Why doing an inner-work can be difficult?

First of all, in order to improve something we need to see what has to be changed and why. Dreams (in their primary function) provide enough information for making this type of discoveries, but the key is to interpret their metaphoric language and to decode the underlying message.

Such eye-opening messages, when decoded, might be too painful to accept for many dreamers. And if this new pain of discovering unbeneficial patterns of self is much greater than the usual pain of living with these patterns, then there is a big chance that the dreamer would prefer to ignore the message and continue living without making a change (by the way, the symbolic nature of dreams protects our free will, providing us with a reasonable excuse for not understanding the true message or twisting its meaning).

And another big obstacle on the way to transformation is to apply the messages of dreams to real life.

If it’s a pattern of thinking, for example, that needs to be changed, it may be quite difficult to notice when this thought-pattern starts running in the head. In this case we need to learn to literally “wake up” during waking life (just like we do in lucid dreams), clearly see what’s going on and how to change it. Regarding making this change – there are many useful methods (I personally like Dr. Joe Dispenza’s “Change” technique).

It takes time and effort, honesty and humility, courage and perseverance in order to transform the self and to change life. And very often the problem is what can be termed as “having not enough pain”.

In this regard a short parable comes to mind:

“Every day there was an elderly couple sitting on the porch in their rocking chairs. And there was a whining dog laying on the floor between his masters.
When someone asked this couple why their dog is always whining, they replied that he is laying on the nail sticking out from the floor.
Then why don’t they remove the nail? They said that the dog has all the freedom and capacity to move away from the nail, but he prefers to stay there.
It means that he has enough pain to keep whining, but not enough for getting up and changing his place.”

Just like this dog in the parable, sometimes we are very well aware of our unbeneficial patterns and habits, but instead of making an uneasy change we prefer to suffer from the consequences of our current condition, because the pain of this suffering is somehow tolerable (and/or it gives us a reason to complain, feel like a victim). Isn’t it true?…

It’s always useful to contemplate about these situations (identifying what they are, what it takes to change them and why we still didn’t change) – maybe the time for getting up and moving off the nail has finally arrived?

Author © Margarita AoteaRa

“As I learnt to surrender [my pride], I could hear the subtleties that I had been missing, and at that point I began to hear the messages of dreams more clearly. It was like being in training to hear the still small voice of the Higher Self. Such hearing is not achieved instantly. It takes discipline. Discipline is needed, too, in the final step with dreams – applying the messages to daily life. I find this to be the vital link between the level of the conscious and unconscious sates of mind, between knowing and acting.” – Swami Durgananda