Issue 72, August 2004
Latitude with Attitude
©Jane Teresa Anderson, August 2004
True to his name he was a messenger of sorts. Prickled by a remark that he had an attitude problem, Justin Herald printed up a few tee-shirts for himself and his mates to make his point:
“I don’t have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.”
His message struck a chord and his emblazoned attitudes were soon very much in demand to a multi-million dollar tune. His attitude built a clothing empire. Yes, it’s a true story, a huge success on the back (and front) of a simple but deeply complex and thought-provoking slogan.
And, oh yes, it does relate to dreaming.
“I don’t have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.” Think about it. How much is attitude, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder?
There’s attitude and then there’s attitude. Unquestionably the shopkeeper who is arrogant and demeaning to her customers is going to sell a lot less than her competitor down the road who greets everyone with a genuine smile. But who has the problem? The shopkeeper? Perhaps. You? If the attitude upsets you, yes. The solution? See the attitude through different eyes, considering how it might have evolved, why the shopkeeper needs to express it and what action, if any, to take. Latitude with attitude.
Or is the shopkeeper really so arrogant and demeaning? Does she only appear this way to you? Is it more the case that you she reminds you of someone else who is arrogant, or that, buried deep down inside, you have a tendency to be arrogant and demeaning, a tendency that you deny but project onto others who are not as self-effacingly humble as you proudly are?
“I don’t have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.” Would the tee-shirts have sold so well if the slogan had read “I don’t have an attitude problem. I have a perception problem”?
This is where our dreams enter the picture.
Each night your brain and mind process your experiences of the last 24-48 hours, comparing them to similar experiences from your past to produce an update of ‘the world as I see it’. You update this model of the world and your place in it every night, experiencing the results of this processing in symbolic form as bizarre dreams. Everything about dreaming, everything about the nightly model you update, is based on your perceptions of the world (conscious and unconscious) – rather than on how it actually is.
Once you know how to interpret your dreams you are able to understand how your worldview is constructed, why it often stubbornly holds onto earlier models and just how much it takes to shift those views and deliver new angles.
So, where can you begin? With attitude! If you’re new to dream interpretation one of the most powerful things you can do is to list the people who appear regularly in your dreams. Beside each name write three words to describe their approach to life: their attitude.
Then look at the words you have written. You have described these people’s attitudes through your own eyes, your own perceptions, not necessarily as they actually are. Right? These people most likely make regular appearances in your dreams because your dreaming mind keeps referring to them to try to make sense of the experiences it is processing from the last day or two. It keeps bringing them up because how you see them – and their attitudes – is relevant to understanding how your life is working out for you today.
For simple, practical, step-by-step tips on how to apply this method of dream interpretation to your dreams go straight to Chapter 2 (“I’ll see you in my dreams”) of my freely accessible online book “How to interpret your dreams”.
What are you waiting for? Go to it, with Attitude!
Jane Teresa Anderson
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