What Socks on the Beach Taught Me

I had a dream last night. I want to give you a sense of the dream and tell you some of the lessons that I learned from it.  It was a crazy dream. I was at the beach at a funeral; I don't know whose funeral it was. My daughter was there. I was in socks. I couldn't find my shoes. I looked down the beach, and I could see a boat. My shoe was in the boat, and it was leaving. The boat was leaving, but I saw who the owner of the boat was.

I sent my daughter down the beach to the boat owner's house to get the shoe when the boat landed. In the meantime, I was looking for the other shoe.  There was only one shoe on the boat. I was looking for the other shoe, walking along the beach. Then I saw the boat had not gone very far. It was still there at the beach. So I went down. I got my shoe out of the boat. Then instead of walking back along the water, because I could see that there were big boulders along the water, I decided to go straight up the beach on the sand.  I was worried about my socks. My daughter had given me another pair of socks to put over the top of my socks. And I was worried about getting holes in her socks, and I didn't want to get them wet. I decided to go straight up the beach instead of walking along the beach back the way that I had come. I didn’t want to walk on the boulders because of the socks. As I started walking up the beach, I realized it was getting really steep. Before long, it was like I was climbing this cliff of sand to get up to the beach. I remember looking back; I looked down at the water at those boulders. I thought, “I can't go that way; I'll get holes in my daughter's socks.” So I kept trying to climb up this cliff, it even started curling backwards, like an overhang you see rock climbers swing over. That's the way this sand cliff was. I knew I couldn’t accomplish that feat so I started trying to scoot along the cliff sideways to get back to the dock where I was heading. I remember I kept looking down right along the water. It was flat, it was straight, but with boulders with water washing up around them. So I decided my way was best. I didn’t have a choice because I was certain of getting holes in the socks and getting them wet if I went the ‘easy’ way.  All the while, I was missing half the funeral. my daughter was missing the funeral because  I had sent her down the beach to meet the boat, which never made it back because it was still parked at the beach where I was.

That’s all I remember about the dream. As I was waking up, I didn't jump up. I let myself stay in that state, between that dream and awake. I allowed my mind to explore these events. Some of the lessons that I learned from this were these. First of all, when you're on the beach, you don't typically wear socks. You don't typically wear shoes. You typically are barefooted. The sand doesn't hurt your feet, it's fun to rub your feet down in the sand. That was the first lesson I learned. I should not be concerned about covering my feet when really life would've been way simpler if I had just taken my socks off and gone barefoot. In that state between dream and awake, the thought came to me, “life is way simpler than I thought.” I don't need shoes. I don't even need socks. 

The second lesson I learned was that there are some things that I'm stuck on. I have to have this to be comfortable. That it's not even necessary. 

Another lesson that I learned was, a lot of times I delegate things to people, sending my daughter down the beach, and the task is not even necessary. I don't want to do the things I delegate, but somehow in my twisted perception, I feel they have to be done. Since I don't want to do them, I have to delegate them to somebody. It’s not even important. 

The other thing that I noticed is those big boulders where they were right next to the water, the water had been lapping across them. I easily could have walked across those rocks in my bare feet. They were big enough and they were smooth. I was worried about my socks getting wet and holey. It wouldn’t have been a problem if I had just taken off my shoes. 

And how crazy is it for me to think that I had to be up on a cliff shimmying along? A cliff with sand falling away every time I took a step. I was trying to avoid pain. I really created more pain for myself by trying to avoid pain. And it wasn't even pain that I was avoiding. It was perceived pain. If I had gone down to the waterside and taken my socks off, it would've been super easy. 

Those were  a few of the lessons that I noticed that showed me how in my waking hours, in my conscious life, I do these things. A lot of times I will choose to do something that maybe isn't as important. It's perceived as a priority. In the dream, I really should have been at the funeral. Nothing was more important than that. That was why I was there to start with. If I had stayed at the funeral and let whatever happened around me, I would've probably been a lot happier. I have no idea what the funeral part had to do with it, that wasn't clear. Maybe it's that a funeral is a once in a lifetime thing.  It's not going to happen again for me to be able to honor this person or something. 

We have already talked about maintaining things that are draining. We have things we maintain that feel important to us but they really aren't even necessary. They're not even important. Then there are some things that by not maintaining them, we are being drained. I always notice that as I am learning, one thing leads to another. I am sure that inspiration opened up the way for me to have this dream and to be able to see some of the blind spots that I've been experiencing in my conscious life.

I really do believe, because I've had this happen many times before, that we can have a dream or vision right before we wake up that helps to create a solution or see something that I hadn't been able to see before. You are somebody who's always reaching out trying to find things that will help to improve your life and learn new things. One aha moment can take us to the next aha moment. In our waking hours, our minds are more open.  In our consciousness, we literally put blocks between our ourselves and the solution to the problems that we have. We've made decisions based on previous experience or we're worried about something, or we're afraid of getting hurt. Like I thought “I know I can't go down there by the boulders. I'm going to stay up here where it's even more uncomfortable, but at least I know what I’m up against.”  Let this be a lesson to all of us to grow as we learn.  And be more open to new insights no matter how they come, whether they're coming in your waking hours or if they are coming in your sleeping hours or your barely conscious hours.

The exercise that I want to do today, there's two parts. One of them is to put a pad of paper and a pencil or a pen by your bedside. I have a little drawer in my nightstand, All I have to do is open the drawer and I can grab that pad of paper and pen. Many times I'll be woken up with ideas that will help to solve problems. A lot of times we have situations where we're not really sure how to deal with it. Sleep on it and the answer may come. We might get the solution if we'll let our minds be open when we're in our conscious state. Usually we are too preoccupied and focused on what we know.  So being in an unconscious state helps.

The second part of your exercise is to ask God in prayer and set an intention, before you go to bed, that a specific problem or issue be handled.  Maybe it's a pattern in your life that's continually showing up that you want to find a solution to, or that you want to break. Go to God before you go to bed, have your paper pen there. Set your intention. Doing these two things - asking for the solution and putting the pen and paper by your bedside, sets an expectation that He's going to open your mind or He's going to drop some things in your mind while it's open…while it's available during your sleep hours. Then go to sleep. Expect that there's going to be some insight. Even if it's in a crazy dream like mine. 

There’s actually a part three. The third part is to go to my Daily Gratitude Call episode Gratitude for Dreams. Here is the link:  https://wylenebenson.com/gratitude-for-dreams/

You may feel inspired to listen to that one, but my main intention for sending you there is for you to notice the little search bar at the top on the right. Whatever your problem or the pattern in your life that you're trying to break, I encourage you to put a keyword in that search bar. See what pops up. There will be a podcast episode that is relevant to your issue. I'm setting an intention right now myself, that as you put your keyword in that search bar you will find a solution that maybe you had been blind to before. Take action on this exercise right away.