I have several recurring dreams. In one of them, I’m at university, faced with having to find a group to move in with for the coming academic year. But I’ve left it too late. Everyone has already made their plans – none of which include me. I spend the rest of the dream, trying not to cry, whilst behaving as if nothing is bothering me.
In another, I stand on stage. It’s not that I’ve forgotten my lines – this wouldn’t be a problem, it’s always possible to improvise. The fact is, I can’t remember what the actual play is.
In the one recurring dream that (oddly) isn’t that bad – the world is being overtaken by zombies. One bite and you’re infected! Often, I have a weapon – a gun – which I shoot, though my aim isn’t great. Sometimes, I have a stick of wood that I swing at the zombie’s heads. I’m happy to run – the choice is clear and this clarity calms me, despite the surrounding chaos. The other component of the dream is Dan. At some point we become separated, but I know he’ll stay safe for me – that he’ll find me. There’s never any fear the two of us could be lost to each other.
I’ve already blogged about my experiences at Drama School. In my short story called ‘No Drama Whatsoever’, Muriel – the central character – is trapped by her increasing self awareness: able to discern when she’s faking it, but unable to locate the truth – the way out. I’ve a similar feeling in my recurring dreams – of having no way out.
Muriel sharpens her pencil while Clester hands out the photocopied scripts.
Acting, he says. Is an absolute art.
She stares at him as he holds one hand in the air, lightly cupped. He looks along the row of students, his face stretched tight with intensity. Muriel glances away when his eyes meet hers.
Acting, he starts again. Should be effortless.
She tries to focus on that last word, breathing deeply and dropping her shoulders. Rather than ‘hold’ her eyes open, she allows the lids to droop – as they have been taught – but as she watches Clester, with his forced expressions and dramatic pauses, she cannot suppress the suspicion that these classes are his substitute for the stage. This thought comes from somewhere near her hip. She tries to keep away from it, to have faith in Clester and what they’re all trying to do here. She swallows, and exhales from the centre of her body, but it’s like trying to submerge a plastic bag with an air pocket: just when she thinks she’s winning, a corner rises to the surface, defiant.
I’ve been having treatment for a build up of tension around my right hip and lower back. It has never got in the way of my physical activities, but disturbs my quiet moments. I can trace its beginnings to Drama School – over ten years ago.
During my sessions, I began to talk with the practitioner about dreams. I told him that I often dreamt lucidly – even as a child. The dreams that aren’t lucid stay in my mind with meticulous detail. He said I was lucky: Tibetan Dream Yoga is a practice developed in order to make the dream state more meaningful by awakening the consciousness. (I didn’t mention that, when I was little, I used my awareness to go on shopping sprees, grow my hair, kiss famous actors and fly.)
During the course of our conversation, it occurred to me that the tension I felt in my hip was a block – a part of myself I wanted to keep hidden. It made sense, because at Drama School – when the tension began – my self was challenged in a way it never had before: I felt devoid of any depth and didn’t really want to explore that.
I considered the dreams I have, which aren’t lucid: my recurring ones. I’m trapped in a distressing world, and because I believe that world I have no ability to break free. What was preventing me from seeing that the world was a dream?
I began to think more of the dreams. This is a technique to bring about lucid dreaming: compare your dreams to waking reality and know what it feels like to be conscious. What I began to realise was that I didn’t know what it was to be unconscious, or unaware. It began to dawn on me that I had a state where I cut myself off. A state of denial.
Acting, Clester says. It all about the effect your actions have on another. He points at Muriel and Steven and says: off you go!
They come to the front of the class and sit. Steven has blonde highlights, but claims emphatically that they’re natural. There’s nothing effortless in the way he makes this claim, despite the fact that it’s an act.
Steven delivers the first line.
His lips have no creases in them. They’re all pumped up. Roz the voice coach is always going on about how gorgeous Steven is, to the extent that Muriel has begun to wonder if there’s something wrong with her because she, most insistently, does not feel the same. Despite the level of insistence, this opinion feels effortless.
Play! Clester says, circling them.
Muriel knows that if she takes the word into her brain she will become sidetracked by what it means, rather than how it feels, so she stares at the script in front of her and tries to absorb Clester’s advice through her skin.
She slumps down in the chair. She says a line as if trying not to laugh, as if she doesn’t care; even though she really truly does. She slumps further as the scene progresses. She makes enormous gestures with her arms. She notices Steven has a tan line around his eyes from those goggles they make you wear on sunbeds.
