My dream from last night, “Where is your closet?”

Recently, I’ve been struggling with trying convey to my patients the importance of “presence,” which is the “art” of staying in the present moment and not allowing insecurity to project worries into the future or past struggles to plague us. Well, last night I had a dream that seemed to offer a solution. In the dream I was sitting with a patient who was ruminating about a closet that was in disarray and how she just couldn’t get it organized. After letting her go on and on for a while, I interrupted her ruminations and asked her the question, “Where is the closet now?” She told me it was in her bedroom. I asked again, “Where is the closet now?” She was getting a bit agitated with my questions until I offered, “There is no closet in this room, just you and I. The closet with all the discomfort you’re inflicting, exists in “this room” only because you are visiting that closet in your mind!

We carry our insecurities like baggage, often ruining our best chance for having solace in the moment. Where is your closet?