Thin Boundaries for Better Endings

“You’ve been given the ability to build a magical tunnel that will quickly and secretly connect your home with the location of your choice — anywhere on Earth. Where’s the other end of your tunnel?” (reblogged from The Mobius Strip blog by dreamwalkeramrita)

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 Consider the idea that some people have “thinner boundaries” than others.  Drs. Michael Jawers and Marc Micozzi have written about this in a study of sensitivity factors in humans. In The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion  these authors describe boundary issues as follows:

The personality construct of Boundaries was developed by Ernest Hartmann (http://www.tufts.edu/~ehartm01/) , a psychiatrist and sleep disorder researcher. He asserts that each person can be characterized on a spectrum of boundaries from thick to thin. Thick boundary people “strike[s] us as very solid and well organized; they keep everything in its place. They are well defended. They seem rigid, even armored; we sometimes speak of them as thick-skinned.” At the other end of the spectrum, thin boundary individuals are “especially sensitive, open, or vulnerable. In their minds, things are relatively fluid.”

Other characteristics of the thin boundary personality type are:

  • A less solid or definite sense of one’s own skin as a body boundary
  • An enlarged sense of merging with another person when kissing or making love
  • A penchant for immersing oneself in something – whether a personal relationship, a memory or a daydream
  • Sensitivity to physical and emotional pain, in oneself as well as in others
  • An enhanced ability to recall dreams but also a tendency to experience nightmares

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It seems to me that thin boundaries relate to what we have been discussing this month in relation to the life metaphor “Life is but a Dream”.  Let me start the final week of this month’s topic then by considering how enlisting your Teacher archetype to help you “mine” the positive metaphor Life is but a Dream can lead to your own Better Endings.

Life as a Dream opens unlimited potentials because by their nature dreams allow creative flexibility.

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I invite you to ask your inner Teacher to help you envision a “better ending scenario” for some situation you have been feeling ‘stuck’ in or hampered by. If you could transform this current situation-scenario by imagining a ‘better ending’, what would that other ending be, from the standpoint of your Inner Teacher? Let me role model briefly with a Teacher and Self dialogue:

S: What CAN I do to move forward with my book project? Nothing is happening; it feels stuck without communication from others.

T: Step back so you can look at the whole picture. Aim to gain a greater vision of what you are trying to express and share.

S: Should I edit then? Revision the whole approach?

T: One small step at a time, dear. Envision how you might reformat according to your highest Vision.

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Do you see how direct and easy Archetype Dialogue can be? It allows you to immediately tap into your own multiplicity, to query and then to listen to your own interior, alternate perspectives. This can help you to resolve inner conflicts and to move forward after “checking in”.

The common notion of following your “inner counsel” is enhanced by envisioning your Inner Council of archetype Allies who are your intrinsic, ‘personal unconscious’ ensemble cast of mythic characters. Get to know your inner ALLIES, because that is what they aim to be, working together toward your own highest Good!

I welcome YOUR comments and stories.

Follow Your Heart to Embark on Your Greatest Adventure

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How might your inner Teacher help you benefit from understanding that “life is but a dream”? To find out, I invite you to simply open a conversation! You can do this by journaling (as below) or through direct, active imagination and then write about it or otherwise represent what you gain from this later.

I’ll share an excerpt from an archetype dialogue with my Teacher part of self:

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Self: I call upon my Teacher persona. Are you there?

Teacher: Always, yes.

S:  How would you like to be addressed?

T:  It depends on your reason for calling me; what is it you need?

S: Just to chat, for a blog topic about the metaphor “Life is a Dream”.

T: Okay then, call me Coach.

S: Okay then. Why Coach?

T: To realize the potentials of manifesting your Dream, a life coach can help you expose your goals.

S: That could be helpful. What would you suggest then?

   {Synchronicity (aside): As I am in the process of engaging this dialogue, Tolkien’s Return of the King is on TV. I had forgotten that Frodo and Bilbo Baggins both depart with Gandalf at the story’s finale, on an elvish boat that heads out to unknown and indescribable Adventure.}

T: How could it be otherwise? Bilbo and Frodo are Adventurers by their deepest nature.

S: How does this relate to living life as a Dream?

T: You must follow your dreams. To do this, listen to your heart, then act accordingly.

S: My heart aches lately. I long to embark on the next phase of my great adventure, too. But I wish I could do this, when I go, with fellows such as Frodo has; true friends of the Soul.

T: Follow your heart then.

S: I don’t know what you mean. 

T: You are never alone, not when you realize HOW Life is a Dream. Your fellows are right beside you, and within, always.

S: Thank You. I begin to perceive what you are teaching me.  Separation is an Illusion. 

T: Trust the process. The law of spiritual economy ensures that everything is interconnected; nothing is wasted…

Compass

I gain from this encounter that since Life is But a Dream, there are no limitations except for those we choose to accept for purposes of learning life’s lessons. There is a freedom to ACT in the direction that accords with our own deepest nature.   A dream is malleable; it can be redirected according to the will of the Dreamer. This does, however, require (and reward!) an exercise of mindful awareness.

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On another level, as someone reminded me this week, we can also think of God or Higher Wisdom itself as “the Divine Dreamer”. In this sense, mine or your dream-life is neither accidental nor random.  Remember to ask of any life situation: “Whose Dream IS this, really?”

I welcome your comments and stories. I invite you to engage in Archetype Dialogue with your own Inner Teacher persona!