• Miranda that's a sensational idea. I've put my full name up this time and can be found on Facebook. I'm also happy to put my email address. Just like Concerned, I used to think that life would be so much easier if my son had a physical disability as well. Not in any way to discredit how hard it is to look after anyone, let alone a child in that situation, but because it just seemed it would be easier. I begged for valium at one point for my son, just a small dose to calm him down and regain some control but it seemed that it was easier for doctors to say no to that rather than give some form of relief to the child and the rest of the family. He was on anti-psychotics for a while but they didn't help because he is not psychotic. Rhoda you're idea about parenting resources is a good one, but only for ADD and ADHD. Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder (which is what they call ODD when they turn eighteen), are totally different animals. These children have a neurological problem within the brain where the signals just don't get through or are totally blocked to different parts of the brain. These children are born this way, they don't grow into it though in some circumstances of parenting or familial problems can make it worse. Because of the anger, violence and abuse issues there is no form of respite either because the risk of someone else being hurt is too high and no agency will risk it. If anyone does want to make contact, here's my email: t_forbes64@hotmail.com I'll check out Facebook....perhaps a support and resource page might be of help too. Just knowing there are others going through the same thing and you won't be ridiculed for what you say and you will be believed can be a help. - Tracey Forbes
  • What relentlessly distressing stories some of the respondents have to tell. Their problems don't sound like they're caused by lack of diagnosis or increased rates of prescription - rather show need for more community support, better training of social workers, police, journos etc. Just wonder how much contact Concerned and others have with parents in similar situations - and if there's some of way of putting you all in touch with each other - if you're interested? - miranda
  • It seems we should love your rules, but not our neighbours, if they are are those of people who disagree with our "tolerant" view of peoples sexual preferences. Morality and other such obselete values ought not to come into it. Besides "loving your neighbour" is for those intolerant Christian suckers. - Na Yeo
  • It's OK Sue Bell , John Jay has obviously been " away " again . He craves attention , so if we just ignore him he will no doubt wander back to his " right wing hate sights " like Bolt & Ackerman et al. Meanwhile John Jay , suggest nice cuppa and a lay down . - Carole/m
  • Sly Place has just about said it all on Rudd's narcissism. I'd only add that he can't pretend to be naive about the effect his outbursts have had on Labor. And if it was a former staffer who changed Rudd's mind on gay marriage, pity he didn't listen when the bloke was actually employed in his office. - miranda
  • Does Australia have parent training resources? I've read that parent training is helpful in managing the behaviour. - Rhoda
  • Woah Sally, this article is intended as a catalyst for discussion, not a comprehensive analysis. I think that in a short space Lucy has raised several elements of an extremely complex debate. I've worked as a high school teacher and I've noticed many cases where a teenager " becomes" their diagnosis and uses it as a shield that prohibits self reflection and responsibility for ones own behaviour. A la " I've been diagnosed with ADHD I can skip work/ play up/ leave the room whenever like. Rently I confronted an aquaintance who thought it totally fine to repeat personal information she'd been told in confidence. Her reasoning " I've got ADHD you know" Likewise the wife of a friend who errupts in ferociously violent and abusive rages... people's reaction to her behaviour sometimes goes along the lines of " maybe she's bypolar" How about the " depressed" man who kills a random stranger? Or the " depressed" footballer or politician acting like rascals? Sure, genuine mental illness is out there and it should be taken very seriously, medicated where this can improve immediate functioning. But there's a growing trend to label what s simply obnoxious intolerable bahaviour as a " mental illness" . - melissa
  • I used to be the type who would sit on top of the heater; freeze to death in winter; and lived in (then) skivvies and jumpers. Then the big M set in!! Now I wander around the house barefoot. I own1 jumper and 1 thick cardigan. The only difference in what I wear to work is I have a raincoat and scarf for winter .... otherwise exactly the same clothes all year around. That's your "internal heater" working for you ... - Schoom
  • My son was 17 when his girlfriend first slept over. We made up an extra bed for her so she had a choice where to sleep. I didn't assume that they would or wouldn't sleep together. It also gave her an option, during the night, if she felt uncomfortable, to sleep somewhere else, plus he snores occasionally. She never used the extra bed and eventually we stopped making it. I'm always amused that people think their kids would only have sex ,in a bed, at night. These parents seem to be ok with their son/daughter being alone with a friend after school because it's daytime - hysterical! - Helen
  • I love your rules,especially the one....treat others like you wish to be treated. That was big in our home as I was growing up and it is just as big in my home now. Along with everyday random acts of kindness....if we always live by these two rules then we can be sure to find a real inner happiness.x. - Debyl1
 
