Cesar has been working on changing his dreams at night. He got some nightmares and since then we’ve been discussing different ways he can work with his fears as well as how he can change his dreams – that the dreams come from him, are him and are his creation. He does not have to be a victim to his dreams.
He recently got into playing Minecraft and with that also came a Minecraft dream.
In Minecraft, you have different game modes. You can play in ‘Survival Mode’ where you have a certain amount of health, you need to eat and there are all kinds of creatures that spawn at night that you may have to fend off. It takes time to gather the resources and create the tools you need to manifest your ideas. You can also play in ‘Creative Mode’, where you’re essentially God and all resources that the game has are available to you. You don’t have health and you don’t take damage. You can also fly. Creative Mode is all about creating your Map and World the way you want it. While you have a lot more options – you are still limited as well. You can only create and implement things that are still within the framework of the game. The game doesn’t have flying unicorns for instance – so that’s off the table (unless someone made a mod or addon for that!)
You can also switch between the two modes. Sometimes playing in Survival Mode, Cesar will switch to Creative Mode to make some changes and then switch back to Survival Mode. You can do this in the game by placing in a command that switches to the other game mode.
Back to Cesar and his dream – he had a Minecraft dream where the zombies were getting out of hand. He then in the dream switched to Creative Mode so that he could change what was happening. We talked a bit and I explained to him that every dream has this option, not just Minecraft dreams. The Minecraft dream happened to be nice example that you can change your dreams if you assume that it is possible. He then started practising this in other dreams to ‘switch to creative mode’.
Watching Cesar play, playing with him and seeing how he used the ‘modes switch’ in his dreams, inspired me to draw on the concept of ‘switching game modes’ for myself. When I am tensed, stressed out and essentially in my own form of survival – I remind myself that I am in ‘Survival Mode’ and that I need to switch to ‘Creative Mode’.
When I am in Survival Mode the narrative of my programming and conditioning takes over. I can only see as far as the emotions, feelings, beliefs and habits I’ve accumulated over the years to have a direction forward. I’m limited to my ‘survival tools’ to make choices and decisions.
While in real life, I can’t just type in a command that switches me to ‘Creative Mode’ – I’ve used the four-count breath or ‘box breathing’ as my ‘command switch’ to shift out of Survival Mode and into Creative Mode. It allows me to step out of my tunnel vision to get access to the full horizon of possibilities. I can then reassess my situation and my options from a space that is in tune with Reality rather than the repetitive drama of the past.
Just like in Minecraft, switching to Creative Mode doesn’t mean I can instantly ‘create’ and ‘do what I want’ with the blink of an eye. I am limited to the framework of this world – which is this Physical Reality. Switching to Creative Mode doesn’t make my problems disappear, but does allow me fuller access to Solutions and Ways I may not have considered before.
I may not be up against real-life zombies – but my self-diminishing thoughts, emotional patterns and beliefs sure do a pretty good approximation of ‘sucking the life out of me’, leaving me feel cornered and distressed. Switching to Creative Mode, employing my breathing – I can slow down enough to see that I am the one animating and feeding these zombies. And equally, that I have the creative power and capacity to stop animating or entertaining them. I can stop my focus and participation and rather place my focus and attention within and towards expressions and actions that are supportive and constructive for myself and my environment.
Thanks Cesar! And Thanks Minecraft!
![Cesar gave Syntia his train tracks about a year ago, and before they were hers, she would play with them together with Cesar. She's had a ton of time to learn the different pieces, how to put them together and build a track, but for some reason, she DID NOT want to build a track by herself and most of all preferred to just watch as someone else built the track for her.
Lj and I knew she was perfectly capable of building a track for herself and we tried to support her to start small and show herself that she can do it. Or that we'd be here if she gets stuck, but she can at least try on her own. Any such attempts, however, were met with an absolute and firm refusal. So, we did it with her, or for her.
We started wondering, is this little girl really just taking advantage of us at this point? Are we entertaining this too much? Should we push harder? We knew she could do it, she knew she could do it, but for some reason she just didn't want to do it, at least, not yet.
And then one day, out of the blue, she takes out her blocks and starts building a track... by herself. Lj quietly waived me over, pointing at her, then signing 'shhht', lol - didn't want to disturb the moment. The track you see in the pic is the first one she built by herself. It wasn't a "beginner's" track like a simple circle or a straight line, it was a more intricate design laid out exactly and precisely how she wanted it to be, including all the elements she wanted to have as a part of it. Kabam, out of the blue.
There are other things where Syntia 'took her sweet time', like learning how to walk and potty training, where it was clear at some point that she was able to do it, but for some reason, pulled back or didn't want to do it all by herself just yet. It's so easy as parents to freak out over that, to think that children should develop skills in a particular way, like 'starting small' or doing something by yourself as soon as you're able to. But not all kids are the same in this. [Continued in comments..]](https://scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/135216034_868657797266702_107582540258970761_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=c4dd86&_nc_ohc=Z1V8WJUUqosAX-4LmjA&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfCJjAXVxtNiIi6gvUUl0MZd6cdkXtaHW6r2JeZgYPVE-A&oe=64DB2E92)
