May You Never Lack Threads to Embroider Your Dreams

Maturity has taught me what my priorities are. Now, I can pick up the threads of my life with more bravery and integrity. Because, this time, I’m going to use the colored threads to weave an existence that is much stronger, more dignified and colorful. One that reflects my dreams.

Often, and without there being a determined age for it, a time comes in which we take stock of the “vital tissue” we have built up until that point. Suddenly, we realize that there is a profound problem. Between what we are and what we do: we don’t like any of it, and none of it brings us happiness. 

Our life paths sometimes form intricate labyrinths of frustrations, fears and mental blocks. And we can sometimes become permanently trapped within these. We lose those colorful threads which embroidered our dreams and wishes in the past. That’s when uncertainty appears, and along with it that fear which can eat away and erode you…

Is this the life that will always await me? Have all of my trains of opportunity already passed me by?

The Senoi, the translators of dreams

The Senoi is a Malaysian tribe that has always been tremendously interesting for anthropologists, psychologists and sociologists. One of the customs they have maintained since ancient times is that of gathering every morning as a family to talk about the dreams and nightmares they have experienced throughout the night.

Far from conferring a halo of magic or spirituality to this custom, what the Senoi intend to do is understand the needs of each family

member through these dream images. In order to closely analyze what each family member explains, this tribe teds to climb up onto bamboo huts in order to stay away from the ground. Away from the “physical world”.

The amazing thing about this practice is that, according to studies conducted by several experts, the Senoi are an incredibly happy social group. These cathartic gatherings allow them to “pick back up” the threads of their reality in order to get to know themselves better. In this town, there are no violent acts, and no one suffers from mental illnesses.

It would without a doubt interest you to know what techniques the Senoi use to confront the fears that are usually reflected in our dreams. If you so wish, there are some very interesting books available, such as “Senoi Dream Therapy: Myth, Scientific Method, and the Dreamwork” by the psychologist William Domhoff.

Nevertheless, the following are some short examples of their coping lines:

• Any threat that appears within a dream or a nightmare is a reality that we should recognize and manage.
• Our dreams and goals can be found behind that “monster” or that blurry “shadow” in your dream. You should know how to beat it in order to find new paths to go down.
• If you dream that you are falling down a mountain or through a hole, these are images associated to anxiety. You should visualize for two days that after each fall, a soft and up-kept field of flowers awaits you.
• Another piece of advice from the Senoi is the following. When we are dreaming and are conscious of it (lucid dreams), we should strive to make friends, to create links of affection.

Recovering the threads that embroider our dreams

We are often overwhelmed with uncertainty and unease over what we want to be and who we are now. In these moments, there is only one option: change. Now, it’s not about leading up to sudden changes, because “vital tsunamis” don’t always guarantee success.

It’s more about allowing yourself to flow while we give way to small changes, new routes, new people, new thoughts. All of this suddenly provides us with new thread colors with which to embroider those dreams. Dreams we had in the past, which, due to whatever reasons, we had simply left on the back-burner.

Steps to initiating change and achieving your personal goals

In order to generate a change, no matter how small, we are forced to accept that we will undergo a moment of crisis. These are the threads that offer resistance. They persist, and they are branded into our skin, trying to keep us from taking the step we need.

• Don’t fear the pain that comes with detachment. There are some threads that should be cut, because they no longer sustain much weight. We have to let them go in order to find other, much more beautiful, threads to embroider our dreams with. Better projects.
• Pay attention to your intuition. This dimension that connects directly with our emotions and that unconsciousness the Senoi knew how to interpret so well. It whispers truths that we don’t always listen to.
• We should be very clear on what we want for ourselves. If you want peace, leave aside those who torment you. If you want love, start loving yourself. Work on your self-esteem if it is recognition that you seek. And ff you want freedom, look for the key to your chains.

The threads that embroider our dreams are waiting for us right now in any corner. They await in the smile of the people we know and even the strangers we meet. Because, believe it or not, there are still many platforms that receive trains with our names on them. And because it is never a good idea to let small minds convince us that our dreams are too big.