by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Sep 6, 2018 | Uncategorized
As I walk toward my computer, morning coffee in hand, high pitched pings greet and alert me to the fact that someone had sent an email. Perhaps it is another invitation to be a guest on a radio show to discuss dreams, I thought. No. The email is a cry for dream-help.
It reads, “My dreams are so real I often do not know if I am really dreaming or in another dimension. How can I tell?” “Pinch yourself to see if you are dreaming,” might be something you have heard someone say to you. Another old cliché often used is, “pinch me, I must be dreaming.” There is a good reason for this call to action.
This is the story of dreams that are more real than reality. Have you ever had such a dream? Pain is the answer.
Some studies indicate that dream pain is rare and may be beyond the representational capability of dreaming. In other words, pain is just too complicated in a dream to really work.
This excerpt is an example taken from The Neurocritic Blogspot.
Once I dreamed I was lying on my stomach, getting a tattoo on my calf against my will. Because it was a particularly malevolent tattoo studio, I cried out in the dream. When I woke up, I felt no pain at all.
The pain in the dream woke the dreamer, but in the waking world, the pain was nonexistent.
While you are in the dream state, your dreams can be as vivid as reality. One type of reality dream we can have is known as the Waking Dream. We believe we have awakened, are preparing for work or school as we do daily, but when the bus doors open the driver is Winney the Poo. Ding-ding! We pinch ourselves to be sure this time we really are awake and not still dreaming.
Another type of Waking Dream is when you dream that you woke up and begin your day as you normally do and then suddenly you really do wake up…and you sit up, pinch yourself or touch your face to see if you are really awake this time.
Pinching is reassuring because pain is the reality.
When pain wakes us up from a dream, it can be to remind us that we were dreaming, but are now awake. Although we may dream of pain, we may not actually feel the pain. For example, we may dream that our hand is on fire. We may watch the blazes engulf our fingers, yet feel no burning sensation or pain in the dream. We may even comment to ourselves in the dream that the fire is quite beautiful. However, if reality begins to creep into our dream our hand may begin to feel hot or uncomfortable, and this will usually wake us from the dream.
Reality has validation in discomfort.
In most cases, reality can be validated in the waking world using real-life consequences. Dropping a raw egg on a hard kitchen floor usually results in an expected consequence. Just the thought may make you cringe.
However, in a dream, the floor might suddenly open up and swallow the egg, or the egg could bounce and stick to the ceiling, grow wings and fly away like a bat, all of which would not cause the dreamer even to bat an eye.
It is this, Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter’s Tea Party that makes dreams so amusing.
However, you can also have a Precognitive Dream which predicts the future through a sixth sense. This dream may later be validated in reality and by reality. An example of such a dream is a medical report confirming a diagnostic dream that turns out to be an early warning sign of a disease.
Your vivid Lucid Dream validated during your waking life is part of your reality.
Examples of this type of validated dreaming grounded in reality appear in the book Dreams That Can Save Your Life: Early Warning Signs of Cancer and Other Diseases. The dream research is based on the diagnostic and precognitive dreams from a Breast Cancer Dream Group involving eighteen women whose dreams diagnosed their breast cancer that was later validated by pathology reports. Dr. Larry Burk, Radiologist at Duke University Medical, headed the research, which has been published distributed in medical journals and by Inner Traditions/Simon and Schuster. The bizarre precognitive and diagnostic recurrent breast cancer dreams were grounded by the reality of pathology reports in the waking world of medicine.
Reality is grounded.
An example of grounded reality would be the inability to effortlessly fly through the air with our bodies when we are awake. This explains how waking reality has validation.
Flying may represent a sense of freedom from reality.
According to Psychology Today, a flying dream can serve as a sort of escape from the pressures of our waking world which is represented by the ground. This is also an example of the play-on-words often represented in dreams. In reality, a plane is grounded when weather conditions do not permit flight. In a dream, we may be grounded when life becomes too burdensome to allow us freedom or lightness of being capable of flight.
