Lessons Learned
“Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.” ~Pema Chodron
When I’m attempting to manifest a particular outcome and it just isn’t happening I often question my readiness. I think I want a certain thing, and I do really want it, but am I ready for it? That’s my big question. Because in my way of thinking, if I was ready for it I’d have it.
But one day it dawned on me that maybe something else was happening.
Ever have one of those dreams where you are back in high school? I know I’m not the only one, I have this conversation every so often and am never surprised to hear the same variations on this dream over and over again – “I can’t find my locker, I can’t remember my locker combination, I don’t know where my class is, I don’t have my books, I’m supposed to be taking an exam and I didn’t study”…and on and on. Familiar?
Whenever I have one of those dreams I remind myself that I’m “back at school” – I’m learning something. It causes me to perk up and pay attention to what lessons I’m currently learning…and what patterns I’m currently living. Because, as the wise Pema Chodron writes: “Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.”
Often people seek out a coach because they keep having the same problem over and over and finally decide that they need a bit of help and support to solve it. Usually the thing that we are trying to solve is an outward expression of an inward pattern. The outward expression is often obvious, the inward pattern sometimes isn’t. Those of us who coach people for a living get pretty good at spotting certain patterns over and over. Once a pattern is uncovered we can then shift it, that is where some of the really amazing coaching magic happens.
Often uncovering a pattern feels like finishing the big exam. Phew. Wow.
A sense of relief is often the signifying emotion.
A few weeks ago I was speaking with a client. I was explaining to her that because she had experienced a certain thing – a certain pattern – that she did not have to experience it anymore. We brainstormed about what big lessons she had learned and I likened it to graduation – I told her that she learned that lesson and that she didn’t have to learn it twice. This caused her to relate to me a back to school dream she once had. In her dream each classroom door had a list of the student’s names on it. She went to each door but couldn’t find her name on any classroom, so she asked a teacher she saw about it. The teacher said to her, “Your name isn’t there because you’ve already passed this class. You don’t need to be here.”
I think that was the best back to school dream I’ve heard of yet.
Sometimes even though we’ve learned a lesson, we continue to experience the “class” over and over by way of habit, by way of our habitually inhabiting a certain energetic space in which that particular lesson is being taught. Going through the motions of learning that lesson becomes a pattern, it becomes our story, and we keep experiencing it over and over. And there isn’t always a powerful headmaster outside of our self who is going to take our name off of the list and bar us from coming back to the class. We have to take that responsibility for ourselves. We can consciously recognize that we’ve learned the lesson, and excuse our self from class.
We can do this when we’re ready. Once we’ve understood the pattern, allowed the experience, acknowledged the learning, applied the lesson.
And then guess what? Time for a new lesson.
Are you ready for a new lesson?
I’d love to hear all about your “back to school” dream experiences, lessons you are finished with, new lessons you’re ready for, and anything else that comes up for you around this discussion! Leave me a comment below!
Love & Magic,
P.S. If you’d like some assistance uncovering those patterns that are keeping you stuck let’s hop on the phone and get it done! Reach and let me know. One of my coaching programs is awaiting you.
I have had the same dream about college since 1972. I always dream that I am late for an exam; or, I have missed the exam. The truth of my time in college was that I was always the first person in the room for every class and exam! When I took Spanish 3 as an adult about 10 years ago, the professor took me aside and said that me and four other people didn’t even need to show up for the final because we had A’s on every lesson and test. In some ways, I am a perfectionist, so one of my biggest horrors is to fail at something. I am much more mellow now. I had to support myself through college, so I am giving myself a pass on being neurotic!
LOL I can’t imagine you being late for anything Jeaninne, let alone an exam 😀 Thanks for reading and for sharing your classroom dream experience! xo
This is SO timely! Just last week I had a dream that I was back in my kindergarten classroom, as an adult, sitting in one of those tiny chairs next to my 5 year old self who was sorting through her crayons and pencils to get ready. We were chatting excitedly about school, and when the teacher walked in she looked at me and asked, “Are you staying?” I looked at my little self, “Are you okay without me?” and with her smile and nod “yes” I got up out of my chair and left…and then went to band class two doors down to learn how to play a new instrument! 😀 Feeling safe to move on from the past to something new and fun!!
Janna that’s an AMAZING dream!! I’m so glad you shared it. So often we stay “stuck” in the past and are fearful of letting go and moving forward to something new and I so love the way your dream spelled this all out in such a beautiful way! Excited to hear all about your new and fun thing! 😉
Hi Cindie!
I have those dreams with college! 🙂
What a great reminder to see the patterns, get the lessons and move on to new ones!
Thanks for this great article!
Here’s to moving on to the powerful new lessons Heather! So glad you enjoyed the article! xo
Ok, that IS the best back to school dream ever! ha!
And yes, I love the thought that we’re ready to graduate – don’t need to repeat any lessons. Thanks for the smile that came from reading this post, Cindie. 🙂
Glad to know this post made you smile, Jeannette! And it really is such a great dream, right?!
Wow! I love the idea of creating a little graduation ritual to symbolize that I’ve broken through an old pattern! It’s so true that sometimes we just keep going back and back – just out of habit – even though we’ve already ‘passed’ that class. I’m going to use that metaphor moving forward. Really cool Cindie!
Sarah, I LOVE that idea too!! In fact, I know a ritual that fits the bill! AND …it involves chocolate! We can thank the Universe for the experience, recognize that we’ve passed that class, acknowledge how valuable the lesson has been, apply the learnings, and then request what we’d like to learn next, and eat a piece of chocolate to symbolize the sweetness of learning and commemorate our progress! How’s that? 🙂 So appreciative of your comments! Thank you.
This post really made me think and at first I couldn’t remember any back to school dreams… until I remembered I had one just last week… with one specific teacher. This teacher was tough on me… really tough… to the point that he’d tell me my work (including grades in the high 90’s) was not good enough. So, in this dream he was giving a classmate a hard time. In the past, I would always stay quiet whenever he did this, but in my dream I stood up for my classmate. I held my hand out and told the teacher NO! And guess what? The teacher backed down! He even gave me a genuine smile and COMPLIMENTED me… said I was “BRILLIANT!” I remembered the dream as soon as I woke the next morning and felt like I’d made a shift. This particular teacher’s “not good enough” was something I often heard as I reviewed my own work… and lately I’m not hearing those words. As you say, Cindie, I think I may have “graduated.” Thank you for helping me see it this way! 🙂
LISA!!! That’s so fantastic!! I LOVE this dream and how amazing that you just had it last week! (All of those school buses must be having a subliminal effect on all of us, eh? LOL) Love hearing that you aren’t hearing those critical voices anymore. Super awesome! xo
Love the dream story because sometimes we still suffer frantically wondering why we are not included in some situation or thought of by someone, when in reality, we aren’t vibrating anywhere near those things, people or mindset anymore. It’s not our reality…we’ve moved past that. Wow…thank you Cindie!!!
Hi Mindy, WOW you make an awesome point here! Sometimes we’ve moved on already to a “new lesson” with “new classmates”! So glad you had this insight! Thank you for sharing 🙂