Journey is You

I have a "theory" that I don't really believe, that many dreams are actually gateways to different souls that are connected to us in other universes. Just as we can't fully appreciate the nuances of other cultures, so we can't fully appreciate what our connected souls are experiencing, which is why we can't retain the information. When we "ride" with the other soul everything makes sense, when we leave that dream we are disconnected from that mindset, and the dreams lose their coherence. 

Like I said, I don't believe this, though I find it fun to contemplate. 

Sometimes though we can take lessons from our dreams, no matter how odd and strange they appear. 

My dream of two nights ago was once such dream.

In the dream I became angry because someone declared a popular soda as immutable. What? My brows pulled together and my mouth curled into a frown. Of course that soda is mutable! And I constructed a whole meme of why that was so. The color could change, even if only slightly, the formula could change, the bottle or can shape and design could change. Naturally there were limits. If the formula changed too much it would no longer be the same soda, but immutable? No!

I'm not so certain anymore, having left the mindset, of why I was so upset by the idea that some random person thought cola was immutable, and why it made so much of a difference to me.

But as I woke up to my existence I realized that it was a life lesson.

Too often we construct in our heads a scenario of "this is always how it is".  That a certain aspect of our life is immutable. "It will always be this way, it can't change, it won't change." And we give up, which means things don't change.

But just like the soda, much of what we think is immutable can change. We can become neater, less prone to anger, more meticulous etc. 

Will we become different people? 

Sometimes. Which can be frightening. 

What constitutes "you"? How much can the "formula" be changed and the person remain the same? 

Does it matter if the new you is better? 

On a clean sheet of your journal write down and answer these questions: 

1. What are all the ingredients that make up you?
2. What are some of the ingredients that you should keep?
3. What are some of the ingredients that you wish to change/
4. Why do you want to change a particular aspect of yourself?
5. Will the new you be recognizable to the old you or to people who haven't seen you since before you began to remake yourself?
6. Write a letter to yourself, saying goodbye to the aspects of yourself that are no longer working for you, while acknowledging they had a purpose at the time. 
7. Finally, visualize yourself in the future, when the changes have become permanent. Will they ever miss the old ingredients? Write a letter to that self and remind them of why the change was necessary.