Spirits communicate with us most easily while in meditation and most often in our dreams. It is fairly common and easy to communicate with our dearly departed ones as often as we would like to.  While we are in the dream state our conscious mind is more open and allowing of the communication. If someone you love has recently departed and you are not recalling a dream about them, don’t be discouraged. They are visiting you only you are not remembering because when someone we love has died recently the memories are very raw and painful and so you will not remember the visits until a time when you have healed and grieving is not so intense.  Some people that I have loved that have passed on communicate with me in my dreams right away, some later on after a period of time.

Years ago, while in meditation, I had a spirit show up that I didn’t know. At first, I thought I was wrong and tried to ignore him. He persisted. He was very strong  impressing my mind with his face and invading my meditation. I finally asked who he was and he told me his name was Chris. I then sketched a likeness of him in my journal. I had no idea who this guy was or why he was coming to me – he just kept saying his name. During this time, I was teaching a dream class in Houston and this night of my class it was pouring rain along with thundering and lightning.  Quite a storm. The receptionist at the center where the class was held called me and asked me if I was coming  and she asked “Please, don’t cancel your class there is a couple that are insistent on coming and are driving from Galveston.” I told her that I had no intention on cancelling the class that there were already 10 others confirmed. Once I got to the center everyone but the couple were there in the room. We waited a few minutes for the couple to show but they were running late so I decided to go ahead and start.

About 15 minutes into the class the couple from Galveston arrived and took their seats. We were in a casual setting and I was describing the different types of dreams. As soon as this couple sat down, my “friend” Chris appeared next to me. He was so excited and kept saying to me  “That’s my mom and dad! “ over and over like an excited little boy in a candy store. I remember, telling him to calm down (in my mind) I don’t want to appear crazy, by talking to a guy only I am seeing – this is a dream class not a medium class!  At this point, the dad asked me “How do you know when you dream of someone who is dead if it is a visit from that person or just a memory dream?” I was beginning to get the picture now. Everyone else was very interested in this answer and so I told them my experience of visitation dreams and what I knew. Keep in mind all this time this spirit is jumping up and down next to me and talking so excitedly but I really didn’t not feel comfortable blurting out across the room. Plus, I am almost losing my train of thought on teaching the class because having someone else talking in your head is very irritating to say the least!  In the end, after class was over the couple walked out. My spirit “friend” Chris was jumping up and down to make contact with them. I told him “Okay,!” at the risk of looking like a lunatic this better be your parents!!

 I stopped the couple outside and told them the whole story of my meditation and a young man in his mid twenties who has come to me. I described what he looked like. Both the woman and the man started to tell me that their son had been murdered. I stopped them before they went any further and told them what he looked like and they confirmed with tears that was their son. I told him he is here and he has been communicating with me for two weeks and that he was here now. They had been desperately seeking many ways to contact him. He had come to them in dreams but weren’t sure if it was really him or not.  I told them that  many times while in the midst of our grief of losing a loved one we are not certain of what is a visit and what is a memory created by our own sub-conscious.

This subject of visitation dreams of the dead runs deep but here are a few common traits of a visitation dream:

* a very real, clear, feeling, focused dream, REALity feeling of the visit.
* lack of symbolism as in an ordinary dream – very little of a story or plot
* Strong emotions: love, forgiveness, or peacefulness sometimes but not often anger or fear from the spirit
* A touch or hug – physical contact, a reaching out to you
* Often, the spirit looks happy, younger, more healthy or vibrant than when they passed.
* Knowing..you have the feeling, certainty that it was the person…”I just KNOW it was him/her”
* Sometimes you can feel their presence on near where you are sleeping

Many Blessings,

Cheri

This is an effective sleep prayer to help those suffering from insomnia. After you are in bed and get comfortable, take three deep breaths, inhale the good and exhale the stress of the day. Then repeat slowly, quietly and lovingly to yourself as you fall to sleep:

“My toes are relaxed, my ankles are relaxed, my legs are relaxed, my back is relaxed, my hands and arms are relaxed, my shoulders are relaxed, my neck is relaxed, my face is relaxed, my eyes are relaxed, my whole body and mind are relaxed. Relax, Relax, Relaxing, Relaxed. I fully and freely forgive everyone including myself and I wish for all harmony, health, peace and all the blessings of life. I am at peace. A great stillness comes over me and a great calm comes over my entire being as I realize the Divine Presence within me. I know that the realization of life and love heals me. I wrap myself in the mantle of love and I fall asleep filled with good will for all. Throughout the night peace remains with me, and in the morning I will be filled with life and love. A circle of love surrounds me. I sleep in peace and I wake in joy.”

Peaceful dreams,
Cheri

You get what you focus on and attract to you the things that you give a great deal of thought to. Ask yourself what have you been getting lately? If we are stuck in worry, fear, loss and or lack than that is what shows up in our lives. And if you keep rehashing a past hurt or loss then that too keeps you in that energy and continues to create the same in your present life.  While it is important to think about a situation or event that caused you pain so you can learn from the situation we don’t need to stay stuck in it. In order to make the best of it and move on we need to honor ourselves and what we experienced within that situation. Grieve, accept, learn, forgive yourself and others involved, regroup and move forward with your life. When we keep living in the past , complaining or rehashing a misfortune it only builds walls around you to block your good.