Categories:  Must see, Wellbeing

OUR MIDWEEK MEDITATION. DREAMING

 Since the soul’s arrival in the world,

it is by means of dreams that it joyfully greets and gazes

upon that which is most beautiful and most divine. 

Plutarch, Amatorius

 

I’ve always been a dreamer – in every sense of the word.

My vivid colourful night dreams only matched by my overly imaginative, wonderfully time-wasting daydreams.

It’s always surprised me when people have told me that they don’t dream, because, in fact, night-time dreaming is an entirely involuntary activity that occurs during certain stages of sleep, and whether you remember your dreams or not, or like it or not, you dream!

I can still recall vivid flying dreams as a child, and I loved those dreams – the sensation of flying over well-known landscapes was so vividly real, even if the dream element did add in the odd surprise, like landing in the vicar’s wife’s hat at a (dream) fete in the field below our cottage.

But the dreams that have stayed with me all my life are those with horses.

They’ve appeared to me in every possible way, my four-legged friends, and I still dream of them, those I know, those I’ve known, and those I’ve never met, almost every night.

If you are a dream believer, then there’s a new book out by author and shamanic dream teacher Robert Moss, Dreaming the Soul Back Home, which is designed as a guide for working with dreams with the intention of bringing more soul into your life.

Moss, an Australian who has lived in New York for many years, is a Shamanic dream teacher, whose own life underwent a complete metamorphosis, due to dreaming.

After surviving three childhood near-death experiences, Moss, who was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, Canberra Grammar School and the ANU, became a journalist with The Economist, reporting from countries around the world for over a decade. He was a regular commentator on international affairs for the BBC and a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London for many years.

These days his life is very different.

He is the creator of Active Dreaming, a synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism that he teaches all over the world – and it all came about because of a dream after he’d left his fast-paced city life for a farm in the upper Hudson Valley.

“I started dreaming in a language I didn’t know,” he recalls. “I had no idea what it was, but after I’d talked to different people I realised it was an archaic form of the Mohawk language.”

Moss came to believe that the dream had put him in touch with an ancient healer – and that he was being called to a different life, his life of the soul.

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3 Responses to this article

  1. Wendy Harmer August 29, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Dreaming about flying! Isn’t that the BEST dream of all? Funnily enough I have an app on my iphone that’s called DreamBook and every morning it pings and asks ” what did you dream?”
    You put in a few key words
    Then it analyses your dream – Jung, Freud, even Nostradamus et. al.
    I LOVE IT!!
    I put in “Horse” and the common interpretation is: energy, strength,power and spiritual awareness… with all sorts of notions, depending on the colour of the horse!

     
  2. Eternal Optimist August 29, 2012 Reply
     
     

    “Give me two hours a day of activity, and I’ll take the other twenty-two in dreams.”
    — Salvador Dali

     

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  • Tracey Forbes: Miranda that's a sensational idea. I've put my full name up this time and can be found on Facebook. I'm also happy to pu...

  • miranda: What relentlessly distressing stories some of the respondents have to tell. Their problems don't sound like they're caus...

  • Na Yeo: It seems we should love your rules, but not our neighbours, if they are are those of people who disagree with our "toler...

  • Carole/m: It's OK Sue Bell , John Jay has obviously been " away " again . He craves attention , so if we just ignore him he will n...

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