I wanted to go to the air force academy in Colorado Springs and become a pilot when I was a child. You know that childhood question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The older I get, the more I realize that growing up is a lifelong journey. If you can, call to mind your dreams as you read on.
I ended up running away from home when I was 15 and living with a friend until I graduated high school. At 17, I got caught up talking to a recruiter at a family party and, a week later, signed the papers to join the Army National Guard. The sergeant that so honorably talked me into it assured me I would never be deployed. Well, that was a joke because I was just too naïve to know anything about politics and war, joining the armed forces after 9/11 right smack in the middle of wartime. One year later, I deployed to Afghanistan, where my world was flipped upside down. I joined because I didn’t have a scholarship or money for college, and I wanted to do something more than be the merchandising manager of a retail store, which felt like my fate at that point in my life. After my basic training and AIT, I finally enrolled in college in Bend, Oregon, in 2006. I was so happy to be done with training and living in one of the most beautiful places I had seen in my life so far. I was in heaven, living my dreams. That’s when I received the letter for my first deployment.
Fast forward quite a bit. After six years in the guard, including those two tours overseas, one to Afghanistan and one to Iraq, I decided to take yoga training. Yoga relieved my anxiety and frustration for quite some time, and I was ready to be a teacher. Little did I know, much like the surprises that came with joining the Army, that this event would take me on yet another wild ride. If getting deployed at 20 turned my world upside down and inside out, engaging in yoga training and becoming a teacher sent me into the ethers flying without my wings.
Thirty-seven years old, living my passion for helping others achieve peace of mind, which is, of course, the thing that I have been working on in myself all of this time; I am here to tell you that we can achieve our dreams.
I guess where I am going with this writing today is that dreams aren’t always what we think.
When we are young, we sometimes know the goals we want to fulfill, and indeed, I have met those people who fulfilled them. But that isn’t the case for a lot of us. Sometimes we have no idea of what moves us for a long time. And sometimes we do, and it changes once, twice, maybe even a dozen times. And all those stories are nuanced. Not only are they acceptable, but they also have value. When we set out to achieve something, it is about whom we become along the way. And sometimes, we have an idea of what that looks like, but other times the gift is in the making, and the result is far greater than we could have ever set out to know.
If you are like one of my clients or me, you probably see life as one of extensive communication with the individual. I believe, and I would go as far as to say I know, that everything has energetic resonance in this life. That cause and effect aren’t always blatant and easy to see. Life is a lot more like a flow chart. In the Army, I was a small electronics repairwoman. I learned how to troubleshoot a problem to its source. We used a lot of flowcharts to understand how things are connected. I see our lives like that. I see Newton's law that for every action (force) in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
I see Einstein’s physics and the rule of energy conservation, which states that energy is neither created nor destroyed.
Life is both scientific and spiritual. It is filled with experiences that are both subtle and obvious, some of which can be defined and others that cannot, but none are void of connection.
So, when we look back to our dreams and goals, I don’t believe we ever fail. I don’t think we miss the mark or that our time has run out for anything. We are always, and I heard this a lot in the yoga community, 'in the right place doing exactly the right things.' Now, one does have to inherit this level of thinking to watch it come to fruition, but if you do, I assure you, everything begins to hold power. At that point, the point at which life begins to be seen from the perspective of it ‘working for us,’ we can reach our goals and dreams with integrity and efficiency. The work is in adopting this frame of mind. Then what’s “right" for our life path shines through in the experiences and in the lessons that come out of those experiences.
If I haven’t lost you yet, take a moment to catch up because this is the juicy part. Earlier, I wrote that everything is connected and can be seen in a flowchart way. So, with the muddy stuff in our life, experiences we wouldn’t want to feel again, the patterns we’ve tried to or transcended, the pain, the suffering… those things can be examined, and they are our teachers. They show us where the work needs to be done, so when we are given sight as to try to accept, we are also provided insight into the tools we might need to ensure they remain a lesson of the past.
"The wound is the place where the light enters you." -Rumi
That’s when we become wise. This doesn’t mean we won’t have emotions and experiences that let us down again, but it ensures that we remain able to learn from them rather than get stuck in them.
So, dreams are constantly being fulfilled.
You are the dream maker, the dream, and the dreamer. You are the one in control of your plans. You can set, achieve, change (if need be), and learn from the goals that drive you.
Keep dreaming, everyone! And if you need help reaching those goals, aspirations, plans, dreams...
Reach out, and let's chat about what I offer. Or, click below to set up your first consultation where we cultivate that momentum.
So much Love and Peace, All-Ways!
Evolved Being Creatrix,
Sheena Dressel