Doctor’s WARNING: Never Ignore THESE Kind of Dreams! with Kelly Sullivan Walden

In today’s episode, we embark on a profound journey with Kelly Sullivan Walden, a dream expert and clinical hypnotherapist whose insights into the world of dreams promise to enlighten and inspire. Imagine a place where the boundaries of reality blur, where the subconscious mind speaks in metaphors, and where the spiritual and practical intertwine seamlessly. That’s where Kelly leads us, unraveling the mysteries of our dreamscapes.

Kelly’s journey into the realm of dreams began organically. She recounts her early experiences of “tandem dreaming” with her younger sister, where they would find themselves in the same dreamscape, sharing surreal adventures. This unique connection to dreams set Kelly on a path of exploration, eventually leading her to become a certified clinical hypnotherapist. “Dreams are the language of the subconscious,” she says, emphasizing that they hold profound wisdom and intelligence once we learn to decode them.

Throughout our conversation, Kelly discusses the vital role dreams play in our lives, particularly in understanding our subconscious mind. She explains, “The part of our mind that creates all the problems is the logical, linear, denser perspective. And the part of us that connects with the solutions is the broader mind.” This broader mind is where dreams reside, offering us insights and guidance that transcend our waking logic.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Kelly’s work is her understanding of recurring dreams and nightmares. She views nightmares not as mere sources of fear but as essential tools for processing unresolved emotions and preparing us for real-life challenges. “Nightmares are venting dreams,” Kelly explains. “They help us work through difficult emotions and scenarios, so we’re better prepared to handle them in waking life.”

SPIRITUAL TAKEAWAYS

  1. Dreams as a Language of the Subconscious: Kelly emphasizes that dreams speak in a metaphorical language, offering profound insights into our subconscious mind. By learning to decode these metaphors, we can gain wisdom and guidance that help us navigate our waking lives.
  2. Nightmares as Healing Tools: Rather than seeing nightmares as purely negative, Kelly views them as essential for emotional processing and preparation. They allow us to confront fears and unresolved issues, ultimately leading to personal growth and resilience.
  3. The Power of Shared Dreams: Kelly’s experiences with tandem dreaming highlight the deep psychic connections we can have with others. These shared dream experiences offer a unique perspective on our relationships and the interconnectedness of our souls.

Kelly also delves into the fascinating realm of lucid dreaming, where individuals become aware that they are dreaming and can influence the dream’s direction. This state of consciousness, she explains, can be a powerful tool for personal empowerment and spiritual awakening. “In dreams, we step outside our linear reality,” Kelly says. “We connect to the multiverse, where all our multiple selves, past, present, and future, collide.”

Another captivating topic Kelly addresses is the concept of dream symbols and their meanings. She shares the example of a client who dreamed of an airplane crash, which initially seemed terrifying but ultimately represented the urgency to launch a new project. Kelly advises, “Always pay attention to the feeling tone in your dreams. It guides you to the deeper meaning.”

Our discussion also touches on the comforting presence of departed loved ones in dreams. Kelly shares a personal story of her dog, Lola, who appeared to her in a dream after passing away. In the dream, Lola unzipped her dog suit and became the cosmic sky, offering Kelly a profound sense of peace and connection. “These dreams are incredibly healing,” Kelly says, “reassuring us that our loved ones are still with us in a different form.”

In conclusion, Kelly Sullivan Walden’s insights into the world of dreams open up a realm of possibilities for understanding ourselves and our lives. By paying attention to our dreams, decoding their metaphors, and embracing the wisdom they offer, we can navigate our waking world with greater clarity and purpose. Dreams, as Kelly illustrates, are not just nocturnal oddities but profound guides on our spiritual journey.

Please enjoy my conversation with Kelly Sullivan Walden.

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Follow Along with the Transcript – Episode 218

Kelly Sullivan Walden 0:00
The part of our mind that creates all the problems is the logical, linear, denser perspective and the part of us that does connect with the solutions.

Alex Ferrari 0:22
I'd like to welcome to the show Kelly Sullivan Walden. How you doing Kelly?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 0:25
I'm doing good. After all, the technological snappers. Hi, I'm so happy to be here.

Alex Ferrari 0:32
I appreciate that, you know, for I every time I have really technical issues with a guest on their end, is usually the greatest conversations afterwards. So you know, because you have to work harder for the conversations.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 0:43
Yeah, it's like I really want to be with him. Ain't no mountain high enough I'm gonna make it happen.

Alex Ferrari 0:50
Thank you so much. Of course, of course, thank you so much for coming on the show. We're here to talk about your new book, A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. And also this other work that you do with the dreams, this other little stuff that you do. Yeah. But you know, dreams are always been fascinating to me, because as I've walked my spiritual path, dreams have become a little bit more I pay more attention to them, they become a little bit more important in my life, where as before, they were just kind of like oddities in my life. Like, I wonder what that was in London. That was I never really paid much attention to it. So before we dive into the dream scape, if you will, how did you discover your ability to be able to decode dreams and get into this line of work? Because generally speaking, this is not a four year degree.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 1:42
No, not typically. Although now these days I've got I've got students and, and clients that are pursuing this as a career and I think that's a that's a sign of the times. I think it's a, it's a really good thing. It all has been very organic. And the I would say it's a result of me letting go and having a lot of surrender. I've always been good with dreams, really. I mean, they just seem to speak to me, I had a when I was growing up my younger sister Shannon and I had a lot of shared dreaming called tandem dreaming, where we would end up in the same place at the same time and the same dreamscapes. And, anyway, I think that was something to just kind of set me on my path to have me pay extra attention to them. But I became a certified clinical hypnotherapist about 25 years ago. And that set me on the path of paying attention to dreams professionally, because the hypnosis deals with the subconscious mind and dreams are the language of the subconscious. And the subconscious mind according to the American hypnosis association is 88% of our minds power versus our logical conscious mind, which is at best 12%. So I, I started to notice that dreams are even though they are a little wacky and a little strange, and sometimes hard to decode. Once we do understand what they're saying, it's mind blowing, the wisdom and the intelligence. And it feels like it's an accelerator so it's become a passion of mine to inspire people. I like to say, I'm here to awaken the world to the power of dreams. I think it would be a better world we live in a more peaceful Yogananda ish I see Yogananda over your shoulder over there. I think a world that that he would, he would like to see a more calm, peaceful, kind world if we were all dreaming and paying attention to dreams.

