Ever wish you could find a peaceful place within yourself to take refuge, something like a secret garden?
It’s funny how such a refuge can show up in our lives, but we are too busy, stressed, or preoccupied to notice or take advantage of it. Such is the case with Sunshine. Her garden showed up in a repetitive nightmare! While she takes refuge in it in her nightmare, she never learned to listen to it and so never recognized what a resource it could become for her in her daily life.
With this IDL interview, Sunshine’s first, she took the time to listen to and experience what it means for her life to actually experience living her life as that special garden. Hopefully, her interview will inspire you to find your own center and life compass, so that you will always have a refuge from the storms of life whirling around you.
What are three fundamental life issues that you are dealing with now in your life?
Partnership
To be in balance with myself – find inner peace
The relationship with my family
Tell me a dream you remember. It can be an old one, a repetitive dream, a nightmare, or one that you’re sure you understand.
When I was about twelve I had a nightmare that I was running down the street with my smallest brother and my sister. Behind us were persecutors. We couldn’t escape; suddenly we became smaller and we could hide in a little garden.
Why do you think that you had this dream?
I had many dreams where I wanted to run away but I couldn’t but I don’t know why.
If one character had something especially important to tell you, what would it be?
Garden
Now remember how as a child you liked to pretend you were a teacher or a doctor? It’s easy and fun for you to imagine that you are this or that character in your dream and answer some questions I ask, saying the first thing that comes to your mind. If you wait too long to answer, that’s not the character answering – that’s YOU trying to figure out the right thing to say!
Garden, are you a character in Sunshine’s dream, yes?
Yes.
Garden, would you please tell me about yourself and what you are doing?
I am small and green but I have many plants and flowers in me. There are trees. If you are in me you can’t see the sky because of the trees. There are also birds.
What do you like most about yourself? What are your strengths?
I like most that people can come into me and calm down and escape from what is outside of me. I am a very relaxing place.
What do you dislike most about yourself? Do you have weaknesses? What are they?
Actually, not. I am happy as I am.
Garden, what aspect of Sunshine do you represent or most closely personify?
A place inside her where she can relax and be calm. It’s not so big in her but it’s there.
Garden, if you could be anywhere you wanted to be and take any form you desired, would you change? If so, how?
I would grow and become much bigger. I have a little lake in me now. The trees are much bigger but you can see the sky now in places. There is much more space. It’s not so crowded.
(Continue, answering as the transformed object, if it chose to change.)
Garden, how would you score yourself 0-10, in confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, peace of mind, and witnessing? Why?
Confidence: 8 I am scared that someone could set me on fire and then I wouldn’t exist any more. But eight is a high score. I basically have a pretty confident score.
Compassion: 5 Everyone can come into me, regardless.
Wisdom: 7
Acceptance: 10 I accept myself as I am so I do so with others. I don’t judge.
Inner Peace: 10 I am the inner peace! To see me you can’t think of anything else but to be at peace!
Witnessing: 10 Because I’m so big I can see almost everything…If someone wants to go inside me he can; if not he doesn’t have to.
Garden, if you scored tens in all six of these qualities, would you be different? If so, how?
Then I don’t have any fear that I could be harmed. I have that much more inner peace!
How would Sunshine’s life be different if she naturally scored like you do in all six of these qualities all the time?
She would not have so many worries and thoughts. She would calm down and see the beauty, just to be aware that she is there and doesn’t need to change.
If you could live Sunshine’s life for her, how would you live it differently?
She would go inside herself more and not be influenced so much by things outside of herself. She would focus on finding her own inner peace.
If you could live Sunshine’s waking life for her today, would you handle her three life issues differently? If so, how?
Partnership – I would be a lot more relaxed, not worry about it. Let it happen, not worry about it so much. She’s always thinking about stuff that is not really important.
To be in balance with myself – find inner peace
If she were to imagine that she is me then she would have the balance and inner peace that she seeks.
The relationship with my family
She often wants to change her family members, so if she became me there wouldn’t be so much fighting and struggle. If she were me she would just let it happen and see that she can’t change her family members.
What three life issues would you focus on if you were in charge of her life?
The same
In what life situations would it be most beneficial for Sunshine to imagine that she is you and act as you would?
When she is worrying! It doesn’t matter if it’s about the future, her family, her partnership.
Would creating a little garden help her, garden?
A small plant or so; also to be in gardens or parks.
How is Sunshine most likely to ignore what you are saying to her?
She won’t forget about me!
I think this dream event happened or (some character) was in the dream because…
She wants to find this balance in her life. The fact that she created me shows that there is a bit of me in her already. She wants to have more of that balance. She wants to have me to get away from feelings of persecution.
What have you heard yourself say?
It is good to have an inner balance, an interior place to calm down. To have this garden to be when I get worried or get anxious. To go inside of me and see that there is a calm point and to see her circumstances from my point of view so that she will react differently. Also, to be in nature because that also brings her balance.
If this experience were a wake-up call from your inner compass, what do you think it would be saying to you?
Search for you inner peace!
Notice that Sunshine has given herself a beautiful centering tool, not only for stressful waking situations, such as family arguments or concerns about partnerships, but also for meditation! When she becomes her garden she becomes an experience, an energy, a perspective that is already authentically and organically who she is. It speaks to her. It is something that she can trust as an expression of her own inner compass. While centering tools offered by others can be helpful and can also be used, having one’s own authentic and ever present inner sanctuary is a port in the storm of life.
Sunshine is young and just starting out her adult life. How would our lives have been different if we had found our inner compass and followed it earlier in our lives? This is why we need to do interviews with the young people in our lives – to ground them in their own truth and inner beauty so that they will never feel lost, alone, or powerless for long.