Much like the fight or flight response of a bird, we may take flight from a disturbing situation in our dream. Feeling as free and flighty as a bird does not mean we can do so when awake.
Reality is relative to the environment in which it is experienced.
And that brings us back to the first statement in this article, a dream to the dreamer may feel as real during that reality as our waking life feels to us during our daily reality.I hope these explanations help to answer your cry for Dream-help concerning dreams vs. reality and how you can learn how to know the difference.
About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos, author and three-time cancer survivor whose guided dreams diagnosed her illness as seen on Dr. Oz, The Doctors, NBC News, American Express Open, in Newspapers and magazines. She’s a Contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Soul, TV/Radio Host/Producer- Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod™, the Kat Kanavos Show, Internationally Syndicated Columnist in BIZ360, Keynote Speaker and Lecturer who promotes patient advocacy and Spiritual guidance. www.KathleenOkeefeKanavos.com
Photo Credit: Pixabay Dream CastlePixabay httpspixabay.com endreamcastle europe and america 1518227 No Attribution Required
Article Research:
Pain in dreams-PubMed-NCBI, Sleep. 1993 Aug;16(5):490-8 Nielsen TA1, McGregor DL, Zadra A, Ilnicki D, Ouellet L. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7690981
waking dream – Wiktionary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/waking_dream
Dreams Vs Reality: How Do You Know Which Is Which .., https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/dreams-vs-reality-how-do-you-know-which-is-which/
http://neurocritic.blogspot.com/
https://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/precognitive-dreams.html
by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Aug 30, 2018 | Uncategorized
Many of us have heard of Trolls in fairytales, but when they show up on your social media sites, they become a real nightmare. They are also known as modern-day Cyber-bullies. There is only one way to get rid of them. Starve them. Don’t feed the Trolls.
What is a social media Troll and how do you know if you have attracted one?
In fairytales like Three Billy Goats Gruff, a Troll living beneath a bridge used extortion, threats, and bullying to try to eat all three of the goats. But it was positive wisdom, not negative threats that prevailed. This was a Norwegian fairytale first published between 1841 and 1844, and in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore a troll is described as a class of beings that
“dwell in isolated rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings.”
The Nors also called Trolls auðsug jǫtuns, which translated means “giant-wealth-suckers.”
Mythical Trolls were known to try to suck the success right out of their victims. This behavior continues today with modern-day social media and internet Trolls. In mythology Trolls also displayed a habit of “bergtagning” (kidnapping’; literally) and overrunning a farm or estate. Your internet success is the today’s equivalent to a farm or estate and that success is a Troll’s dinner.
Now we know where modern day trolls got their name and how they are still living up to it.
In Scandinavian folklore, Trolls become defined as a particular type of being. There was the Skogtroll who was a forest dweller, and the bjergtrolde which were mountain-trolls. All Trolls are solitary creatures who live in dark, dank places and do not like the sun or daylight because according to Folklore, Trolls turn to stone upon contact with sunlight.
Here is a list of the 5 most prevalent modern-day Trolls and signs that they are on your site.
Bully Troll- calls people names and will pick on everyone and anyone, to get a negative emotional response from them. Sign- name-calling and profanity.
Debate Troll– loves a good argument, turns facts into fiction and they believe they are always right, and everyone else is wrong. Sign– they leave long threads or arguments with other commenters in community comment sections.
Professor Troll– uses a commenter’s sentence structure, spelling, grammar mistakes and “rules and regulations” as an excuse to insult them. Sign- belittling commenting with the correction behind an asterisk symbol.
Victim Troll- turns any content, but especially humorous ones, into an argument by playing the victim. Sign- online crying-gags and people “walking or commenting on egg shells” around them.
Kidnap/Hijack (“bergtagning”) Troll– posts something completely off-topic to hijack the conversation and kidnap the commenters to some other irrelevant thing that was posted by the Troll. Sign- a sudden shift in an active, established discussion thread.
Where do modern-day online Trolls live and forage for food?