When they finish the scene, everyone claps, which Muriel thinks is generous, considering what a turnip she feels. Clester nods and says: keep playing!
Does that mean she’s already playing, or does the fact she doesn’t know mean she didn’t come anywhere close? Muriel waits for Clester to say something else, but he doesn’t. She can’t think how to keep playing – any more slumping and she would have slithered off the chair. Maybe that’s what Clester means. Maybe she should have thrown herself onto the floor. But would that have been effortless?
The blog posts I’ve been reading this month, have an air of energy about them – hope, resolve, fresh aims – which I love. Thank you bloggers! January is a time of leaping clear of bad habits. I haven’t had a new year’s resolution for some time – I don’t need any more boundaries to hem me in! But I realised something at Christmas when I took time off: just because an added resolution seems excessive, doesn’t mean I don’t need to look at how to better my self. I saw that deciding to take time off is a worthwhile resolution.
This year, I’m unpacking myself, and learning that letting go, giving oneself space, isn’t easy, but it’s such challenges that will take me to deeper delights.
I’ve been holding myself in for over ten years. That point in my hip is like the nozzle on an air mattress. Mine is fixed in place, taped over and then secured with a padlock. What am I so afraid of? Why is the thought of deflating so terrifying?
In my final recurring dream, I’m losing Dan. There are various settings – the last one was an industrial port, but instead of a city on the shore it was a wasteland: sodden stretches of clay-like mud. A castle floats on the water; its walls made of shipping containers. Dan is fascinated by another woman. She’s the wife of someone we vaguely knew in Mexico: dark, oily skin; thick, bleached hair. They’re talking, but the sight upsets me – the way he listens to her, leans in to her. I fly away, up onto the shipping containers. But I realise I cannot bear to leave them – allow them a space, which they may fill in a way that distresses me even more.
I have to follow them, but I can’t see where they are. I fly down to the muddy ground and then I go into the castle, which is now a cargo ship. I’m on deck, walking through an area with tables and chairs. A little boy sits on his own. I know this is the woman’s son. He leans slumped on the table, abandoned. I’m scared. Why would they leave him? Why would they need to be so alone – without the boy?
He looks up at me. Seeing into his eyes is painful, because of what I feel he knows.
I continue on, going into the ship. No one is about. I listen for sounds – I do not want to be caught.
A giggle comes through the ship and I know they’re together, behind a door. When I get closer, I see Dan’s long, slender feet beneath the door. They stand facing a pair of patent leather stilettos. A pain grows from my centre, expanding, aching.
Suddenly, the feet move to the door. I leap and cram myself into a small space in the wall of the ship as they come out. I can’t see them. The only way to end my pain is to prove it, but I’m afraid of being caught if I peer out.
In the end, the pain is greater than the fear of being seen – the promise of truth more powerful than the strength I have to keep myself hidden. I look out from my hiding place, and then I wake.
I was just wondering, Muriel says.
The rest of the class turn to look at her and, even though this is perfectly natural, Muriel can’t help sense a shift in the atmosphere. The air in the room becomes heavy: it presses up against her as the one who can’t do it; whatever it is. It makes her continue with: soooo, I totally get the idea…she trails off because this has now left her stuck.
She backtracks: well, I sort of get it.
The proximity of sort of to not at all makes her shiver.
What I mean is, she tries and then sighs.
Clester holds up his arm and rubs his thumb and forefinger together for a moment, before opening his hand and letting it flap away like a bird.
See? he says.
Muriel screws up her nose.
First you feel it, Clester says. And then you allow it.
The rest of the class nods.
Thanks, Muriel says. She opens her notebook and spends some time writing the date.
The other night, I took a new step in my dreams. Again, it was the one where I feel I’m losing Dan. Instead of standing by, miserable in my sense of helplessness, I said to him: I hate it when you do that.
When I woke, I realised what I’d done. I also realised that the object of his fascination, which threatened us – a woman with short, soft, golden curls – was me.
Haven’t I read somewhere that every character in our dreams is a version of us? It explains why, in that dream on the cargo ship, I never saw who came out from behind that door with Dan. I’ve been hiding from myself.
I spent a lot of time at Drama School, looking for someone to blame for my disquiet. What if I’d stopped for a moment and taken ownership of my block; seen that I’m my own worst enemy – that the words ‘I hate it when you do that’ can be directed at the mirror. No-one can trap me tighter than myself?
This is a year for breaking patterns, letting out the air.
