My Dream About Cleaning a Disasterous House

In my dream last night, I was at some sort of outdoor-camp summer school setting. After a short while I noticed it was very dirty. Campers were just leaving things on the floor, on counters, in sinks and the bathrooms were a disaster with towels, water, and excrement all over the place. It was disgusting & gross and I wanted to leave but this concept kept coming to mind to “be attracted to the difficult thing” so I also wanted to stay and help clean up. I was wandering around looking at the filth and deciding if I could stomach the mess and tolerate the discomfort long enough to clean it or if I should just leave it alone and get out of there. As I was deciding to stay someone offered me a joint and because I was thinking more about the mess than what he was saying I agreed to buy one for $1.50. When he went to get it for me and I went to my purse to get the change I realized what I had just agreed to but thought, “Well, maybe if I’m high I’ll be able to clean this place and stick it out.” So I bought the joint and started contemplating how to tackle this disgusting mess.

That was my dream. Here is the section of the 19-Day Transformation Program which presents the idea to be attracted to the difficult thing because that’s where the growth is.

Day 15: Being Attracted to the Difficult Thing

Published February 10, 2013 by Richard Hastings at



The other day I was working with someone in a counseling session.   She was telling me a dream that she had sent me that was filled with fearful images including being threatened by someone throwing a snake at her.   When she was finished, she said, “That was a good one.”   I told her that that was something I would say.   Very few people encounter and internal state of immense fear and then have positive energy toward working on it.   Usually when people have fear, they tend to do everything they can to not have to transform it.

Within the confines of doing dream work or change work fear is not seen as a negative even though it is felt that way in the body. In actuality fear only becomes a negative when it is present in your everyday waking life.   When you are involved in the process of changing it, it is a positive thing.   In fact it is hard to imagine, although it is possible, to do significant change work without a large dose of a fear-related emotion.   Fear is good because it gives you the script through which to get the positive energy on the other end.   A dream with a great deal of fear in it is even better because it is like a spiritual guide to where you want to go.

Facing a large fear is like training on hills.   Hill work is a lot more challenging than running on a flat surface because every step up is worth two or three on the flat.

No human being on the planet is completely free of fear so when we have them, the best attitude toward them is being able to look forward to working on them.   You can look forward to transforming a fear in same way that you look forward to taking a holiday.   Every time you make progress on the fear it brings more positive energy into your life.   It doesn’t matter how long it takes to overcome a fear because some fears are pretty complex and built with a lot of life experience. Your soul becomes fitter every time you look into the ego, see the dark places, then change them to light.

Today I am having a uniquely Malaysian experience. Last night we had some guests at our house that left large piles of dishes.   I was so delighted at seeing the dishes because today is the day our maid is supposed to come and clean our house.   However, we found out a little while ago that she is not coming. Now the mountain in the kitchen is mine to tackle.   So the challenge for me is to to be able to think about it in a positive way.   This is where the rubber really hits the road.

Having a positive attitude toward overcoming fear is an absolute necessity to a life of change, but some fears can be so crippling that you need a lot of help in overcoming them especially when you have a history of alcohol-related abuse and other abuse in your past.   You can still have a positive attitude about facing the fears. You just need the right avenues for help.

The work for today is do the thing you least want to do, but have a positive attitude doing it.


The 19-Day Transformation Program can be purchased at Dreams For Peace.

My new book Dreams From the Box ~ A Close Look at Jail Metaphors is coming soon.

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