Today Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ is the dank mountain cave of many a Troll, and they want to overrun the social media estate you have built or you online-farm displaying the fruits of your labor and suck the success right out of it. There are also Trolls in office buildings and work places. Those Trolls are more easily recognizable because they are two-faced.
Trolls no long try to take over farms and estates. They kidnap and hijack pages and forums.
Rather than having forest or mountain Trolls we now have social media and internet Trolls. If you are on social media long enough, you will probably get a Troll or two. Most modern day Trolls stalk social media pages, and internet radio shows because they love the limelight the shows offer them with a ready-made audience. Other Trolls prefer to live in online-forums. And, the more social media sites you have, the higher your chances are of attracting multiple types of Trolls.
How do you know if you encountered a Troll? How do you recognize them from inquisitive followers?
Trolls are tricky. Anonymous online Trolls are people who, per the Urban Dictionary, “purposely and deliberately start an argument in a manner which attacks others on a forum without in any way listening to the arguments proposed by his peers.” Their main purpose is usually self-amusement that is hiding behind self-rightness. A secondary purpose may be to suck the success out of the forum and then take it over. To do this, they shift the positivity and growth in the group to negativity and destruction. You may see or feel it as it is happening when page followers begin to drop, and the page’s numbers decline or participation drops off, and the page seems “empty.” You may be left wondering, “Why this is happening and what can I do to make a change?”
Now that you know how to spot a Troll what can you do to get rid of a Troll? Here are 6 suggestions.
- Keep your site positive while you deal with your Troll. Remember, Trolls are attracted to the light but cannot live in the light. The positive light will turn them to stone.
- Monitor your live internet and radio shows before you bring someone into the audience.
- Don’t be tricked. Find and learn how to use your BLOCK button. Trolls are tricky and will try to turn the tables on you making you think they were “just helping you.” If you do not feel helped it is because you were not helped.
- Do not engage. The argument is their food. Like most bullies, they are masters at word manipulation and thrive from arguments.
- Do be the light that turns them to stone. Ignore them, and you starve them. Engage them, and you feed them.
- If suggestions 1-5 do not work- use banning/blocking or report them to authorities, or close off comment sections entirely from a blog post, video page or topic thread.
In all the mythological stories the Trolls were defeated by brains. They were outsmarted by average people and in one case, a tiny but clever goat. Be smart. Don’t feed the Trolls!
About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos is a three-time Breast Cancer Survivor, as seen on Dr. Oz, DOCTORS, NBC, and CBS, whose Divine Dreams diagnose her illness, and was a Dream Research Participant for Duke University’s Dr. Larry Burk‘s Breast Cancer Dream Research Program. They co-wrote, Dreams That Can Save Your Life. She is a Syndicated Columnist, TV Producer/Host and award-winning Author/Lecturer who promotes patient advocacy and connecting with Divine Spiritual-guidance through Dreams for success in health, wealth, and relationships. “Don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big your God is.” Learn more @ www.KathleenOKeefeKanavos.com
Photo credit: Broesis-art-2307407_1280-Pixabay-CCO-Public-Domain-FREE-for-commercial-use-No-attribution-required.jpg
Article Research:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll
Three Billy Goats Gruff https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0122e.html
The Trolls In Our Midst: What Fairytales Can Tell Us About .., https://electricliterature.com/the-trolls-in-our-midst-what-fairytales-can-tell-
10 Types of Internet Trolls You’ll Meet Online https://www.lifewire.com/types-of-internet-trolls-3485894
by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Aug 27, 2018 | Uncategorized
Like the New England weather at Harvard, if you don’t like current scientific findings on new health topics, wait five minutes, and it may change. Coffee lovers and cancer patients worldwide hope this recent one remains the same, especially concerning coffee’s impact on prostate cancer.
In part one of this three-part blog, we looked at current research concerning the effects of coffee on our health, including its impact on cancer and suicide.
According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation these studies tracked over 700,000 people across multiple ethnic groups in over 10 European countries and the U.S. It was discovered that even drinking decaffeinated coffee supplied benefits to individuals over those who did not drink the beverage. The studies have even dispelled the old myth that caffeine might increase the risk of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm. Drinking low-dose caffeine, defined as fewer than six cups of coffee a day, may even have a protective effect on heart rhythm.