Alex Ferrari 3:58
So So my next question is, should we take them seriously, because so many people just like I said earlier, you know, that's kind of a wacky thing. Oh, I had fingers as hot dogs. In that great movie that just came out. That has that sequence. Everything, Everything everywhere all at once, which is a fantastic is nominated for an Oscar. That is that's the multiverse and that's the whole damn things that dreamscape. Yeah, it's an amazing film.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 4:27
Yeah, exactly, exactly. But kind of now that you bring that up. I mean, it's the world of that that movie is like what happens in dreams where we get to, we step outside of our linear reality that is kind of got a stair step, vibe to it. That is like one plus one equals two and everything is sort of rational and make sense. And then we go to sleep and dream and everything flips upside down, and everything's out of order and we are connected to the multiverse and we're always connected to it. But in dreams, we're more we have that. That's the water we swim in. We're our multiple selves, past, present, future, all collide and we recognize that all humanity lives in us the villain, the victim or the Mother Teresa, the all of the all of the many parts of ourselves. They're all there. So I think that we should we like I like to say don't take your dreams lying down. Even the even the fingers is sausages. There's there's meaning in all of them dreams to speak a much more intelligent, efficient, elegant language than our one by one one word at a time language.

Alex Ferrari 5:47
Right! Because it works in metaphor. And yes, which is my next question. Why? God, for God's sake. You know, why is the the airplane crash doesn't really mean the airplane crash, it means like, You got to hurry up and do something like these kinds of like things because like, you know, I was I decode my own dream sometimes and I speak to Oh, spiritually, okay. And I speak to some spiritual advisors who kind of helped me along sometimes. And I'll never forget this. It was, it was about the show, I was sitting at the edge of like the Valley of Los Angeles, and I could see the entire city on the on the landscape, and then this giant jumbo, you know, 747 flies over me, turns around, crashes into the city and is heading towards me. And then I wake up. And by the way, I was getting on a plane in three days. So I was like, oh, knowing that I wasn't going to be I knew at that point enough that like, it's not about the plane crash. I know. I'm not gonna it's not warning me about the plan, because I didn't worry about that. But from my from my own decoding, and from my spiritual advisors, decoding, they said, You have to hurry up, there's an urgency to what you have to do, and that is to launch the show. That's what we got out of it.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 7:08
Interesting. Oh, I like that. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'd love to hear your thoughts. My dream? Yeah. Okay. Well, there's, we always want things to take off, we always want things to launch and in dream language up tends to symbolize success. And things are going well, things are looking up for you. If we're ever feeling sad, we say well look up look on the sunny side look. And when a crash happens, that's kind of what we don't want in the language of dreams that, but but really, it's it can also mean like why did the airplane crash? Was it maybe the break down was was like a prepper? Like, I believe everything and everyone is an aspect of ourselves in the dream. It's all us. So what part of my inner what part of me is that airplane, that that crashed, it might have been, maybe, maybe an aspect to like, have a previous dream that crashed. Like sometimes there's the break down that precedes the breakthrough. And maybe it didn't, it didn't take off because I was I had too much baggage pack that was on that plane. So I would think about I mean I what all roads lead to our freedom and our ability to fly we want to be able to, to fly and if that particular plane, I mean, I want to know some more of the surrounding circumstances, but it might have been sometimes the thing that we think is supposed to go where it's supposed to go doesn't so that we can actually launch into the thing that we're supposed to

Alex Ferrari 8:45
From so it's the landscape was like almost like a miniature Los Angeles. And then the plane was this oversized monster as such, that's almost like a almost a train set of Los Angeles. And this plane turned around and landed and kind of crashed and it crashed but landed and was hurling towards me on the ground. But for my understanding it was if I if I don't jump on this path there you are going to lose this opportunity. Oh, and I was afraid and I was afraid of launching the show. Because there was no option it's so big. Well, it was just a thing that I just didn't know. I was always afraid of launching the show because I was afraid of coming out of the spiritual closet.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 9:29
Wow, it feels like the a lot like the the belly of the whale stage of the hero's journey and and how the whale will swallow us up like that those dreams will either help us to take off or they will we will implode and it won't go well. I mean a lot of I would say in some way sickness or illness is the result of not launching and not taking those opportunities and letting them fester and letting them stay inside. So I love this that it was actually coming after you. So in some way, I've never heard of this exact dream. I've heard of a lot of dreams. And there's a lot of creatures that chase after us. But it's, I don't think I've ever heard about a plane coming after someone

Alex Ferrari 10:15
But I wasn't scared. I was there's no fear there was no fear whatsoever in the dream. So that's why I knew by the by the feeling that I had during the dream that I was like, I'm not to be afraid of this is a warning. This is something to go. You've got to get on this path. This doorway is going to close. If you don't, yes, no, it kind of vibe.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 10:38
Right. Very cool. And it's going to come after you it feels like this is a new Jonah and the whale kind of a story. It's like the airplane, if you're not gonna get jump on the plane that the planes gonna come over, and you're gonna have to jump on like, things are gonna have to happen.

Alex Ferrari 10:52
Yeah, it was going, Oh, you're not gonna I'm gonna come back and pick you up kind of vibe. So it was it was really it was a really love there was a really interesting thing and then fast forward this happened it was almost two years ago. But it's one of these gems I don't forget because of what's happened with my show. And how the show

Kelly Sullivan Walden 11:09
What happened with your show? So what's happened as a result?

Alex Ferrari 11:12
Well it's exploded and in a way that I can't even understand and it's you know, we're growing at such a rapid pace now that wow, it doesn't even make sense. So so it was just really interesting. It is a really interesting thing and I was very fearful of it and then took time launched it pulled back because I was afraid and then I finally gave in and when I let go and just said I'm all in that's when things started to happen a few months prior six months later is when it started to kick up and then it really only for the last five months or so it hockey stick in a way that I can't add hockey stick. Oh yeah, no question. I mean, we went from 100,000 downloads to millions month Yeah, it was pretty insane. So that's what the dream so that dream was kind of a catalyst for all of this.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 12:07
I love it and I let there's so many people when I do shows the people that have the real like the best shows, it seems like there was a dream that kind of kicked their butt into it Lisa Gar for The aware show, she had this aware train that kept like to chew chewing through her through her bedroom through her mind and she had to jump on the train. And it was so there's something about this momentum that other people are going to get on and benefit from as well. It's a big vessel she there's there's a big basketball man

Alex Ferrari 12:39
Made Los Angeles look like little Tonka Toys like little like Legos. That's how big of, of a in the valley of this giant. And if you know the LA Valley, of course,

Kelly Sullivan Walden 12:48
I do. I live in LA,

Alex Ferrari 12:50
I lived in LA for I was in Burbank, for many, many years. 13 years, I live in LA. So like when you're at the Hollywood sign, and you're just looking over on the mountaintop, and you're looking over the valley, that's kind of the vibe. And it was but the city was so little, like if you're at the observatory, and you see the valley, that's where it was, but they were so small on the train that the plane was monstrous. But anyway, I don't want to keep going down this. I don't want to keep going. Because everyone was like, Okay, we heard the dream, Alex. Let's let's move on.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 13:19
We got we got it. You're successful. Awesome.