Gabriela Blandy - The sense of a journey 
I’m on the edge of babbling here, which is something I do quite well, if I can risk being immodest, I’m so pleased to have found your Blog. I’ve no idea how I did it now, but I really enjoy your writing. You seem to have won some prizes and I’m not surprised. Your talent shines through in every post
Yey! I love it when my posts make people want to babble. I think I found you – I remember a post about a penguin and a propeller…But I can’t say how I got there either! But I am glad we are reading each other because it seems our appreciation is mutual – I’ve been thinking about your raindrops today, as the snow melts! See you around 😉
Lovely! You’re really digging down through the layers, and finding a great voice to write about what you’re finding. And I loved how you were excavating your fiction to get nearer reality.
Thanks, Hilary! I suddenly remembered that story while I was writing the post. I thought back to when we workshopped it, and how everyone had said that they didn’t really know what Muriel’s problem was. At the time, even though it was my experience, I didn’t have the words. So, it looks like I can go back and do another draft of that one! Hope you’re well xx
You have a beautiful writing voice, Gabriela! These dreams will make amazing novels 😀
Spoken from a true novelist: little short story writer me thinks, how on earth could I turn these little tales into one big one?!! Thanks for seeing my voice – it’s so wonderful to be heard and appreciated.
I’m glad I got a some time to breathe and stop by. You have been such a wonderful supporter. I like the way you structure this piece with the italics. It creates a dream-like mood, which mirrors the message.
Thanks for popping by and I’m glad you got something out of this. I guess it’s my turn to be a little distracted by work – I’m teaching a series of writing workshops over the next few weeks, so less down time.
I loved this post and the interweaving of the short story, your writing is very accomplished. And bizarrely it broke my dream – I had a bad dream about zombies just last night – the third in a few months, despite the fact that I love zombie movies! I would always tell people to ignore the dream interpretation books with their ‘easy’ meanings for the things we dream about – it’s always about something happening in your life and, as you’ve done, the trick is to look inside yourself to work out what it is…
I love zombie movies too!! I’m glad I broke your dream. I’m not really a fan of those interpretation books. I did read somewhere that the only person that can interpret your dreams is yourself. I find it helpful to start with the emotion that you are feeling in the dream and work your way from there, which is like you say – looking inside yourself. Thanks so much for your comment.
I definitely think that bodily issues can have a lot to do with what we don’t deal with in our minds. So very true.
I took a “Personality” class in psychology in college, and we analyzed our dreams. It was fairly illuminating; just being aware of what you’re dreaming and thinking about it while awake can bring so much clarity.
But I also think that getting older gives us the freedom to “be ourselves” (perhaps when we’re younger, many of us don’t even know what that means??). So that we eventually don’t feel that we need to be “on” all the time but end up getting in touch with the core of ourselves and connecting with that part all the time. I think when I was younger, I felt pressured to be who other people expected me to be. Getting to the age where I have eye twinkles and random gray hairs and occasional white eyebrow hairs (!) has its advantages: I feel like I’m finally accessing the parts of myself that I kept hidden all those years ago. And if people don’t like those parts? Oh, well. ; )
Lovely thoughts Anne. I what you say about getting greyer and wiser. I’ve got two clumps of grey, which I tell myself give my curls more definition. If they bring more wisdom too then I’m happy. My brother has a recurring grey hair in his eyebrow, which grows twice as long as all the others. We always laugh when it comes back!
Your brother and I must be eyebrow soul mates. ; )
Loved reading your post, Gabriela. Well done. Jo 🙂
Jo – thanks so much for your support over the weeks. It’s always nice to see you 😉
I really loved all the different levels in this post, Gabriela – I’d saved it till last to read, because I knew your post would take my entire concentration, and also give me things to savour.
A masterly picture of Clester, achieved with such subtlety – made me giggle!.
So impressed with your insights, achieved on your own. Your dreams are fascinating … I’;ve done dream work with people for years – they interpret the dream and find their own truth… One woman was telling me about losing her passport in her dream and walking down these green slimy steps in Venice. I asked her to Be the steps. She said., “Oh I’m just here to be walked over by everyone”, and burst into tears as she realised that this was the story of her life…..
When I do counselling, we work on energy blocks like the pain in your hip, and again I find it so impressive that you’ve achieved the insights you have, and have got to the point you have…
Your insights and awareness blow me away…
Valerie – thanks for your visit. You’re the first person to mention Clester and I’m so glad. I’ve always been fond of how he grew and became. Your story about the woman who was the steps was amazing! It’s good to hear that I’m working in the right direction with my insights. I have to say, after your comment, I think I’m going to be dreaming that my head is so big I’m having trouble fitting through doorways!!
