To Sleep Perchance To Dream…

The other night, I was feeling a little stressed about my impending move out of state and had that urge to stress eat. So I followed my friend, Kim Bensen’s advice and went to bed. I wasn’t doing anything overly important and I needed to catch up on some sleep after this Daylight Savings switchover.  My overactive brain caused me to have the following dream…

I was in a  large building with some very important people in my life…my family, my friends, my coworkers and we were all trapped in this large room by a tiger that I felt had its eye on me. I was very scared. Someone said, “Just stand still” and we did. But I felt I should do something. Someone should DO something. I had a gun in my pocket and my father told me to kill the tiger if it got close to me. The tiger stalked me from the other side of the room, walking slowly toward me, weaving in and out of other people – never taking its eyes from me. There was a door behind me and someone standing next to me whispered, “I’ll open the door and then you can go get help.” The man opened the door quickly and I ran down the street. I kept looking behind me and the tiger was there me, chasing me. It was let out along with me. I was mad at the man for letting it out and wanted to blame him, but knew it wasn’t his fault. I wanted to look forward so I wouldn’t trip, yet I couldn’t stop looking behind me. In a silly thought, my brain said, ‘Thank goodness I lost weight so I could run farther.” But I couldn’t outrun a tiger, especially this one. My body exhausted, pain racked my chest from breathing and I had to stop. I cringed and waited for the worst. I could feel the breath of the tiger on the back of my neck as his mouth opened behind my head. I felt my head almost encased in the tiger’s mouth. I could feel sharp teeth touching the top of my head, my heart pounded in my chest and then I simply turned around. The tiger closed its mouth and sat down in front of me. I walked 2 steps, it walked 2 steps. I gingerly reached out to pet it and it nuzzled me like a housecat. The people from the room ran down the street to catch up with me and were screaming at me to kill it. I looked up and said, “No. I can’t. I will keep it with me.” My father said, “You’ll never be able to control it.” I said, “I will take responsibility for it, ok?”

I woke up unable to sleep and sat with a hot cup of tea shaken with this vivid dream. It was so real, I could remember every detail. And I didn’t eat or drink anything strange before I went to bed. In fact I went to bed to avoid my cravings… or my demon. So it stalked me in my sleep. And that’s when it hit me. Our demons can take the shape of food cravings, stressful memories, non-supportive people in our lives and even our own doubtful thoughts. And no matter how far we run, our brains are always conjuring them up. There is no true escape, no matter how fast or far we run….even in our sleep.

It’s up to us to turn around and face these demons head on …even befriend them if we can (sometimes that’s not possible)…but at least learn to live with them walking side by side with us. Triggers will always be there. It’s how we REACT. It’s time to take responsibility and be proactive to the demons. We can cage them up, lock them up …but they always find a way to slip out of their restraints. It’s time to look in the mirror and say, “I take responsibility for it.” Situations will always stress us out. People will always get on our last nerve. Food will always be around us. No matter how far we have come in our journey…the demons will ALWAYS follow us. We can run from them or learn to live with them. They can encourage us to “screw up”…but it’s up to us to either listen to the demons…or listen to our heart. It’s not up to the world to adapt to our new way of eating… it’s up to us to adapt to the world…and to our minds and those demons that stalk us. It’s important to keep looking forward and knowing if we look to much to the past, it will cause us to trip and fall. Focus on the forward.

I hope this helped you on your journey! Feel free to share this post via email, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. Join me on my Facebook page by clicking here. And if you want to find a great program to lose the weight and get loads of interactive support, please check out the website of my mentor and friend, Kim Bensen at kimbensen.com