Alex Ferrari 13:21
So my question is, and it's a question I get asked a bunch of regards to dreams is why does it have to be a metaphor? Why can't they just come out and say, do this, or this is going to happen? Like it's always spoken in metaphors and images. And rarely this dialogue come into dreams. I do have dreams with dialogue in it. When they do say words. Sometimes it's on the nose very rarely. But most of the times it's just part of the show.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 13:46
Right! Exactly. And yes, sometimes we do get those very spot on. I think that's when the dreams get frustrated with us. They they're like, Okay, I'm gonna spell it out to you. Because clearly you're not getting

Alex Ferrari 14:00
Your too dense

Kelly Sullivan Walden 14:00
That Einstein quote that we can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it. So we could say that the mind, the part of our mind, that creates all the problems is the logical, linear, denser perspective. And the part of us that does connect with the solutions is the broader mind. So our dreams, the metaphors, those symbols that we get they at we access when we, in order to understand them, we have to think in a nonlinear way. We have to, we kind of have to go on the ride of where our dreams want to take us. And then we have a eureka moment. So anytime you've ever had an aha moment where like, all of a sudden you get that great insight, that great awareness, that synchronistic thing. You were not in an ordinary rational state of mind when that happened. So I think the The decoding of those symbols, in order to do it in order to sync up to that vibration, we have to elevate, we have to become attuned to that more symbolic thinking part of ourselves, that is where all the solutions reside. So it's kind of like, I remember somebody saying once about kids with, with Asperger's or with not just add, but with, like learning disorders, they speak in a regular, it's like their, if we could attune to them, we'd actually understand everything they're trying to tell us. And it's like dreams, if we acclimate to the level of the intelligence of our dreams, we become more intelligent, as a result more intuitive. In fact, there was all kinds of research at Harvard, about this that said, if you do pay attention to dreams and learn to understand them, we become naturally more intuitive. We become better problem solvers. We become better navigators of our lives. So it's kind of like they're dangling a carrot. And if we catch up to the carrot, then we realize, oh, wait, there's no problem here. Oh, all the answers are right here.

Alex Ferrari 16:12
You know, even here's something funny sometimes, because I love my dreams. And I dream often and, and I come from the film industry, so I've been directing and things for many years. And when I, you know, a lot of times, because of my directors, I, my dreams can be very high production value. The bank, you've got it, right, exactly. So when certain sometimes certain dreams are, when I say high production value for people don't know what that means. It's, it looks very well produced. And sometimes I get me, and I get frustrated sometimes, because I'm like, I couldn't get that dream, guys, it just wasn't the production value kind of sucked on that last one. So I'll, when I go to sleep, I'll make an intention. I go, guys, if you want to get a message to me, and I say, Guys, meaning my spirit guides, my eyes, the other side, whoever is trying to send me the message I go, you're gonna need to up the game a bit. And you need to bring the production value, so I can clearly see what you're trying to do. Because the last one was a little muddy, it was one room, you need to take up a game a bit. And those are the nights that I wake up had these beautifully produced, like, movie stars are in it and, and, you know, big sets and all this stuff. And I would like to I would love to hear your thoughts on, like people like movie stars. And yes, people like that, from my understanding, that gets thrown into a dream for you to pay attention. Because is that right?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 17:47
Yeah, I think so. I mean, everybody, and everyone, and everything in the dream is an aspect of us. And so that means anybody can show up. And it's and it represents a part of us. But the difference between, let's say, like an ordinary villain, versus a celebrity villain, it's kind of like adding Technicolor to that dream, it's like adding a highlighter pen saying pay attention to this. So the celebrity aspect just turns up the dial a little bit higher. And it tends to make the stakes a bit higher, for us as well. And we do tend to pay attention. I think some, it's like in the in dream language celebrities equal, pay attention to that dream. And also, I would say as a kind of a subtext are if our subconscious mind had an agenda, it would be for us to wake up for us to become attuned to who we truly are, beyond just the mundane reality. And another way of looking at like that looking at that is for us to take off for us to fly. And for us to step into the light of who we're here to be that in other words, the celebrity version of each of us. Each of us are born to shine, whether we're going to be on a film set or a television set in our lives are not but we're all here to step into the light that is ours to step into. So in some way, a celebrity and a dream is kind of like helping us to acclimate to stepping into whatever that role is the role of a lifetime that we're meant to play, whether it be as a mother, whether it be as a baker, candlestick maker or whatever that is like, step into that role and shine.

Alex Ferrari 19:37
Let me ask you, you when you say subconscious mind, do you ever go down the spiritual side of of dreams and what that means in regards to your relatives, or like I mentioned earlier spirit guides or angels or your loved ones, whoever you want to say and that's in that space. If that is a conversation talking from the other side, because again, to my understanding is when the other side does want to send a message. They are our minds. Our experiences are basically like an open harddrive or open book, where they go, Oh, he's going to get what makes sense to me what makes sense to you? Because it's very customized to like, let's say, you're going on this shows up in my dream, that means something to me, because I identify with Yogananda, as opposed to you that might be freedom in the background. Do you know if she shows up, she means more to you than she does to me in my scope? So it's a very customizable thing and they use things that you might even seen that day or that week or movie, like an avatar seeing if you just watched avatar or something like that. They like to get your attention for the message. Is that fair?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 20:51
Dream by the way? Yes, yes, Avatar came from James James Cameron's dream, by the way.

Alex Ferrari 20:57
I'm very familiar with Jim's work and not only that, but Terminator as well. The original, the original skeleton, the exoskeleton that is the Terminator was in a feverish dream. He had a high 105 degree temperature in Italy. Wow. While he was trying to after he got fired from his first movie, Pirana Pirana 2 the spawning. Oh, and he was trying and he had he was sick in Rome. And he had a dream for the Terminator. And then he wrote The Terminator quickly after that. So that was a dream. Yeah, Jim, and I speak like I know him. But Mr. Cameron uses his dream JC JC as we like to call him when we go out. He uses his dreams a lot and so to Spielberg, so a lot of the bigger filmmakers and creators they really pay attention to their dreams.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 21:46
But to answer your question about the spiritual side of dreaming, it's, it's so incredible, and I love that you brought up departed loved ones. And that I think, again, if the agenda of the subconscious mind is for us to wake up, and to drop our fear and to step more boldly into our soul or spirit, having having a departed loved one come into our dream and us to have having some kind of a communion with them some sense of they survived death, and we're still in touch with them. We still love each other that that has survived death. Oh my god, there's almost nothing greater to awaken us to our spirituality than to have grandma or dad or mom or our pet, show up in our dream and give us that look or give us a hug. There's nothing more healing for the heart than those kinds of dreams and the portals that they can open up for us just having one of those dreams I'm in the the night I read. This is one of the chapters in my book. A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. I call it cosmic Lola. The night that my dog Lola was passing away. It was so heart wrenching, she was really old and she had outlived her. She wasn't supposed to live as long as she did. So we had a lot of borrowed time, but it's still it's never. It's never enough. And the night that she was dying. I had this dream that she unzipped her dog suit and became the cosmic sky. And I was like, Oh, she was never really a dog. The whole time she was the cosmos in this tiny little chihuahua. Body. Oh my god. And it was and it was like she was like, yep, that's who I really am. So that so helped me be have more peace on that day. That was so brutal to have to say goodbye to her. But to have that little dream. Like everybody could say, oh, she's on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. She loves you. She's with you. Wha wha wha wha but the fact that I have this very personal dream with her in it imprinted me and it was undeniable and I grabbed onto that and I still do when I think about her. It's like wait, she's not dead. That's not how I want to remember her but she's the cosmic sky. Okay, she's good. I miss her but I have her now to think about and other loved ones as well that have come to me and dreams. How about you have you

