volunteers went under a strict diet regimen for 4 days under various sleep conditions. They were then asked to fast on day 5, and were allowed to eat as much as they liked on days 6 and 7. The results showed that those who slept longer and had more dreams each night were less hungry, specifically for fat- and carbohydrate-rich foods. Volunteers who slept only 4 hours each night, on the other hand, found that their metabolism slowed down and they ate more on the 6th and 7th day.

6. Depressed People Have Better Dreams

In a study that involved 23 women and 26 men going through a divorce, psychologist Rosalind Cartwright from Rush University found that those diagnosed with clinical depression were better off than their more resilient counterparts. While the depressed subjects had shorter, more pleasurable dreams, their better-adjusted peers had more ruthless dreams, usually involving their exes.

7. Nightmares Help Pregnant Women

Researchers at the University of Messina in Italy found that pregnant women who had bad dreams about birthing traumas or losing the baby often experienced shorter labour periods.

8. Violent Dreams Can be Warning Signs

If you think nightmares are bad, then imagine having a rare sleep disorder wherein you act out violent dreams by kicking and screaming. According to a study published online on 28 July 2010 in Neurology, this can be an early sign of brain disorders as you get older.

9. Dreams are Stress-Busters

In a study published in the Nov. 23, 2011, issue of Current Biology, UC Berkeley scientists found that the brain showed decreased levels of chemicals associated with stress during REM sleep. According to Matthew Walker, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, previous emotional experiences lose much of their negative effects the next day because they have been reprocessed in a neuro-chemically safe environment during the dream state.

10. People Tend to Dream about the Same Things

A 2004 study, which was conducted by scientists from the Sleep Laboratory at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, showed that most of the 55 typical dream themes occurred at least once in most of the participants’ lifetimes.

11. Sexual Dreams are a Common Occurrence for Everyone

Psychologist Antonio Zadra, in a study conducted in 2007, was able to show that dreams about sex account for approximately 8% of all reported dreams for both men and women. The most common type of sexual dream involved intercourse, while some dreams involved kissing and fantasies.

12. Not all Dreams are Colourful

While many people dream in colour, it’s estimated that 1 person in 8 has dreams in black and white. Dundee University’s Eva Murzyn suggests that “…there could be a critical period in our childhood when watching films has a big impact on the way dreams are formed.” She concluded this from the fact that dreams during the 20th century were almost always devoid of colour; the shift to coloured dreams occurred only during the 1960’s, coinciding with the advent of Technicolor.

13. Dreams Paralyze You

During REM sleep, or dream-phase sleep, your body suppresses the release of neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, serotonin, and histamine—all of which are vital in stimulating motor neurons. This effectively paralyzes the body and puts it in a state of REM atonia, a condition wherein the muscles are in a state of relaxation that borders on paralysis.

14. Our Pets Dream Too

Studies have shown that REM sleep and its associated brain states also occur in a number of animals.

15. There is a Science to Dreams

While dream interpretation focuses on understanding dream meaning and deciphering their symbolisms, Oneirology, the scientific study of dreams, is more concerned with the mechanisms and processes involved in dreaming.

16. Blind People also Have Dreams

Not all dreams are visual, and this makes it possible for blind people to dream. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Glostrup Hospital in Denmark published a study in Sleep Medicine stating that blind people’s dreams mostly involve auditory and gustatory sensations. While people who become blind after birth have visual dreams, those who were born blind also have vivid dreams, thanks to a broader array of sensory inputs.

17. Dreams are More Vivid for Quitters

According to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 33% of 293 smokers who were abstinent for between 1 and 4 weeks reported having at least 1 dream about smoking, with these dreams being described as more vivid than usual. It was concluded that they were the result of tobacco withdrawal because 97% of the test subjects did not have them while smoking. The dreams were also rated to be as common as most major tobacco withdrawal symptoms.

18. Déjà vu is a Thing

If you’ve ever had the feeling that you’ve already seen or felt something that you’re only experiencing for the first time, you’re not alone. A survey found that 18-38% of people who participated in the survey have had at least one precognitive dream, and 70% have experienced déjà vu. It’s also interesting to note that up to 98% of these people believe in the possibility of precognitive dreams.

