Me and my “membrane”

by Hitomi Sakamoto

Are you sensitive to smell or sound, or both? Chemical sensitivity? Are you easily affected by other people’s opinion? Do you feel physically tired from being on your smart phone or social network for a long period of time?

I often explain to my clients and workshop participants about the usefulness of having the image of ‘you surrounded by your own membrane.’ Your skin and immune system are all part of it, and if you can, imagine also an energetic membrane.

Ideal membrane is the one that is resilient and flexible, and would only invite in what are beneficial to you and leave out what’s harmful. Outside of the boundary are all sorts of information; pollens, food stuff, sounds, chemicals, other people’s emotion and opinions, digital information, etc. When your membrane is intact, YOU remain intact. You can be ‘yourself.’ You can choose the information that is beneficial to you, and the rest don’t affect you too much. Thus, you can thrive and grow.

What if your energetic membrane isn’t intact? What I mentioned at the beginning are all signs of your membrane being fragile, or has a tear, so to speak. When it happens, it’s as if part of you is exposed to the outside world and you can feel unprotected and lost. This can happen for all kinds of reasons;

Maybe you were born with sensitive physical and energetic boundary

you may be going through a major life change

something shocking may have happened that caused the membrane to have some tear.

Modern day living is full of mechanisms that force you to leave the membrane wide open and merge your energy with others. Many people are on social network such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all the time without realising it is just like leaving the windows and the door of your house wide open 24/7. It can be a lot of fun, but also draining. It’s just like trying to heat up the house with the windows open; the energy is leaking constantly.

Having a weaker boundary around you is not always a bad thing. It allows you to have intimate connection with other people as well as cosmos. You may also catch psychic information. The important thing is, if you spend time being exposed to the outside world, make sure to come back to your own space and rest. If your membrane is fragile or has a tear, have extra care to mend it.

For example, for social network and other internet use, here are a few things you can do;
Turning off your smart phone, etc., occasionally when you know you don’t need it, or putting it on airplane mode is one way to help you come back inside of your own space (I know an occasional internet detox is ideal is but I also understand it’s difficult to do for many people.)

Turn off wi-fi at home and other internet functions that connects you to the outside especially when you are sleeping. If you don’t have a landline and you feel you need to have your mobile on for emergency calls, place it as far away as possible from your body.

Having an image of being cocooned in your own energetic field alone can be very powerful.

There are many exercises and meditation, as well as tips for everyday life that help create a resilient and flexible membrane around you. I will be talking more on this subject in future posts.

I will be giving a free mini-workshop on this subject this Saturday at Mind Body Spirit event at Loughton. I will introduce a fun exercise, using a pen and paper, to strengthen your energetic membrane and create a healthy body-mind baseline. If you are in the area, please stop by!

Dream-sharing communities

by Hitomi Sakamoto

In ancient times in Japan, nighttime dreams were revered and regarded as messages from the spirit world. People believed in them and often acted on them. Like ancient Greece, there were temples for ‘dream incubation’ where people slept and waited to receive important dreams.

According to Norimi Sakai, a researcher of history of dreams in Japan, whenever people had interesting dreams, they often reported them amongst each other, as they thought those dreams may have also concerned people around them. This kind of ‘dream-sharing communities’ were poping up everywhere and all the time in those days.

It’s fun to imagine how people from all walks of life, whether they are young or old, politicians or common people, animatedly
sharing dreams with each other. However, when I see how they often blindly followed messages of dreams and even tried to skew
reality at times so that it would fit the dreams, it makes me wonder about their weaker sense of individuality and autonomy in relationship with ‘the gods’ and ‘the spirit world’.

In modern times, our sense of individuality and autonomy may have become stronger. However, we have lost interest in nighttime dreams instead, and no longer think of sharing them with each other.

However, from my experience from hosting Dream Cafe, a modern version of dream-sharing community, for the past 8 years, I can see the trend of dream sharing is back. More and more people, not only those on the fringe but ‘ordinary’ people are open to sharing and exploring dreams and how they relate to their lives.  

I feel we are in a transition period regarding dreams, where neither holding on to only our mind and thoughts nor blindly following
dream messages (or divination, psychic readings, etc for that matter) would work well. Flexibility as well as discernment would help when exploring the relationship with our dreams, just like any relationships; Would it feel right to be open to them? What can I learn from them about myself and my life? Is it time to set aside dreams and focus on everyday reality now? etc.

I hope Dream Cafe gatherings have been helpful for participants for cultivating their relationship with dreams so far. My hope for the New Year is to try out different methods with the group and explore further possibilities of modern day dream-sharing communities and what they may have in store.

I wish you all much joy and fascinating dreams for the year ahead. Remember to write down the dreams you have around the new year.

Thank you for reading!