I was reading something that mentions the idea of shadow work - confronting repressed emotions and thoughts to free up psychological potential. I guess it made an impression on my subconscious, because I later had my first nightmare in years, involving meteors hitting the Earth. The shadow aspect being that even though I was dreaming, I was aware that it wasn’t real although there was some fear that it could somehow become real if I let it, and that I on some level was able to affect or control it. I tried things like making the meteor just hit Australia, but that wasn’t entirely satisfactory. I tried turning the meteors (plural) into something more positive like glowing bird things, but that was difficult and felt repressive. Eventually I got so fed up with the situation that I woke up.
So assuming this happens again what should I do? Is it healthiest to go ahead and imagine/dream whatever nasty and/or scary thing that comes into my head and just enjoy the ride? Or try to transform it into something more positive even though that feels somewhat artificial and repressive? Objectively it seems that since it’s just in my imagination/dream, I should just express the hell out of it internally in the hopes that it will be released. On the other hand, I’m not sure how to tell the difference between letting go of negativity that’s already there and fostering new negativity.
Any ideas from dopers who know anything about shadow work and intentional dreaming?
I don’t know anything about shadow work, and I’m neither a counselor nor a dream reader.
But I would say your biggest fear is owning your power. That would require also owning the consequences of your decisions.
My recommendation would be to take control in these dreams, and with a strict “buck stops here” attitude. Making quick decisions is part of life (the meteor should falllllllllllll in the Pacific . . .pant ! pant !) and making the wrong ones (70’s tune begins “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice”) is human.
Look into these things that are hurting you and pay attention to the choices you made. Work on accepting them.
I’ve gone a long way here on very little information. Hope some of it is useful; if not, I meant well.
For me, dreams revolve around the day’s events and my general interests. If there is something troubling me it usually manifests itself as a problem to be solved or at least viewed in retrospect so I am more aware of it.
I have, over the years, learned to recognize types of dreams as a message to myself to wake up. If a dream continues on a claustrophobic theme then I’m having problems breathing. If a dream becomes violent that means I’m getting a migraine headache. I’ve learned to wake myself out of these dreams. Beyond dreams, I have learned to react swiftly if a have acid reflux. There is no time for it to manifest into a dream because you can inhale stomach acid and that is extremely unpleasant. I bolt straight up when this happens.
to answer your question, if you can recognize that you’re dreaming and it’s unpleasant then wake up.