Judy Wilkins-Smith, an organizational, individual, and family patterns expert, and founder of System Dynamics for Individuals & Organizations, joined guest host Lisa Garr (email) in the first half of the show to discuss how to uncover 'emotional DNA' patterns handed down to us by our ancestors. She revealed how to identify and break these systemic patterns which she described as patterns lurking in the system which have migrated down through generations until they get to you. As an example, she pointed to the 'feast and famine' mentality in individuals who experience financial issues. This systemic pattern often begins in preceding generations, Wilkins-Smith noted.
According to Wilkins-Smith, one's ancestors are, in a way, with them all of the time. "They're going keep recurring in your system... and they're going to get louder and louder because the minute they have your attention you can then see what lives there, and you can begin to look for the gift," she explained. This in turn allows one to set aside what is not serving them and use it as a source of wisdom, she continued, adding this is the start of following the heart's desire — the part of you that has the chapter only you can write. "It's a different pattern trying to emerge through you," Wilkins-Smith said. When one embraces the different pattern it rewires the old emotional DNA and wires in new emotional DNA, she disclosed.
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Nightmares, especially those caused by trauma, not only disrupt your sleep but can also leave you exhausted and distressed. During the latter half of the program, author and psychotherapist Linda Yael Schiller talked about nightmares and how to transform dream trauma into healing. "The difference between a regular dream and a nightmare is all about the emotion," she suggested, noting nightmares range from slight uneasiness to full terror-level trauma. The same dream can elicit different responses, so what is a dream for one can be a nightmare for another, Schiller reported, noting every dream is individual to the dreamer. "The emotional narrative that accompanies the pictures and the story is what gives us... the pay dirt, understanding what it means," she added.
According to Schiller, recurring dreams are an SOS from the subconscious. There's something our deeper higher self wants us to know so it keeps upping the ante to get us to pay attention in order to heal the source of the nightmares," she explained. Schiller recommended keeping a dream journal. "The idea is get it down somewhere because we won't necessarily remember all the parts of it if we don't," she said. Schiller also proposed listeners suffering from nightmares practice good sleep hygiene (turn off devices and quiet the mind), form intention to remember dreams, and practice 'dream incubation,' which allows one to point dreams in specified direction for answers to questions and dilemmas.