Always dream, even when awake is a loose quote from Peter S. Beagle’s, The Last Unicorn. The concept behind the quote is something I try to consistently keep in mind. I don’t always do it, but I do ruminate on it. Sometimes we look inward for certain things. Sometimes we look outward, and when outward is where we are looking, dream hard….
Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. – Carl Jung. I don’t disagree with Jung’s quote. That said, I do believe my heart is also found in all my experience, as my experience informs my heart and becomes part of it. So, even things outside of me become me, awaken me, and show me around the neighborhood….
Be in the flow of your own waters…. Be in the flow of your own essence. Essence is about how you live fully as you, within and in creation of your behavior, identity, or style. Living without letting outside opinion, advice, or stories restrict or limit you. This type of living asks you to be an active participant in your own life. It asks that you look around and see, listen, take action, experience the richness that is life, to always dream even when awake.
Being in the flow sounds easy, yet there are times when I struggle with it.
How can one not be in the flow of one’s own essence? In some instances, it is because I choose to judge things through inarticulate eyes. Observing through a vision that is woefully lacking in completeness and knowledge. Yet it is that same lack of knowledge that can help me to understand not just the unknown, but the things I think I know in a different way. Letting go of my vision of good or bad, right or wrong, is sometimes the hardest to do. Yet, understanding, and moreover accepting, that it is only perception which creates good and bad, right and wrong, leads to seeing what is. Never is that more true than when trying to navigate the flow of your own essence.
When creating new writings, music, visual art, home cooked meal, or exercise routine I may struggle with the analytical versus the established, versus the inspired. The more I relax and let all of those things flow over me and then away from me, the easier it is to grasp an essence of just how things are, the essence of me.
I find that the less I try and control the outcome the better that outcome usually is. I’ve watched myself really wreck what was a good song by overanalyzing, constant fiddling, and trying to shoehorn a thought or a concept into something that it isn’t. When I pay attention to these sorts of moments I usually find that everything is flowing in a different direction than I’m trying to navigate toward. Of course, that’s when I notice it. The problem with this sort of thing is that you don’t generally notice how much of a control freak you’re being while you’re being a control freak.
So check in with what’s really going on, stop, breathe, reset, change perspectives, and do these checks frequently. One of the best methods to improve in this is to simply set yourself a timer, maybe sixty to ninety minute intervals. Take a break. Change perspectives. Go outside and watch ants. Pay attention to the flow of other things, note that by observing other flows you become a part of them. Now pay attention to your own essence. Give it a minute to get into that particular flow… Go!