Alex Ferrari 24:29
Oh, yeah, yeah, there was a few years ago I had a very stressful situation I was in for whatever reason, my grandma showed up in a dream. And I was in bed in the dream and she just kind of was patting me on the back and kind of stroking my back kind of like it's okay. And I don't dream with my grandmother very often. You know, I remember I remember other dreams were there but she just out of the blue showed up. And when I kind of just spoke to again to my spiritual advisors about it and they they said she was just there to kind of say it's gonna be okay. It's just, it was a moment of love. That's all that was a, there was no message to her, she's just wanted to let you know it's gonna it's gonna be okay. Because you saw all of the stress and trauma I was going through during that moment. And she was just there to kind of like it's okay. It's okay. It's gonna be okay. It's such a, it was just such a lovely, reassuring dream. Dreams have such a powerful ability to transform negative things into like to give you support when you need it. I've noticed at least in my life,

Kelly Sullivan Walden 25:37
Yeah, I mean that just in the way you just talked about that I could see and feel this sort of Portal that opened in you in your heart just in that place of reassurance that all the books, all the spiritual masters on this level, as great as they are, couldn't necessarily give you that. And that's why I think dreams are so elegant, because they one little moment with your grandma on the other side, can give you that much soul medicine. Isn't it incredible?

Alex Ferrari 26:10
It's remarkable. It truly, truly is remarkable, the power of dreams. And as you start to delve deeper into dreams, and in decoding the dreams because decoding is an art form, there's no question about it, it is not easy. I mean, not like that, that plane thing, if I would have been another person, I'm like, oh my god, I'm not getting on that I'm not getting on that flight in three days. Because I'm going to crash. Like it's in that and using that analogy, knowing that I was going to be on a plane in three days was also an interesting choice too, because it could have been misinterpreted. But it's something I'm also pay attention to because I was I'm gonna definitely paid attention to a crashing plane, if I'm getting a play that three days. So it's true.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 26:52
But I think what you did was exactly the right thing, which was to pay attention to the feeling tone in your dream. There wasn't fear involved. And you weren't on that plane. And watch. So there's right. So it doesn't mean that you know, sometimes these things happen. But there's this shamanic belief that everything happens first in a dream. And so the fact that you were able to see it, it was from afar, it felt it did feel to you, you're the best interpreter of your own dreams. You can have 1000 People like me give you their feedback, but you're the one that has your own intuition as the litmus test of what is this dream trying to give me It's so I really love where your dream went, we can't we have to follow. I mean, our feelings are, the energy of the dream is the key to how to quote unquote, interpret the dream, what is the dream feel like and what in waking reality feels like that are similar to that. So that's where we, that's where we pay attention to kind of like draw a circle around that. And then step inside of that, instead of getting too lost in our mind. We don't want to get I mean, it might seem like dream work is an intellectual activity, but it isn't. It's very much about the body, and your and your senses and your intuition. Our mind can come on board at the very end to kind of connect a few dots, but not until the end.

Alex Ferrari 28:23
Sausage fingers not intellect. Fingers. It's smoking before they had that dream. Oh, yeah. So So let me ask you that, why is it so hard to remember dreams, that's another thing that happens is, yeah, there's certain dreams like that that just are so in Technicolor that you're going to remember them afterwards. But I actively, if I remember a dream, I actively try if I wake up to try to kind of like, reinforce it, reinforce it, reinforce it just enough to when I get out of bed. Okay, I'm still thinking about something and I lose maybe the beginning of it at the end of it but the core of the middle I still remember and then I'll write it down. And then it's gone. It's gone and very few things that I can hold on to so why is that?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 29:14
The it's like I used to run track when I was in high school and when I would run the relay races that there's kind of like this passing of the baton so when we go to sleep, our conscious mind is exhausted from hours of overuse so the conscious mind hands the baton over to the subconscious mind. And this is where it's kind of like the freaks come out at night the the anything that's been suppressed by day any emotions, any I don't want to think about that and that it's like all those things that didn't get handled, go into sort of this crazy room like at midnight at the museum or at night. So all of these this part of ourselves that I think about the back of the head, like the limbic brain, is what picks up that baton, and it says, ooh, now it's our time. Now it's our chance. And it's the nonlinear part of the mind that is doing, doing the thinking, doing the processing. And by the time we wake up in the morning, it's time to we switch back over to the prefrontal cortex that thinks in a very orderly, organized way. And if we, if we wake up too quickly, the logical brain will either take a look at the dream we were having, and say, Well, that just doesn't make sense, let's get rid of it. Or we just, it's like the, in the distance between the, that more primal part of the mind. And the and the prefrontal cortex, that newer brain, the distance it takes for us to travel there is like within just a couple minutes, and we'll lose the dream if we if we wake up too quickly. So this is why I tell people stay, like do exactly what you were doing. Think about that last little snippet of the dream that you were just having, contemplate it several times before you move a muscle and then write it down immediately because it will be gone. I mean, it's like switching channels on a radio, if there's some song that you've never heard before, it's kind of subtle. You're like, oh, wait, what are those pretty lyrics, then if you turn it to a punk rock station, it's like, wait, wait, we can't remember that. Wait a minute, it's gone. And then you try to dial back in to find it. So the the practice is to just write immediately upon awakening, don't get out of bed, don't move a muscle until you've got some sense of the last bit of the dream you had, and then write it down or record it on your phone or draw a picture of it, or tell somebody, but I always say, Don't do that. Because you might get in the way of your partner, husband or wife or whatever, from them being able to remember their dream if you talk your dream out loud to them, but write it down at the very least.