Research published in the April issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, Researchers from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center examined 5,100 men and women diagnosed with colorectal cancer within the past six months, and an additional 4,000 men and women with no history of colorectal cancer to serve as a control group.
“We found that drinking coffee is associated with lower risk of colorectal cancer, and the more coffee consumed, the lower the risk,” said Stephen Gruber, director of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and senior author of the study.
What about coffee and Parkinson ’s disease?
Coffee consumption seems to be associated with about one-third lower risk concerning Parkinson’s Disease. Caffeine appears to be the key ingredient because tea also seems protective and decaf coffee does not. Parkinson’s patients treated with the caffeine equivalent of two cups of coffee a day significantly improved movement symptoms within three weeks.
The studies concluded that consuming 1-2 cups of coffee per day resulted in a 12% lower risk of mortality and consuming 2-4 cups a day resulted in an 18% lower risk of mortality. These results in inverse rates of mortality to coffee consumption showed in diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, stroke, and cancer.
How can coffee help prevent diseases from cancer and heart attack to suicide?
According to Nutritional Facts.org, and USC News coffee is a complex mixture of compounds that have various biological effects, such as anti-inflammatory properties. It is believed that in addition to these properties, coffee is a source of polyphenols which have potent antioxidant properties, which helps cells cope with free radicals in the blood.
Do you know why coffee has been named the number-two healthiest beverage?
The Beverage Guidance Panel assembled to provide recommendations on benefits and risks of various beverage categories, found tea and coffee—preferably without creamer or sweetener—tied as the number-two healthiest beverages, second only to water. The studies in this article are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The National Institutes of Health–AARP Diet and Health Study is the largest-ever prospective study conducted on diet and health. Its research concluded that people who drank six or more cups of coffee per day had a 10 to 15 percent lower mortality from heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke, injuries, accidents, diabetes, and infections. However, the opposite effect was found when a study looked at people 55 and younger. Drinking more than six cups of coffee daily increased their risk of death.
Don’t miss part 3 of this 3 part blog as we continue to discuss the current research on how coffee has been proved to reduce mortality rates and sum up the benefits and risks of drinking coffee. How much is too much coffee and is it worse than not enough?
About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos is a three-time Breast Cancer Survivor, as seen on Dr. Oz Show, DOCTORS, NBC, and CBS, whose dreams diagnose her illness, and was a Dream Research Participant for Dr. Larry Burk‘s Dream Research. They co-wrote, Dreams That Can Save Your Life. She is a TV Producer/Host and award-winning Author/Lecturer who promotes patient advocacy and connecting with Inner-guidance through Dreams for success in health, wealth, and relationships. Learn more @ www.KathleenOKeefeKanavos.com
photo credit:
httpspixabay.comencup-coffee-cup-cup-of-coffee-moon-1956716Pixel2013 Free for Commercial Use No attribution required
Blog Research:
New Study Shows Coffee Health Benefits https://www.pcf.org/new-study-shows-coffee-health-benefits/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpv2c1KeD3QIV3I2zCh3eOQrTEAAYASAAEgKWMvD_BwE
April issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/
Coffee Drinking Tied To Lower Risk Of Suicide – Harvard .., https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/07/drinking-coffee-may-reduce-risk-o
Dr. Mark Gunter https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/m.gunter/publications.html
Dr. Mark Coffee Drinking and Mortality in 10 European Countries: A Multinational Cohort Study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28693038
Dr. Veronica Setiawan https://keck.usc.edu/faculty-search/veronica-w-setiawan/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Veronica_Setiawan
by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Jan 27, 2018 | Uncategorized
“What if I dream of my dead uncle telling me to come to him in my dream? What does it mean?”
As a member of Quora’s Dreams and Dreaming group, this dream question was emailed to me by another Quora member. It seems like such a simple question, but it is quite complicated and has multiple answers. The tricky part is deciding which one is right for you because our dreams are filled with a dream language that only we can understand.