Our positive and negative thoughts also play out in our dreams. One of the best ways that you can guage where you are in your life subconsciously is through your dreams. If during your waking hours you “put on a happy face” in the midst of not so happy times, then your dreams could reflect that you are not being true to yourself by various dark and dreary dreams. Perhaps you dream of a mask or make-up or other disguises that in dreams represent you are hiding your true self. In addition, when you wake up from a dream the most important clue to your true emotional and subconscious state is the feeling you have immediately when you wake up which is usually a continuation of emotions in your dream, what you are truly feeling.  I have had what I considered really good days where I felt fine, everything went well during the day but at night my dreams were dark and filled with frustration. This means that there are deeper beliefs and or thought patterns that are driving me unconsciously that I need to change in order to get what I want out of my life.  On the flip side, when we are experiencing deep sorrow or grief we may have light dreams, happier dreams which is our inner light and beingness reflecting that it is there and it will see us through these dark times. I remember having some of my most beautiful and comforting dreams during one of my darkest periods after my boyfriend had passed away. 

Have you awakened from a dream where you just felt lousy? Maybe it was a sad dream filled with frustration or angry and you then all day long you felt out of sorts and just couldn’t get on track into your groove.  Whenever this happens try to pivot that negative emotion to a more positive emotion before getting out of bed. To pivot is to think of something that is just slightly better then that thought will bring another thought at that same level and then another and so on until you are in a positive emotional energy level. Here is an example: You wake up from a dream and you are in a pissy mood and if you get out of bed with that ”attitude” believe me you will keep attracting more pissy experiences to yourself on and on all day.  You stub your toe, trip on something on the way to the bathroom, then you spill your coffee or tea on you, then the traffic is backed up and you get every red light and it goes on and on. However, IF you would instead pivot from that pissy mood to a more positive thought before getting out of bed i.e. “Boy am I glad that was just a dream and I am awake now and can choose my mood”, “hey it is sunny outside, oh I am so happy spring is here I am looking so forward to being off this weekend where I can …….”  You see once you start on one slight improvement it brings another at that level and so on. Then you can get out of bed and go about your day bringing more and more good experiences to you. It doesn’t matter what the thought is specifically what you are looking for is the emotional energy to raise your vibration to a level of positive attraction.

At the end of the day, when you go to sleep, end it on a positive thought level that you really feel within you. Saying a prayer, forgive anyone including yourself from any missteps earlier in the day and be filled with gratitude. Keeping our energy level and thoughts raised to the level of goodness to ensure positive dreams and good life experiences.

Many Blessings and Sweet Dreams.

Cheri

As a young Christian, I often thought it was weird to call the day that Jesus was crucified good.  Then I learned the reason it is called Good Friday even though there seemed to be nothing good about the darkest day, is because it is darkest before the dawn of many who awakened to a new life.  Jesus arose from his grave as he said he would. He lives and His teachings live because of what transpired over Easter weekend. 

I think many of us have experienced dark days where we thought that it was the end. And many of us are experiencing some dark days now. Some of us have lost jobs, been downsized from our companies and we feel downsized in our souls. Some of us are going through divorce or the loss of loved one. Others may have debt piled so overwhelming high that it seems hopeless. Or maybe you have been betrayed by a friend or trusted confident and now  the one you thought you could trust has just thrown it away?  I certainly have  experienced many dark days.  And there were many, many times that I have been so down and felt so alone that I couldn’t see a possibility that things would ever be better.  How many have you been there? And what brought you out of your darkest day? For me it was my faith in God.

My faith and trust in God and focusing on God’s goodness and love keeps me and has kept me going during times I felt that I am being crucified. When I turn my focus to God and shut out all the noise and seemingly endless negativity from the world by going into silence and prayer God is there, always God is there.  In this time of silence, I surrender all my problems and hurts to God praying for His guidance and I am calmed. It is then that I hear and feel God telling me the way to keep going, how to reinvent myself, how to meet obligations and to be happy and successful in my life again. 

In dreams, God can talk to us easily because our subconscious is open and receptive to receiving information our conscious mind would otherwise question or dismiss. In our dreams we reach the theta state of consciousness. Theta is the state where God and the realm of creation is and we can get there as well in prayer. 

On this Good Friday, if you are experiencing a sort of personal crucifiction remind yourself that it is always darkest before the dawn. Go into silence and surrender to God with faith and trust that with God you will arise above it all to be new again. There is life after seeming death.

“Is it not known to all people that the dream is the most usual way that God reveals himself to man?” —- Tertullian

Many Blessings and Sweet Dreams.