19. Familiarity Breeds Dreams

You may not be familiar with all the characters in your dreams, so it might surprise you to know that those strangers in your dreams are actually people you have already seen. Through your life, you have already seen thousands of faces that you may not necessarily remember. The mind does not invent faces for the people in your dreams; it already has an ample supply stored somewhere in your memory.

20. Dreams Can Melt into Reality

At times, you may be dreaming of frolicking in a meadow and then suddenly hear the shrill sound of bells, only to wake up to the sound of your alarm clock. This phenomenon is known as Sensory Incorporation, wherein elements of your physical surroundings incorporate merge with your dream. A study conducted by Nielsen in 1993 has shown that the physical sensation of pressure on the participants’ legs was incorporated into their dreams, subtly yet directly.

How to Find Your Personal Path to Success

Finding your perfect job, career and life may be easier said than done, but with strong commitment, focus and effort it is possible. Luckily, your return on investment should far outweigh the toil.

What would you give to have your perfect job, career, and life?

People who are happiest and most fulfilled live what is the perfect job, career and life for them. This does not mean living their life would be perfect for you. Like a snowflake, perfection is defined individually. It is achievable for anyone willing to put the effort into defining, discovering and pursuing it.

Who doesn’t want to be considered successful? But success doesn’t happen for everyone because not all people realize that there are different paths to success and each person’s path differs for the next person’s path. And the path isn’t always a straight line. A person may have to travel on many different paths through life—some will lead to dead ends while others will take a person in a completely different direction. How you use this time determines whether or not you find the success you are after.

Listen for the Winds of Change

It can be said that procrastination is the means for dealing with the things you don’t want to do. If you find your success is stagnating, it might just mean it’s time for change. Few people will ever find their path to success, if they fail to recognize when they are on the wrong path. How many times have you heard the phrases, “I shouldn’t have stayed there so long.” and “I was miserable all those years.” While we all have to do things we don’t want to, there are very few situations where you really have no other choice. Find a career and life goal that means something to you, and you’ll probably discover you’re not as much of a procrastinator as you thought you were.

Make Do With What You Have

Everybody has to start from somewhere, and it is rarely near the top. Your path to success may start on a very humble road. But that shouldn’t matter. As long as you have faith in your destiny and take pride in your work, no matter how great or small, your good deeds will eventually get noticed. Thoughts like, “This isn’t worth my time.” or “This is beneath me.” will only crush your success. Make the most of every opportunity. You never know what will either get noticed or lead you in the direction of what you are meant to do.

Define What Success Means to You

People spend a lifetime reaching for goals they believe are what everybody should want. However, only you know what will make you a success. The only way to maximize your potential is to take time to understand what it is that you need. Forget about what society tells you and ask yourself what brings you joy on a day-to-day basis. Happiness comes from your inner core. While you may not have control over every moment in your life, you do have control over what these events mean to you. Be prepared to do some thinking, as this may be something you don’t allow yourself to do very often.

Define Your Goals

Along your path to success you will need to discover what it is that you want. Ask yourself questions about what you want and what would make you feel good. Then ask yourself how you can make this happen. A goal is a tangible thing that leads to a feeling. So, your goal wouldn’t be to be happy, but accomplishing your goal would make you happy. Your goal wouldn’t be to be in love. Your goal would be to find someone you can be in a long-term relationship with. Finding that relationship would make you happy.

Take a Risk

People live much of their lives on the sidelines because they are afraid that if they act outside of the box, someone will disapprove. We prefer getting approval from others, as this is something we are taught from a young age. We quickly learn how unpleasant it can be when an adult scolds us for not following the rules. However, you are stifling your creativity by continuing to live for the approval of others. Learn to say no, take risks when it involves something you want, and be the person who makes you comfortable. You will discover a world of new possibilities once you do!

Forgiving Your Mistakes, and Giving Yourself Permission to Succeed

With risk comes failure. In other words, along your path of action you are going to come across many mistakes. The important thing is to perceive these moments as being “necessary to a worthwhile achievement” (Henry Ford), otherwise, you may lose sight of your path, become afraid of rejection and find yourself back at the beginning of this article. You should never be afraid to take a risk because you’re afraid of being rejected. Fear is simply the result of failing to do anything!

Reiki Psychics