Alex Ferrari 31:54
So what happens when two people have the same dream at the same time? Similar plus a, you mentioned that earlier, that's happened to me, where I've had, you know, I'll call somebody in the like, I got me I had this dream, like shot up. I was there. I was there. I didn't know what was going on is the same place I was. What does that mean usually?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 32:17
Oh, God, well, it's very special. And I've and I grew up with those. That's why I got so deeply into dreams because of the tandem dreaming I was having with my sister, and still do every once in a while. At the very least it means that you're psychically attuned, you're psychically connected, and that you should pay attention to what was happening in that dream. Consider that there's extra highlighter pen, saying what was that? Don't forget that dream. So there's just extra arrows pointing toward that end. I mean, my sister, I'll just speak from personal experience. We're very, very deeply soulfully connected, psychically attuned, if you end up in the same dream at the same time, it's, you know, you're on the same wavelength. And there's no end to what's possible there. And when we talk about lucid dreaming, where you're aware that you're dreaming when you're dreaming, but if you can have a partner in crime, partner and shine, oh, my lord, I mean, this is like the beginnings of the 2.0 of consciousness, the places that we can explore together. And it's so vast, I mean, we're just as smart as we all think we are. as many books as we've read. And as many cool meditations as we've had, we're just in the point 00 1%, of exploring what's possible. So these kinds of dreams point toward what else we are capable of as humans. We're not just here to suffer and pay bills and struggle, struggle, struggle until we die, we're here to do some of that stuff. And our dreams are part of the party. It's like going into the consciousness gym, to help us work some of these muscles so that we can carry some of that consciousness over into this, this reality.

Alex Ferrari 34:03
Now, is there divine intervention in our dreams? Have you experienced that or seen that?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 34:09
I mean, it depends on what you think of as that, but I think that we have free will. That's my that's my mythology that we do. I know some people that are very smart that say the opposite, but

Alex Ferrari 34:23
We control everything, obviously.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 34:26
Yeah, exactly. I believe in free will. However, I think that sometimes I mean, like I've had very strong voices like a voice a very paternal voice. I think it's my grandpa Solomon, I'm not sure. But that comes in and just says like, yo, yo, yo, knock that off. Have I taught you nothing? Go over here instead, like, whoa, and so it feels like divine intervention shaking me by the heels. No, Kelly, you're like way off track over here. So I do think sometimes are a Angels, our guides are higher beings that love us will sometimes because the veil is so thin, and we're sitting duck, we're kind of, we're just we can't, we can't run and hide like we can in our ordinary consciousness, we can't bob and weave and, and duck away from that wisdom and dreams were a bit more susceptible to being able to receive all of that. So I think that's the perfect place for our spirit guides to bust in to bust a move. As they say, have you had that experience? Divine intervention in a dream,

Alex Ferrari 35:34
The conversation or the the definition of divine intervention is it varies from person to person. So I think that there have been dreams that have definitely moved me in a certain direction, but I found much more divided vention in my meditations, which is a dream likes, almost sometimes a dream like spectrum, it's definitely on that you can actually go deeper in meditation than you can in the dream alpha channel in the alpha waves in your brain, to my understanding that strong like I'm talking about monks who've been meditating for 30 years, can go into gamma that's far beyond, you know, just the normal alpha waves and REM sleep that we're we're in. So there is I've found in my meditations, I have a very deep meditation practice that I've had that kind of stuff happen in my meditations, more so than in my dreams. I'm not maybe I think I'm more trained in meditation than I am in dreams to get that kind of information. And I found that in meditations, it's a little bit more straightforward. It's that meditation, there's not as much metaphor, when it's usually, it's usually as

Kelly Sullivan Walden 36:43
Your conscious mind is still present this whole time.

Alex Ferrari 36:47
To a certain extent, yes, it's you should be. But when you go so deep that you don't even go so deep. I don't even know where I am. When I come back out. Like how long? How long have I been out? How long have you been? I've been at this other place. So meditations, you can do that for like, sometimes I've gotta go an hour. And I'm like, Oh, well. And I think it's 10 minutes. But when I look at the clock, like, oh, wow, there's been under an hour and a half, two hours. So those are the best meditations, by the way. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But a lot of the things that we do when we're dreaming on the physiology in the physical body, can be done in the deep meditation state as well, the repair systems, the relaxation, all that stuff as well. Because I don't sleep three hours, I sleep five hours a night, six hours a night, I spoke to a Harvard professor who told me you're one of those people, but your meditation covers, but your meditation covers a lot of the stuff that you might be missing. And there are there's two groups, one that can function on five or six hours of sleep comfortably. And yes, people who need nine or 10 hours of sleep to function,

Kelly Sullivan Walden 37:50
Right, right. Well, God good for you. That's kind of the best of both worlds to get that to have those few hours sleep, but then have those deep meditations to do all that. And it's all consciousness. It's all in the consciousness gym, whether you do it. By meta, I mean, meditation is for people that want to be better dreamers and have that a dream was meditating is meditating is good for so many things. I mean, it's just, it's just not going to hurt you. Just so many benefits, right? Little pain.

Alex Ferrari 38:21
Right! Right. And you're right, my, my dreams have become much more vivid and much more interesting after meditating for as many years as I have, considering where I was before, and two are where I am now. Now, there's one section of dreams that I think we all have at one point or another. And it's something that we don't talk about very often, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. Sexual dreams. Those are always those are always fun. I, I quite enjoy them. But they're, they're their dreams that come in. Sometimes with your partner, sometimes not with your partner, sometimes with a celebrity sometimes that when there's a liberty, it's just all over the place. What in your opinion, do they mean generally speaking, when there's, you know, if you have a good feeling, obviously, if it's a negative feeling, it is a different thing, but but in a good doing sexual dream, that every one of us have it at one point or another in our lives?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 39:18
Absolutely. And it's, it's, it's awesome. And I would say, like, Okay, first of all, it's just awesome. So what's the purpose? And what does it mean? Yeah, I would say one aspect of it. Like, again, I always like the the end goal is awakening, the end goal is for us to be fully like to have heaven on earth. And so sexuality is one path to get there. I mean, there's a whole tantric path to be able to allow sex to take us there. And so sex in a dream can be incredibly liberating, and we feel better. We're just we're just a better version of ourselves when we wake up whether we remember the dream or not, but then as a metaphor, from the perspective that everyone and everything in the dream is an aspect of us, sex is a metaphor for joining for, for deep, deep connection. So, whoever you're having sex with in the dream or having being sexual with, in a dream is often about self love, it's about like, the part of ourselves that. So it could be, you know, if you ask yourself, you know, three adjectives to describe the person that you were having the sexual dream about, describe that them that in in three words, and then consider that that's the part of yourself that you are bonding with that you're joining with. And it's often you can look at it from that perspective. And notice how these dreams are helping us to be better. I mean, I know this one woman. I remember, I mean, teeny little things super, like frail, tiny, and she had a sexual dream about an ex boyfriend, I said, Well describe him and three adjectives said strong, capable. No one's gonna mess with them. And I said, so is there any part of you in your life right now where you could use some of that energy, so that oh, my god, yeah, I'm in the middle of moving, I'm feeling so lost and so scared, and so alone. So having this dream, she's reconnecting with this part of her that has her back that has her strength. So that's one way to be able to look at it, the celebrity. And it's also bringing into an intimate place within you, your inner celebrity, the part of you that shines, but also just asked what those three qualities are. Do you have anyone you want to talk about?