Here is my answer based on the research for my dream books.
Dreams of the deceased are one of the most exciting and confusing aspects of dreams and dreaming. In the book Dreams That Can Save Your Life, distributed by Simon & Schuster, many of the 30 life-saving dream stores contained visitations from deceased loved ones and family members during times of crisis.
One dreamer in Part VI, Chapter 42 of the book shares two dream stories about deceased loved ones appearing in her dreams during a time of extreme stress. She had Cystic Fibrosis and was undergoing a triple organ transplant.
One dream is about a previous dead lover who appeared to her in her dream.
On September 11, 2001, (9/11) I received a letter officially listing me for a
double lung and liver transplant. This day symbolized a new beginning for me.
From that day on, my struggling shared space with waiting for the phone call
saying my clinic received organs for me. On August 18, 2001, I got a welcomed
visitor in a dream.
Dream: Mario Is With Me.
Mario, the dead friend I hadn’t thought of for so many months, or get a chance
to say a proper goodbye to, stopped by in my dream. We were sitting in a
house in the living room, just talking as we always did, while there was a lot of
activity around us. It appeared as though someone was moving in or out, but
I wasn’t sure. And while we talked, I couldn’t help but wonder why Mario was
here in my dream, sitting right next to me, while being dead.
The moment I started to wake up, I knew Mario was dead, of course, but still
here with me and would protect and take care of me during the transplant. This
feeling was so clear and real, I immediately wrote down my dream.”
The other dream is about a strange man who keeps returning in her dreams. He hides his face and runs away in the pouring rain. His tan raincoat flaps in the wind behind him, which turns out to be a clue as to his identity as the dreamer had never seen this person before.
Dream: The Face of Death?
It was a dark night on an empty street in the city. It had rained, the streets were
still wet, and the light of the streetlights reflected on the puddles. I stood on
the street alone, not sure what I was supposed to do or why I was there, when I spotted a telephone booth. In it was a man standing in a long coat and a hat,
beige fabric reminiscent of 1960s attire. Every time I spotted him, he half-turned,
opened the door of the telephone booth, and started to walk down the street.
Every time I saw him taking off, I knew as long as I could see him, as long as I
didn’t lose him, as long as he didn’t turn around and show me his face, I was safe.
After I was able to talk, I told my mom about this dream, and she knew immediately
who the man was. It was my uncle, her brother. He always wore long coats
and hats in beige. I had never met my uncle, because he died from Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, at the age of 37, 10 days before my birth.
When she relayed the dream to her mother the description of the man and his raincoat led to the realization that the man was the dreamer’s uncle who had died before her birth.
At the time of the dream, the dreamer was on death’s door after having had a three organ transplant. It turns out the Uncle was just checking up on her and trying to reach-out or speak to her using the phone in an old phone booth, a hint that the Uncle was much older and unaware of cell phones.
This is a classic example of a dead relative trying to communicate with the living in a dream.
Are the dead relatives in our dreams real, aspects of ourselves, or just wishful dreaming to see a loved-one one more time?
Often the people we see in our dreams are aspects of ourselves. If this were my dream and I were not terminally ill, I would ask myself what aspects of my uncle I like to integrate into myself and my life. Was he joyful, or perhaps a strong emotional and intellectual fighter?
Although I always encourage people to look for the answers to dreams using their own dream language, sometimes a dream dictionary can be useful, especially when trying to interpret something that may contain a symbol that may be a play on words, like “Cry Uncle.”
Uncles hold an exceptional spot in the family dynamics. They are often Godfathers to children and the person most entrusted with the lives of their brother’s children.
According to a Jungian dream dictionary: to see your uncle in your dream represents some aspect of your family heritage and trait. It also symbolizes new ideas and emerging awareness. Consider the idiom “cry uncle” to mean surrender or admit defeat.
This begs the question, “Is someone asking you to cry Uncle? Who and why?”
In your dream, your Uncle is telling you to come to him.
Maybe your unconscious feels that you should surrender to something that’s going on right now?
