Dream Analysis?

[ValiantSalvatore]

@kieranperez I currently use an app that tracks my sleep and when it wakes me up, prompts me to write down my dreams. I try to look for emotional content or strong impressions and incorporate that with shadow work (3-2-1 process from Wilber). I do not have a lot of theoretical background in shadow work and don't dream that much lately. 

Sometimes I google the dream l had, and search for the meaning in symbols or interactions. http://www.dreammoods.com/ But, this was just done for fun in my past, no real analysis. 

Not sure dreams happen in REM sleep? That is 20 min long, yet why do we have dreams? I forgot all these questions...

[kieranperez]

54 minutes ago, ValiantSalvatore said:

3-2-1 process from Wilber

Do you like that form of shadow work? 

I tried it once and I really didn’t get it at all. I really don’t get what to do when you uncover a shadow and what it means to integrate it. I’ve found many shadows from fears, vows, shame, etc. that are really deep but I have no idea what to do. 

The problem I have with most shadow techniques that I find with like journals and whant not is that it’s like I’m trying to solve and integrate this MAJOR emotional wound using cold rationality and my mind and that personally never works for me with most self-help techniques. Same goes for me with limiting beliefs. Most techniques to to rid oneself of (limiting) beliefs is just trough this head centered approach which doesn’t work for me.

I also tend to be very feeling oriented too. 

Edited April 30, 2019 by kieranperez

[Arcangelo]

I only log and review my dreams if they are premonitory.

[ValiantSalvatore]

@kieranperez First of all yes I like the technique a lot, yet because I like writing and I loved journaling at the beginning of my meditation journey/self-actualization journey. Since then it is a valid tool for exercises for PD and just mental health aspects, like constant rumination etc. I used and still use a physical journal. 

Ken or some other author mentions that it takes some time and one is supposed to observe his behavior, in the description about shadow work. I started in 2017 with shadow work regularly and wrote, like each fking day longer than the recommended time. Because of emotional triggers like for me... intelligence, arrogance, hate, resentment, emotional pain and a lot of situational triggers plagued me. Which brought insight into the emotional state. It clearly helped me describing emotions in a more granular manner + I felt I was integrating a "shadow". Or the unconscious self. I still sometimes wonder that new behaviors and interaction paradigms show up, yet they are small, yet big inside. 

Also, I found lost identities and tendencies have been unearthed, I feel more healthy in that regard to most people who triggered me for instance. (family members, classmates etc. romantic interests ) 

 

36 minutes ago, kieranperez said:

The problem I have with most shadow techniques that I find with like journals and whant not is that it’s like I’m trying to solve and integrate this MAJOR emotional wound using cold rationality and my mind and that personally never works for me with most self-help techniques. Same goes for me with limiting beliefs. Most techniques to to rid oneself of (limiting) beliefs is just trough this head centered approach which doesn’t work for me.

I also tend to be very feeling oriented too. 

I find the 3-2-1 process is a vanilla version of shadow work from what I have a presentiment about what could work more effectively. I really like this technique since I can't afford to go crazy, which I feel breathing practices could make me do. I used to smoke weed and had a heavy emotional body load then and I keep feeling this pain inside my chest solar plexus where I feel my "shadow" or energy lingers and had a couple of breakthroughs now with meditation and the shadow work always made me feel the spot. One is supposed to take in the feelings of what one wrote down, if you are an emotional type, you can use that to your advantage I turned on music and wrote what I felt, also not and wrote what I felt.

To the degree where I wanted to cry, cried, or was mad, or surprised at the end, also that I integrate that feeling, identity (persona or alter-ego)  so I sit for a couple of seconds not long. After a 10-20min session of figuring out and going through the process, in my opinion, that is fine. 

I also tried psychedelics (LSD) more than a handful of times and wrote down emotional triggers and insights I had which I could do shadow work about. The psychedelic experiences themselves helped more than the practice that is why I want to try shrooms. This changed me more than shadow work, although shadow work at least the 3-2-1 process changed me gradually over time. I was, for instance, the one who is arrogant and hubristic, wanted to express intelligence (be smart), and anger has decreased, yet I still struggler with this one, also to be expressive or even feminine and masculine. 
 

1 hour ago, kieranperez said:

I tried it once and I really didn’t get it at all. I really don’t get what to do when you uncover a shadow and what it means to integrate it. I’ve found many shadows from fears, vows, shame, etc. that are really deep but I have no idea what to do.

I can see what you mean I felt the same too, yet in the description from Ken he says to watch one's behavior for weeks, days and months to come. So, I stuck with it and I feel a changed definitely, a major changed. Depending on what is major, but behavior and interaction change is sort of major. Integration happens (for me) naturally, you unearthed the belief, emotion, situation, or alter-ego and are free to express it. It is a bit odd to express it, for instance, a new persona. But some are just fun. TBH I am going to be an arrogant prick, but unearthing intelligence and arrogance were madly fun and it is fun, yet it is not TOXIC anymore or at least not that TOXIC anymore. Sometimes it hurts in a pissy sort of feeling. 

Ken Wilber also mentions Shadow Work never ends in his Audiobook Integral Transformation and some shadow traits are inherently biological. So, cleaning up never ends apparently.

 

BTW: you posted the same post about Wilber as me,(Multiple Intelligence video series last week or so) in case you want to know more about the 3-2-1 process, you can click on integral life on community my username is once3800. I wrote a question about shadow work and received an answer from a lady who has 38 years experience in yoga and now did the 3-2-1 process. For a different take on the issue.

I also really enjoy the video series of Dr.Keith and Corey. Here is one about shame I took some notes on the video over one weekend. https://integrallife.com/integral-mindfulness-and-the-evolution-of-shame/


Besides that if the approach is to rational, I would try the breathing techniques like shamanic breathing, I feel I penetrate the core and can't go fully crazy atm. When things are more save yes, I will try it, but for now vanilla version. Testing them for more than 3-4 months, ideally, half a year is a good approach IMO. Others might think otherwise. 

[ValiantSalvatore]

@kieranperez For limiting believes I tired the exercise from Leo and also from one of his books from the booklist, which were a major game changer for me. The most secular approach without reading much from any tradition besides like the bible when I was young and a bit of the bahavagita and the complete Dao de Jing. 

Is from Shinzen Young, the loving-kindness practice that he teaches and describes, which includes body emotions, for e.g imagining ideals, visualizing positive emotional states and retraining cognition through mantras, also through feeling and thinking. Can be a nice addition to shadow work, retraining behavior or even the nervous system, from what I've watched now from Paul Check on YouTube.  I am trying this since I've heard from Ken Wilber that Vipassana blocks the shadow and I wanted to integrate it. I can recommend Shinzens approach to loving-kindness, yet I don't know what more devotion oriented traditions to practice. So, potentially it could be to cognitive, yet in this technique fundamentally you decide. 

So, you can keep in mind that even cognition influences emotions, yet I am not a pro, so take all of this with a grain of salt. I would definitely try a shadow work technique longer than 3-4 months. Most likely are psychedelics the most effective, but radical way, and it will also depend on the substance. 
 

[herghly]

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