Alex Ferrari 41:45
No, no, no, I haven't had one quite some time.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 41:50
I like to tell people that it's the ultimate Hall Pass these dreams, because you don't nobody gets in trouble. Because it's all an aspect of you. So if you tell us sweetheart,

Alex Ferrari 42:03
This is when when like a wife has a dream about you sleeping with someone else. And then they get wake up in the morning and they're angry with you. And they're like, Oh, God, what if I didn't do anything

Kelly Sullivan Walden 42:17
I've shared I did my first video on Tik Tok, where there's this woman and man, and she's so mad at him. And she's like, You better apologize. He's like, I'm so sorry that in your dream. I am flirting with your friend. And she's like, Uh huh.

Alex Ferrari 42:37
It's the definition of insanity. That's the definition of insanity. That's the definition.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 42:41
Exactly. But it does happen. And we do they feel so real that we do act out on our partner, but we have to look at ourselves. I mean, every once in a while, these dreams are telling us about something going on. I mean, it happened to me once in a relationship. Years and years ago, I kept having dreams about the guy I was with being with another woman. And it kept coming up and it was starting to become more detailed and more specific. And finally, he broke down and admitted that it was true that it was that it happened exactly as I'd seen it. So that that's kind of the exception to the rule, I would say but it's worth for every dream. It's worth doing the reality check. And just saying Could this happen? Might that have happened? Is there any reality to this dream? And then if there seems to be nothing that checks out on the physical plane, then consider that it's all a metaphor.

Alex Ferrari 43:39
Well, that brings me to my next question then premonitions. That's a premonition. How can you decode premonitions inside of dreams?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 43:49
Oh, well, it's tricky because you never know if it's a premonition until things play out to confirm it. But if we pay attention to dreams over time, we start to notice patterns. In ourselves. Some of us even based on the cycle of the moon, some of us have, during a full moon will tend to have more pre cognitive dreams. Are there certain characters that show up recurringly in a pre cognitive drain? I was talking about my friend Kathleen O'Keefe, cannabis, she has this very odd Franciscan monk that shows up in her dream. whenever she's got a health challenge that needs to be addressed. And she's a three time breast cancer survivor. Even in she in the monk and her dream saved her life, because he kept showing up and kind of giving her the message that she needed to have her breast examined. She was like I already got an exam and I already did a biopsy all these things. It was like nope, go back and turned out she had stage four cancer that none of the machines were picking up. So whenever that monk shows up, she knows Okay, great. I gotta go to the doctor. Gotta get to knocked out. So some people have a recurring dream where they're back at school or they're in a movie theater. And you know that that's the scenario that tends to be where your pre cognitive dreams show up. So it's important for all of us to just pay attention to some of the themes that show up regularly or what's happening when we do have those pre cognitive dreams and see if so that we can start to chart that we might be able to know they're pre cognitive before, we have to wait for things to play out.

Alex Ferrari 45:31
Yeah, I've never had the same dream twice, or even the same theme of dreams twice, I don't at least I don't remember it. So it's not a thing like we theater or in the plant keeps crashing or things like that. There's none of that, at least that I can remember. And I've been studying them pretty intensely for the last seven, eight years. So it doesn't seem like it for me, but from what you're saying is if you do have, like you said with that, that ex ex boyfriend keeps getting again, it keeps coming up again and again, and then starts getting more and more detailed. Like to focusing it in on you putting more light on this, the production value starts to go up in the drag, it's something that you really need to start paying attention to if if even if you do it twice. It's something it's a rarity is that is

Kelly Sullivan Walden 46:18
I well. So there's a couple of different ways of looking at recurring dreams, and even just recurring themes in our lives as well. So one way of looking at it is that we're in a loop. And until we get the message, we don't get to graduate from that loop like Groundhog's Day, like Bill Murray, it's like once we get the message, then we're able to switch gear. So if we're tired of the same old dream scene, or dream escape, or same people and same thing happening, then ask yourself, what do I need to do? What What am I not getting? What do I need to learn from this? What do I need? How do I need to change? The other way of looking at it, though, is that most of us have certain recurring characters and certain recurring, like a playlist of places people things that tend to show up, like we tend to all have a place where we like a home that we used to live in, that will show up to let us know that we're dealing with issues from childhood, or we often will happen. So do you have any of those?

Alex Ferrari 47:22
Oh, yeah. I've had my old house that I used to live in flooding, you know, flooding coming from the ceiling me trying to clean it up and and I was like, what is that going on? This year is this years ago, but I was like, what is that me but but again, from from decoding it, it was something there was stuff that in the past that I will be dealing with. And if I don't deal with it, it's going to overtake me which kind of the flooding waters again didn't have a negative fuel in it when it was happening. I don't rarely have scary dreams, which we'll get to in a second. Where screen they feel threatened haven't had those since I was a kid. You know, my favorite dream I've ever met. I'll never forget, it's my favorite dream when I was a kid was and it was a lucid dream. As a kid, I was probably in sixth grade or something like that. And I was in my little apartment. And someone knocks on the door open the door and there's just giant man in a trench coat. Well, I don't see his face. And then for whatever reason, I said to myself, Hey, this is my dream. And I control my dreams. For whatever reason, so I was conscious of the dream. So brilliant. Know what I'm gonna kick them in the balls. So no, I went to kick him in the balls and he blocked it. And I said, I'm out. And I just woke up. I was like, I'm done. That was that was the one punch I was gonna throw him out. And that was it. I have no idea what that meant James man it was. I mean, it was when I was sixth grade. So that might have been stuff I was going through at that time in my life, but it was just a funny

In some way if it were my dream discovering where my power is like if like what's my strategy? Because often we'll have a challenging dream during transition times in our lives or times when we're feeling powerless. We'll experiment with do I do I fight back or do I get good at running? How do I survive? Are our nightmares aren't just they're not just trying to like torture us they're trying to help us figure out the best survival strategy by getting it maybe wrong a few times in the dream until we figure out what we're going to do if this situation plays out