Our dreams concerning passed over loved ones can also be what is known as a duality, two things happening at once that contain different meaning.
A dream-duality can speak to two things happening at once, a conflict, or an opposition. It may contain aspects of ourselves in life and the actual dead relative who has come to help us and give us guidance.
Perhaps the conflict is life and death with the dead visiting the living in a dream in order to secure life from a place of death.
What is your life like emotionally right now? Are you stressed? Is this a time of challenge?
When we are in a place of emotional or physical turmoil our dead relatives are often given permission to return to us in our dreams during our darkest hour to help change the darkness into a defining moment. With them they bring celestial light into a dark place; another duality.
Resources: https://www.quora.com/profile/Kathleen-Okeefe-Kanavos
Dreams That Can Save Your Life: Early Warning Signs of Cancer and Other Disease; Findhorn Press/Inner Traditions; distributed by Simon &Schuster (April 17, 2018)
Surviving Cancerland: Intuitive Aspects of Healing; Cypress House; 1 edition (March 28, 2014)
All book quotes are used with permission from the author, Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos and Dr. Larry Burk.
Photo credit: Cancerland Poster used with permission by the author.
About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos-three-time cancer survivor whose guided dreams diagnosed her illness as seen on Dr. Oz, NBC News, American Express Open, in Newspapers and magazines, and detailed in her book Surviving Cancerland, and Dreams That Can Save Your Life. She’s a Contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Soul, TV/Radio Host/Producer- Wicked Housewives On Cape Cod™, the Kat Kanavos Show, Internationally Syndicated Columnist in BIZCATALYST360, and Lecturer who promotes patient advocacy and Spiritual guidance. www.KathleenOkeefeKanavos.com
by Kathleen O'Keefe-Kanavos | Jan 14, 2018 | Uncategorized
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ~ George Santayana, philosopher
Who among us is not governed, to some degree, by the dark secrets of our past? Emotionally based dreams can manifest as daytime life-storms that refuse to remain contained. They have a way of building and blowing our existence to pieces like a clean dress the color of sky ripped from a clothesline and tossed into the mud.
fish-1358427_1280 floede, pixabay.com Public Domain, Free Commercial Use, No Attribution Required
Just when we think bad memories are forgotten, healed by time, and that all is well in our lives, something triggers a thought that manifests in a dream, which leads to an emotional door in our past hidden deep within the bowels of our psyche. The door, although tightly shut and locked, blows open by the sheer force of pent-up past emotions. A real-life nightmare once contained in silent darkness is unleashed into the light of day. Left unchecked it will consume all that is good beneath the clear blue sky.
Here is food for thought: Unchecked memories can grow strong on unhealed emotions.
Memories can begin to run wild through the paths of our lives like a pack of rats bringing life-threatening disease (dis-ease) with them. Research published in Science Daily shows that happy or sad, our emotions and physical health are inextricably linked. Dr. Rollin McCraty of the Institute of HeartMath in the US is studying the link between, emotions, physical health and how they trigger the peptide hormone oxytocin.
Depression, pessimism, and apathy affect our health in several ways.
“Low mood is linked to low levels of serotonin and dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitters in the brain,’ says London GP Dr. Jane Flemming. “Serotonin plays a role in regulating pain perception and could be the reason why 45 percent of patients with depression also suffer aches and pains.” So, what is a person to do?
How can we cope with a past hell-bent on destroying our future?
Jennifer Irwin is on tour with her book, “A Dress the Color of Sky” which chronicles the up-hill battle of bad past memories. But, you can meet her here, and now, with this VIDEO Interview on the Kat Kanavos Show.
A Dress the Color of Sky
The story-line of A Dress, the Color of Sky, takes you through the difficult life of a woman named Prudence who is entering rehabilitation for sex addiction, and self-loathing, in order to deal with her disturbing past secrets and to save her faltering marriage.
Prudence has lost faith in herself and life. She feels she is blowing in the wind and cannot predict what her future holds.
How important is it to us to feel in control of our future? Research published in an article written by Dr. Art Markman in Psychology Today raises an interesting question.
