Doing the Opposite Again with Chris Cunniffe

When should you do the opposite of what you usually do?  Today we share a popular replay about lucid dreaming, shadow work, and dream yoga with Chris Cunniffe. Chris had been a lawyer for 8 years when he had a dream which nudged him onto a more spiritual path. In the dream, Chris was at a Milli Vanilli conference which led him to wonder about what part of his life was a false front.

Chris urges us to consider “doing the opposite”. For example: dreaming is meaningless; consider that it might be meaningful. Nightmares are bad and should  be avoided; perhaps they are helpful. I should run away from that monster in my dream; maybe I should turn towards it. Chris gives examples of using this idea with shadow dream figures.

We then speak about treating waking life as a lucid dream including connecting with those cartoon-like figures we encounter over and over. I got some personal ahas from this discussion about my own trouble delegating tasks. We end by talking about the idea that some of the people we meet in our dreams are counterparts or soulmates.

BIO: Chris is a graduate of Holy Cross College (1993) and Harvard Law School (1996). He has a career background as an entrepreneur in both law and real estate. In 2015, Chris founded Lucid Coaching, LLC, as a creative vehicle for offering coaching services to clients and for publishing articles and videos about dreams, personal development, and spirituality. Chris currently serves as a board member and volunteer facilitator at Bliss Spiritual Co-op, a Charleston based retreat center, where he facilitates discussion groups about dreams and other topics.

Find our guest at: lucidcoaching.com and on IG and FB @lucidcoaching

This show, episode number 272, was broadcast August 17, 2024 as a replay from a live broadcast recorded during a live broadcast on July 8, 2023 at KSQD.org, community radio of Santa Cruz.

Intro and outro music by Mood Science. Ambient music new every week by Rick Kleffel. Archived music can be found at Pandemiad.com. Many thanks to Rick Kleffel for also engineering the show and to Tony Russomano for the phones.

 

SHARE A DREAM FOR THE SHOW or a question by emailing Katherine Bell at katherine@ksqd.org. Follow on FB and IG @ExperientialDreamwork #thedreamjournal. To learn more or to inquire about exploring your own dreams go to ExperientialDreamwork.com.

The Dream Journal aims to: Increase awareness of and appreciation for nightly dreams. Inspire dream sharing and other kinds of dream exploration as a way of adding depth and meaningfulness to lives and relationships. Improve society by the increased empathy, emotional balance, and sense of wonder which dream exploration invites.

The Dream Journal is produced at and airs on KSQD Santa Cruz, 90.7 FM. Catch it streaming LIVE at KSQD.org 10-11am Pacific Time on Saturdays. Call or text with your dreams or questions at 831-900-5773 or email at onair@ksqd.org. Podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms released the Monday following the live show. The complete KSQD Dream Journal podcast page can be found at ksqd.org/the-dream-journal/.

Note that closed captioning is available on the YouTube version of this podcast and an automatically generated transcript is available at Apple Podcasts.

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