CosmicWise

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Dream Interpretation Example #9

Scuba Diving

(dreamer is a 25 year old female) Last night I dreamt that I worked in a restaurant (which in life I really do) but the boss made the bartenders/servers do her a favour and teach a class on scuba diving. The class wasn't being held at the restaurant, but far away, and they put us up in a hotel. No one knew how to scuba dive; let alone how to teach it.

When I got there I got my teaching manual and a tour of the place. There are 3 classes being held in one room. We got our assignment and I was on the center podium. Diana (in life an old co-worker from another job) was on the podium to my left and Katie (a current co-worker) to my right. The "students" (all guys in all 3 classes) started coming in and going to the designated area, and Donna (my current boss) came over and told me that I would have to talk to my students in order to teach them, and just staring at the manual wouldn't do it. So I told her that I couldn't speak in front of a crowd, that I failed public speaking in high school, and that I knew nothing about scuba diving.

A fight broke out in Katie's section. Two of the guys were fighting with another; they picked him up and put his head through the ceiling tile a couple of times, but he was uninjured and actually laughing.

Donna turned back to me and was explaining that if I went through the manual then I wouldn't need to know how to scuba dive in order to teach it, and I would have to start saying something. So I started reading the manual out loud to the class, and she stopped me and told me that they could do that on their own. So I pointed out that no one else was teaching either, they were just socializing with their students.

I went over to Diana and asked if she knew what she was doing. She tells me she is reading the manual and highlighting the important stuff, so she will know what she is talking about when they settle down. Class was dismissed and I got lost trying to walk back to my hotel.

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Dear Dreamer,

You are expecting yourself to be able to do something that you have no prior experience with. Taking the plunge under certain situations (scuba diving) requires us to have not only desire and passion for the activity in question but daring and courage as well. To educate others to do the same requires long time experience and you clearly don't have any under the circumstances. In assessing your situation (get a tour of the place) with your past memories (Diana) and your current situation (Katie) you are determining what is possible. Whatever you decide and act on will create your future.

The emphasis here is on getting you to learn a more direct and spontaneous way of dealing with situations, as opposed to learning by rote. One that will allow you to come across as more natural to others (you can't read from the manual). Here you discover that you are limited by a decision you made some time ago about your ability to interact with large groups of people (I failed at public speaking). In this sense, you are prejudging yourself by standards of the past. Fundamentally, you don't really believe in yourself. As a result, two aspects of yourself are in a struggle with each other (2 guys fighting it out). You must acknowledge this inner conflict that is responsible for periodically pushing you beyond what you deem is possible for you (head goes through the ceiling tile). Despite the fact that on the surface everything looks fine (uninjured) this inner battle is occurring and is likely affecting you even if you haven't been willing to acknowledge it yet. In a nutshell, the two aspects that are fighting each other is the one that is eager to try out new things and your old low self-esteem conditioning.

You yourself need to learn how to do something very specific before you can seriously consider teaching it to others; one only earns the right to lead others after when they’ve learned first how to follow those with experience. Your old conditioning and habits (Diana) want you to believe that just looking over a situation and taking notes is going to be enough to succeed, but another part of you questions the validity of this kind of thinking (I pointed out that no one else was teaching). At some level, you recognize that even though others are doing it this way it doesn’t mean that they are actually doing their job well. There is something you must learn first before you can put yourself in the position of educating others on anything. If you do not take the time to experience first and show others later, your opportunity will pass you by (class dismissed) and you will have a hard time finding your way back.

Take every necessary step towards your goals and remember that proficiency comes with experience. Don't think that by omitting some steps that no one will notice--they will. Ultimately, you will have to convince yourself that you are capable of doing something before you can convince anyone else of your qualifications and that means applying yourself completely to your studies now.

Demitra M. N.