How do you envision your future?
This question was explored in a paper in the August 2011 issue of Memory and Cognition by Kathleen Arnold, Kathleen McDermott, and Karl Szpunar. The research points out that your ability to envision the future is strongly influenced by your memory for the past. That is, you tend to use memories of past experiences to predict what your life will be like in the near and far future.
It was concluded that it is easier to use your memories when the future you are predicting is close in time, raising the question, do memories from the far past govern your actions without your knowledge.
We are creatures of habit. Therefore, you have already experienced many specific locations and events that are the ones you will encounter again next week. If you are working you will rise in the morning, get dressed and find your way to your workplace. This is experience is such a habit you will hardly remember getting there. As a result, you can do a good job of imagining through simulation what your life will look like next week.
According to the research cited above, it is harder to guess the effect past memories will have for understanding your life in the distant future. Elapsed time makes it more difficult to make specific future predictions.
Consequently, as an adult, if you have suppressed bad memories of an abusive relationship it is more difficult to predict how you will react to a similar relationship now.
There is an important reason to remember and deal with your past before it controls your future. The philosopher George Santayana wisely pointed out that if we don’t take time to reflect on our past behavior, we may unwittingly repeat it in the future. This is not only true for our behavior but true for other people’s actions toward us.
Forgive and forget may not be the best advice. Forgive and remember, so the transgression does not happen again may be a better choice for a healthy future.
Forewarned by memories is forearmed for the future.
Life is a series of lessons. If we do not think about how badly we were treated, come to terms with it, and use that knowledge to make choices about what to do to protect ourselves in the near future, we’re less vulnerable to being treated that way again.
Stumbling beneath the weight of her horrific past, Prudence has taken the first big step toward correcting her course for the future by remembering and healing her past with the help of therapy.
InDreams cover 3 our darkest hours, we often pray for help and guidance but forget, or don’t know how to watch for the answers in our waking world. According to the New York Times, at least 10 studies on the effects of prayers and healing have been carried out in the last 6 years, and this question continues among researchers.
What if… the life-saving answers come to us in dreams, as studies by Duke University Radiologist Dr. Larry Burk have shown? What if… we are guided to seek help in the form of therapy with a therapist chosen by God? What if… you are the answer to that therapist’s dreams which were also heard by the Lord?
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
A producer met Jennifer Irwin in LA. After reading the manuscript, the producer purchased the film rights. Production of the film A Dress, the Color of Sky, is scheduled to begin in early 2018 with some well-known names attached.
Watch as Jennifer introduces you to Prudence who is struggling to emerge from the dark places of her past and step into the light of a new day.
Prudence’s struggle is one many of us live with, and often die from if left unchecked.
Sky Poster 2
YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO7SnT4K2Jg&feature=share
Resources:
Your View Of The Future Is Shaped By The Past | Psychology … (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201108/your-view-the-futur https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201108/your-view-the-future-is-shaped-the-past
The Link Between Emotions And Health | Psychologies, https://www.psychologies.co.uk/self/the-link-between-emotions-and-health.html (accessed January 13, 2018).
https://www.psychologies.co.uk/self/the-link-between-emotions-and-health.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin
http://www1.cbn.com/biblestudy/dreams-and-visions%3A-god-uncensored
http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dreams-That-Can-Save-Your-Life/Larry-Burk/9781844097449
Photo credit:
A-Dress-the-Color-of-Sky.jpg January 13, 2018 used with author’s permission.
Dreams That Can Save Your Life used with author Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos permission
About the Author: Kathleen (Kat) O’Keefe-Kanavos is a TV Producer/Host and Author/Lecturer of Dreams That Can Save Your Life which promotes patient advocacy and connecting with Dreams for success in health, wealth, and relationships. Contact –Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos Website – Inner Guide Facebook – Personal Facebook – Surviving Cancerland Facebook – Wicked Housewives TV Facebook – Wicked Housewives Radio Facebook –Dreams That Can Save Your Life Facebook- Google+ – LinkedIn – Pinterest – Twitter – Youtube- Book