Maybe you have another calling apart from writing my dear Gabriela?
I am like Valerie I save your posts till last as they require concentration, not in an intense way, but to truly absorb your words. Yes you need to loosen the straps that may be binding you. As for dreaming of Dan with another I say ‘pfft’ I do not think that is a possible. Lovely post once again and thank you. xx
At least I know what to do if I ever give up on my chances of making it as a writer 😉
Thanks for your heartening words. I shall keep loosening daily xx
My dreams are very lucid,too. I do believe our dreams let our subconscious run free and what we try so hard to suppress consciously. Sometimes what we suppress comes out through physical pain. I once worked at a very stressful job. I began to notice that my stomach was literally in knots. It got so bad that my throat started constricting & I couldn’t swallow or eat. Then I kept having dreams about being submerged into water. I was always on a bridge and the river overflowed. Then I realized that it was stress and my bad habit of keeping things in.
What an interesting idea that dreams are a place to run free after our conscious has been constricting us. That job sounds very stressful! Well done for reaching that point of realisation – it’s such a relief isn’t it!
Wonderful as always. I go through phases of recurring dreams, often involving water and being out of my depth in it, feeling slightly at risk but not desperately so, and others involve me being on rides at the fair, feeling like I have to hold on really tight or I will be thrown off the ride. I’m sure I could quite easily extract meanings from those!
Well, if you require my services as a dream consultant my rates are quite reasonable. I’m impressed with your reading – I know my posts aren’t the shortest, so I do appreciate you tackling two in one day. Haven’t looked at your honey yet, haven’t sent you my recipe yet – man, I’m letting the side down! (On another note, I’m baking cupcakes this weekend for Dan’s birthday and I’m going to have a photoshoot just for Sugarness!)
Yay, a Sugarness photoshoot! Don’t worry that you haven’t read the honey yet, you know how long I take sometimes to read yours. We always get there in the end don’t we…
I definitely resonated with what you said about being “trapped by self-awareness” — sometimes I’ll get the sense that nothing I can verbally say ever expresses the truth I’m actually trying to convey, so that my communications are, in a sense, inherently inauthentic. But I have also learned to question this perspective because I think it has more to do with anxiety relating to communication generally than a lack of truthfulness.
Hi Chris – nice to meet you. I’m always curious where new commenters come from – especially as your thoughts are so engaging. I know exactly what you mean about that journey from thought, or feeling, to words and the concern about truthfulness. Sometimes, I will realise that I’ve tried to put words down too soon – that the experience isn’t clear enough in my mind, and I’m filling in the gaps with words that have no true foundation.
been a really busy week at work only to find a quiet moment now to enjoy your beautiful writing. this post can be more than just a novel but a movie too. It is very “inception” happening in the real world among many of us. Who knows maybe we did really went into the different levels of our dreams. Just that we are being hidden by ourselves when we were in there.
I’d love to make a movie out of one of my ideas one day!! Someone was going to make a short film out of one of my stories, and we worked on the script, but then she couldn’t get the funding, and that was the end of that. Frustrating! You’ve made me remember that in inception all the characters in the dream are a part of the dreamer. I really love that movie!! Thanks for stopping by – even when things have been so busy for you.
No matter how busy, I will always find time to indulge in your beautiful writing. It does magic to help me relax and enjoy a delightful moment which is a priceless gift.
Sincerely
Danny
If only you worked in publishing!!
Thanks so much Danny. I am lucky to have such loyal followers.
Unfortunately, as someone who works in government, most of my worst dreams involve Ministers! The worst was when a former Conservative Secretary of State gave me the bad news in a meeting that I had a terminal illness. She (unusually for Tory Cabinet Ministers, it was a woman) tried to give me a lethal injection. She said it was for the best as she chased me round her office with a hyperdermic, While I yelled that I wanted a second opinion. Analyse that!
Wow, Chris! At least you’re a fighter.
Some of the comments here have talked about making novels or movies out of my dreams, but yours seems to be more compelling – with it’s suggestions of conspiracy. It also makes me think of the fact that it can be a bit strange seeing someone after you’ve dreamt of them. Did you feel nervous when you had to face that female cabinet minister?
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Who’s inspiring? You are. Check it out: http://whatsbroken.me/2013/01/29/lennon-sundance-inspiring-what/ Thanks for your support and your cool blog.