So yeah, so nightmares because nightmares is a is a big deal with a lot of people because some people are tortured literally night after night with nightmares they're like to the point with some people are afraid to go to sleep. Because of these nightmares are so vivid and so terrifying to them. You know, and it could be from my understanding, it could be traumas it could be pains or an unconscious stuff that they just never dealt with from childhood or anything. What is your explanation of nightmare specifically in How do we deal with them? How do we kind of process them? These are these are dreams that not only are scary because I had scary dreams, but I don't fear fear. And then they're scary dreams like that, like the crash of the plane crash it that's a scary dream, a giant plane is coming towards you. But I felt no, but I felt no fear. But then there are scary dreams that you're terrified. And it so what would you suggest?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 50:28
Oh, there's so many different things. But then I'd say the nutshell is one way to look at nightmares is that they are venting dreams. And processing dreams. There was a study done a few years ago, that showed that it's part of our survival strategy as as a as a part of a species that has survived millennia. One. I mean, there's so many other species have died out and yet ours has survived for a long, long time. And a reason for that is our ability to dream and process and, and work through difficult scary life challenging situations before they actually happen. So one way to look at nightmares is that it is like a rehearsal for the worst case scenario so that should that ever happen. We're prepared with like, we've already had the drill, so that if the worst thing happens, we're like, okay, don't go there, grab that, do that talk to that person, you know, so that we're we're better survivors. Another perspective is that they're venting dreams, they're helping us to get out of our system, energy that's gotten locked in. There's a lot of research these days on somatic therapy, and what happens in the body. When we experience trauma, one of the stories in my book in a crisis is a terrible thing to waste I talk about, it's in the chapter called The right to bite, I get attacked by two bullmastiffs. They're like on both sides of me, and one of them's like, and I had worked with a trauma therapist years before, who taught me how in real life, how to get the trauma out of the body and by shaking. Anyway, that's a whole other story. But when trauma happens, typically we tighten up we clench and, and all of that emotion crystallizes and goes inside our body. Our dreams are helping us to unpack that help to get it out so that it doesn't toxify inside so that it doesn't coagulate and become bigger and take us out. So our nightmares are really trying to kind of open our inner Pandora's box and let some of those negative thoughts negative beliefs, limited ideas out so that they can go away. The only problem is that sometimes we loop them back in, we recycle them as opposed to just letting them have their have their do. So my strategy for working with nightmare so that they can do what they're intended to do, which is bringing up what's here because you can't heal what you can't feel. And then work it through, figure out a new strategy and then let it go. So that you come back, if we get to go the full cycle, then we actually feel incredibly empowered, and, and victorious as a result of going through that. So what I like to do with people, if anybody's listening in there, and they have a recurring nightmare, what you can do, and this is, this is going to seem like a very simple thing. But there is tons of research that backs up the validity of this. And I was doing it for years before I found out they were doing it at Harvard. And this is just, it's a really powerful tool. And it's called imagery rehearsal therapy, I R T. And it's where you in your waking state, you call to mind a nightmare. And ideally, as you're doing that you also call in some angels or some reserve some kind of superpower so that you're not just re traumatizing yourself. But you imagine yourself going through that nightmare. But doing something differently. So for example, the making that big airplane get to the size of like a little model plane, and you're the giant and you're like What do you want to tell me a little airplane, or big scary monster, Darth Vader, you could shrink it to the size of a pea or you put them in jail, and then you're able to talk to him outside the prison bars, so he can't hurt you. But you're able to interview Darth Vader and say, Why are you trying to kill me? Or what kind of gift are you trying to give me? So you resolve the dream using your imagination. And often in the process of doing that? You result you help the dream do what it was trying to do in the first place and then you won't have to have that recurring dream anymore, and it will have flush that out of your system so that you can be the 2.0 version of yourself on the other side of that.

Alex Ferrari 54:58
That's it thanks has to quit looking at nightmares. This is a problem for a lot of people. So hopefully that helps some people listen.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 55:05
Absolutely, absolutely. It's something that I love to do I teach it in my dream work practitioner training, people come to my training because they want to learn how to do it for other people, but they end up going Wow, just to be able to learn how to do this for myself. It's mean, it's a simple thing. It doesn't take that much to to do it.

Alex Ferrari 55:24
That's fantastic. Now, out of all the dreams you've listened, you've heard over the years. What's the craziest one?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 55:33
About this guy. I'm sitting on the edge of the valley. Oh, wait a minute. That was you!

Alex Ferrari 55:43
Is there one that stood out to you like, wow, that's interesting.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 55:47
This is the most bizarre by any means. Oh, man, there's so many.

Alex Ferrari 55:54
They're all flying back into your head right now.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 55:56
You're all like, I'm being overloaded. There. This is not going to be the most crazy dream. But this is just one that came to me from a client a few days ago about this construction zone and all this stuff going on. And under construction in this, this woman walking by in a bridal gown. Help me Help me. And normally he would be so inclined to be the hero to help her. But he's like, no, no. And like he sends her away. It's just like. And meanwhile, he goes in to help these burly guys that are that are like I'm excavating this, this big building or something. He's like, What the heck, why would I say no to the damsel in distress that Greta. Anyway, what we were able to uncover from that is that he's needing to not be in a relationship right now. And of course, because he's needing his own time to deal with the foundation of his own life, to tend to that that doesn't look sexy, but it's like to deal with his own foundation. He's having to really set boundaries with relationships that are tempting and seductive, but it's not helping him with the foundation of his spiritual life. And so he's having to so there's there was that was that's awesome. Really cool.

Alex Ferrari 57:29
That's, that's a beautiful one. That's a really beautiful one. That was waiting for the hotdogs finger story.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 57:35
Yeah, exactly. Oh, God. As soon as we as soon as we're done with this, I'm going to be like, Oh, Alex, let's do a part 2. I've got so many.

Alex Ferrari 57:48
So is there any tips that you can give the audience on how to decode their own dreams?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 57:56
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So in fact, if people sign up on my website, I have, it will be available. I don't know if this goes out right away. But the next day, oh, well, fabulous. By the time this comes out. I have this jet set formula. And a lot of people and it's not in one of my bookshelf. I have other other formulas that are in my, in my book and my book, it's all in your dreams, I have a what I use is the saddle formula. But the jet set formula is that kind of the newer one and it's what people are really digging. And it's about jets. So go figure it's because everything in dreams is about helping us to figure out how to take flight. So using that as a as an acronym, je t s e t, the j stands for just the facts, man. That means just write down your dream as you remember it don't embellish it. Don't second guess it. Don't judge it just write down like take dictation. Just the facts, man. The E is for the emotion. Pay attention to the different feeling. energies like like with yours. It's surprising. I would think you'd be terrified but you're like, No, it was fine. It was cool. So pay attention to the emotion or feeling in the dreams. That's the E the T is for give your dreams a title. First thing that comes to you for example, what would you say is the title of that? That jumbo jet coming after?

Alex Ferrari 59:22
I would probably call it the jumbo jet. You know, Valley Valley jumbo jet.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 59:29
The Valley of the jumbo jet? Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. So and sometimes there's a subtitle so see if there's there's that. And then the the second S is for the standout symbols. So for you it was the the big jet and it was the valley and all those lights kind of looking small compared to that GEMBA to those primary symbols and what those mean to you. So, kind of dissecting, dissecting What is like, what is a jumbo jet out something that is supposed to carry me up? It's supposed to, you know, what is the valley? What is the valley to you like in a word or two.