Cheri

It seems these days, especially, many a night has been spent up and down, tossing and turning and staring at the ceiling hoping for sleep to come. When we carry monsters of worry, stress, hostile people and fear to sleep with us our dream time can be a battle or a nightmare. It is so important for us humans to get our rest, sleep to rejuvenate our bodies, mind and soul from the day of stress.

 Below I have listed a few ideas to establish or enhance your bedtime routine and help you get to sleep and peaceful dream land.

*  Have a nice cup of tea (chamomile is a nice choice.) I love “Sweet Dreams” by Bigelow Teas

 * Take a few deep breaths and feel the day’s stresses go out with each exhale 

 * Visualize your next day exactly how you want it to go as if it has already happened then ask God or your angels to bless it and bring you messages in your dreams. 

 * Read something inspirational,  listen to relaxing music or if you must watch t.v. a funny or romantic feel good show is best. Leave the news programs, crime and horror flicks off. 

 * A nice fragrance of lavender or a personal favorite of mine White Angelica on your person, pillow or sachet under your pillow 

 * Pray as though what you are asking for is already done.

 * Meditate

 * Write in your journal. It really helps to purge all that stuff in our heads and then it is not as likely to keep us up once it is out on paper. 

Last but not least these two things have worked for me when all else has not: I kiss my pillow and tell it I want to go to sleep now. I know it sounds silly but it really does work. The other idea is that I simply say to my angels, “I am really ready for sleep can you help me to sleep now? Thank you.” And before I realize it I am sleeping peacefully and in dreamland. 

 Sweet Dreams!

Cheri

Let’s use money as an example. You are needing some money or wanting to add more prosperity to your life so you start using an affirmation: People Love To Give Me Money. And you are saying this all day and night
to yourself and having a great feeling and thinking Wow this is great and then that night you dream a dream that is dark and dreary etc. The dream points out to you that you have a block to receiving money
or that you just don’t believe that people would randomly give you money. Voila! the block is revealed.  Thank yourself for pointing out this subconscious belief. This block can be changed but until you dreamt it you were unaware of this subconscious belief or disbelief and an affirmation will work for you once you change that belief.
In fact, any of us who are not in the flow of money and prosperity have some kind of basic subconscious block to riches and prosperity.

How do you change the blocks? in a word, visualization. I suggest that you take your ‘block’ and I will continue here with prosperity. Get into a meditative state, or just quiet the mind. Now repeat your affirmation
and see, feel and hear the affirmation – use all your senses in a scene that you could conceive and believe happening.
If you cannot conceive the idea and believe it with all your heart then you must use an affirmation that works for you.
Once you find the affirmation that clicks with you and as you change your belief (block) in your subconcious mind your night time dreams may show you how you are progressing or your dreams can also show you when you need to change your goals or when outdated beliefs are blocking your way of real spiritual truths.

Positive money beliefs in dreams can be represented by having gold, silver, money, jewelry, being surrounded by oppulence in your dream backgrounds, luxury, etc

Sweet, Prosperous Dreams!
Cheri

What is a dream?  
 Dream,  n. 1.) a succession of images appearing in sleep or reverie.
2.) imagine in a dream;  and to

For all the time we spend sleeping (approximately one third of our lives), the process of dreaming and sleeping, for most of us, is barely understood.  More importantly, few of us realize or even understand the relationship between dreaming and our soul, and the important effect dreams have on our spiritual development. By learning to understand, and then utilize our dreams, we can create the life we are meant to have; a life full of love, peace, prosperity and abundance of all things great.  

Why do we dream and where do dreams come from? There are several answers people argue at length about, i.e. the unconscious? neuronal activity? or God?  Scientifically, there is no proof or disproof that dreams mean anything at all. The point of view for this article is from my belief that our dreams come from God and our soul/Godself.  I believe dreams are one way that our soul communicates to us. Like a personal answering machine, we receive messages to solve problems, give warnings, inspire, guide, and awaken us to creating a better world for ourselves and those around us.

Dreams speak to us in symbols, metaphors and allegories. The brain is like a personal computer that puts out what we put into it. Our waking language consists of letters, which are symbols that form words; words that equal people, places, feelings and things. For example, when you think or say “car”, what comes into your mind is a picture of a car, not the word “car”. Along with that picture came a feeling as it popped into your mind’s eye. This is our natural language, visual imagery, and this is why we don’t dream in our waking language of words.

How we are be-ing are the messages from the soul to us through our dreams. Are we be-ing  loving, positive, happy, compassionate or negative, angry, jealous and unloving? Dreams tell us where we are going and what we are experiencing in relation to our beingness. Like a mirror of the soul, dreams show us how we see ourselves and the situations we are experiencing. They are quite clear and often revealing in content, showing us our attitudes, beliefs, misconceptions and prejudices towards people, places and things. They also reveal problems, causes of problems, insight and solutions and show us things which we are not aware of.  

What is your soul trying to convey to you through your dreams?  Taking an interest in your dreams can give you amazing insight and information about yourself and guide you on your life journey.  They can tell where you need to make changes and how to make those changes to achieve self-mastery and create the life of abundance that is meant for you.