Alex Ferrari 1:00:10
At that time, I think I was still living in Los Angeles. So it was something that was it was home, it was it was a, it was a home place, but it was, but it was to be if you want to go deep in it that yes, smaller version of La means that the less significant it is in my life. And that this jumbo jet was more significant in my life, which is extremely true, because I left LA. So that was that was a if you want to get philosophical about it, that makes sense that it was so small, that small, and this jumbo jet was I you know, 500 times its regular size. And that was the thing that was going to be the next stage in my, you can only decode this. Now looking back, there's no way I could have decoded this as this detailed at the time, but because of what the jet represented and what was going on. And it was coming towards me and all this kind of stuff. That's how I look at it, at least,

Kelly Sullivan Walden 1:01:09
Oh my God. And I in the fact that I mean, I realized that there was this size differential, but I didn't realize it was that extreme. So that is such an important element. It's like the spiritual jet is so much bigger, more important than the Hollywood career and significant than like, as big as Hollywood can seem. It's kind of like a little tinker toy. Like, Oh, that's cute.

Alex Ferrari 1:01:31
And that's, and that's kind of exactly what's happened with me in the show that this show is the jumbo jet, where my other shows that were in the filmmaking space are basically the LA miniature size.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 1:01:44
That is amazing. And it also just feels like the the ratio of material to spiritual and the spirituality becoming much more significant. So, so this is that's important. And then the next E, you'll like this word is for enlightened. How do you think this dream is trying to enlighten you if every dream is trying to help us to become more healed? More whole more awake? How is? So in other words, what was that? So you already got the message of that how the story was trying to enlighten you. And then the T, the final T is for take it to the streets. This is where the jumbo jet comes in for a landing. And this is where you actually do something in your physical reality. Like in your case, you you took the steps to actually start this show. So they I believe every remembered dream requires some form of action in our waking world. So that's how we kind of close the loop.

Alex Ferrari 1:02:47
Yeah, that's, that is fascinating. I've had such a ball talking to you, Kelly, it has been. We I mean, you could talk I mean, dreams are endless. And this conversation could be endless, because we could just keep talking and talking and talking about different dreams and all that kind of stuff. But I'm going to ask you a few questions. Ask all my guests. What is your definition of living a good life?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 1:03:09
My definition of living a good life? I have so many ways I could answer that. But in this moment, I'll just say that this this new book that I've written the crisis is a terrible thing to waste is this. It's kind of the I've done what I thought was that I something I would never do, which is take my heartbreaks and my my pain stories that I've swept under the rug, put in the closet, and taken them out, polish them off and really look at them, like kind of take them out of being lodged in my body and, and look at them and and look at what I've learned from these things and how they've taught me something. So living a good life isn't just about looking at the bright side it is Carl Jung says something like enlightenment isn't just about contemplating figures of light. It's also about making the darkness, light, shining light in the darkness. So I've done a lot of that alchemy work in this new book, and I feel as a result of that, I feel more free talking to you. I don't have any part of me. That's afraid you're going to ask me some gotcha question that I'm not gonna I'm gonna be like, What do you mean, because it's happened. It happened to me a few years. That's part of what prompted me to write this book. If somebody is going to like poke and prod at my past. I don't want to walk around feeling like I'm afraid of anything I want to be I want to own theirs. The first story I put in this book is called Anwar fati. And it's a it's a saying from the Stoics and it means love your fate. In other words, love your life. exactly as it is, and exactly as it isn't. And all the things that worked all the things that didn't work, all the heartbreaks, all the great, wonderful things. That's what to love. So, in order to have a good life, in order to uplevel our lives and live on the next level, I think we need to just own all of it the light and the dark, and know that it's all a gift.

Alex Ferrari 1:05:27
Beautiful answer. What is your definition of God?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 1:05:32
My definition of God? The feeling I have when I say the word and when I think of it is this, you know, of course, there's the good orderly direction, but I feel incense that is so much more than that. It feels like it's this source that when I am consciously plugged into it, I imagine there being like, this cosmic umbilical umbilical cord that I can plug into, and I'm connected to the motherboard, I'm connected to all of life and all of the good and all of the love. And I am intrinsically safe and held and loved. I don't have to be defensive or protective, or try to grab anything from anybody. When I'm connected to this source. I am right where I'm supposed to be. And I am guided, and I and I am my best self, when I am connected to that, and it is always available, always at hand like this constant waterfall that never ever, ever, ever stops. I am the one that sometimes steps out of it and says, I got this one. I don't need your help. I'm good. And then I run back. No, no, I'm not good. Come back, please. So God is grace. God is the love intelligence that governs the universe. And when I'm in the midst of that flow, no matter what's going on around me, I'm good. I'm at peace.

Alex Ferrari 1:07:12
And what is the ultimate purpose of life?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 1:07:18
Ultimate purpose of life. As I said earlier, I believe the ultimate purpose of our dreams, but also life is to is to wake up. I had a death experience one of the it's one of the chapters in my book that talks about when I died, and came back. But when on the other side, I got to talk about having an awakened moment being present to the vast love the vast indescribable beauty. I think we all have glimpses of that, whether in dreams or meditation, or in love, or whatever. And I think we're meant to embody that. And ground that and have that be here on earth

Alex Ferrari 1:08:10
Fantastic answer. And where can people find out more about you and pick up your new book A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 1:08:18
Thank you, Alex. Everything is on my website, kellysullivanwalden.com. And if that's too hard to spell you can go to I had the strangest dream.com It's the name of my first book, I had the strangest dream that still will take you to kellysullivanwalden.com. And there's all kinds of goodies over there. And you can get the book wherever books are sold Amazon, Barnes and Noble, local book shops. And people can come with me to Costa Rica if they want. I'm doing a big beautiful luxury retreat that will be all about a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. We'll be doing dream work yoga, breath work. There will be lots of mud and exfoliation, internal and external waterfalls and volcanoes.

Alex Ferrari 1:09:07
All the sorts of good stuff. I got it. Yeah, exactly. And do you have any final words for our audience?

Kelly Sullivan Walden 1:09:14
Besides that, I've had so much fun with you, Alex and I just so i so get why the jumbo jet of your show is taken off. Thank you. That's such a great vibe. And I love how grounded you are and also how tapped into the vastness of what we're doing here. You're on that. Oh, so my words. Well, I'll borrow it from the title of my book of crisis is a terrible thing to waste. What if What if everything in life, whether it be those things that are so exciting and the things that are challenging? What if it's all conspiring on behalf of our, our great awakening or? I mean, what if Everything there's not one single thing not on our side. Not one single person. Not one single circumstance. What if it is all a big conspiracy to get us to wake up to how loved how loved we are.

Alex Ferrari 1:10:18
Kelly, thank you so much for being on the show and for the work that you're doing to help awaken and put to sleep many people around the world.

Kelly Sullivan Walden 1:10:26
You are next level! No wonder my computer had to like go through the whole thing in order for me to match your vibe. Thank you so much, Alex, you're amazing. Thank you. So I'm so glad you hop on that plane. Taking all of us with you.

Alex Ferrari 1:10:42
Thank you!

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