How to Hear Your Body Talk

“Let me hear your body talk (your body talk)”
- Olivia Newton John, Let’s Get Physical

This is a blog post about dreams, diet and physical health.  But, worry not, I’m not here to offer you any dietary or other health advice.  To borrow a phrase from Lloyd Christmas (Dumb and Dumber), the sound of unsolicited health advice is, to my ears, “the most annoying sound in the world”.  Instead, my purpose here is to illustrate one of the most practical applications of dreamwork – receiving health advice from your own Inner Self.

DISCLAIMER: We all have different tolerances when it comes to food and drink.  The fact that a food or drink causes me problems does not mean that it causes problems for you.
 
My little case study starts in early 2013.  I was dealing with some sinus and respiratory issues, which ranged from uncomfortable to painful.  I was a mess nearly every day – sniffling, sneezing, and dripping all over the place.  I was embarrassed by the nearly constant nasal sound of my voice.  Most concerning, I often awoke in the early morning hours in a fit of wheezing. 
 
Around this time, I had a dream about the HVAC system of a house.  In the dream, a technician showed me how the air ducts of the house were stuffed with a thick, blanket-like material, making it extremely difficult for air to travel through the ducts.  The HVAC ducts represented my own respiratory system, which was under duress.  The depiction in the dream was confirmed, in waking life, by a CT scan.  My ENT doctor told me that I had one of the worst sinus infections he had ever encountered.  His recommendation: sinus surgery.  Hesitant to go under the knife, I found myself searching for an alternative solution. 

​By this time, I had started to take notice of some recurring food/beverage themes in my dream journal.  One of the steadiest drumbeats was alcohol.  The following dream seemed designed to catch my attention:

​February 16, 2013 (Saturday)
Dream 4 (3:20 AM).  I’m driving on I-26, with a cocktail drink in my center console.  There is a lime (or similar cocktail fruit) in the drink.  I’m driving slowly in the far right lane. I’m driving behind a slow moving car.  I realize it is not wise to drink the cocktail while driving, but then I decide that there is no harm in having one more sip.

​As quick background, I should share that I completely abstained from drinking alcohol throughout my teens and all the way into my late 20s.  During my 30s, I was an occasional social drinker.  As I transitioned into my early 40s, I got into the habit of having one or two beers at home at the end of the work day.  This transition was subtle, such that I had not really taken conscious notice of the change. 
 
As dreams often do, this dream presented me with a cartoon-like exaggeration of my circumstances.  In waking life, I had never consumed alcohol while driving.  But, I was consuming more alcohol than at any prior period of my life.  In dreams, cars often represent the physical body since the physical body is the “vehicle” we use to manipulate in waking life.  The dream was showing me that my alcohol consumption was causing my body to “drive in the slow lane”.  In another alcohol themed dream from 2013, I was inside an old tavern.  A lawyer walks through the tavern, announcing that he is representing people in a lawsuit related to health issues caused by the tavern.  Even during the dream itself, the lawyer’s statement caused me to wonder if my own health issues were related to the tavern.
 
At the time of these dreams, I did not understand how alcohol was contributing to my respiratory issues.  It was just clear from the dreams, and some waking experiences as well, that alcohol was at least contributing to my health issues.  I decided to significantly cut back on my alcohol consumption.  For the first time since the chronic congestion issues had emerged, my symptoms began to gradually ease.

​I’ve learned that alcohol is just one of many sinus congestion triggers that I need to monitor and moderate.  In Appendix I below, I’ve included three examples of dreams where my Inner Self has helped me identify another possible area of food/drink overconsumption.  In my case, these additional triggers include (when consumed in excessive amounts) coffee, chocolate, fast food, and carbohydrates.  As of the time of this writing (2019), my sinus congestion issues have by no means completely gone away, but they are no longer chronic in nature.  When I have a bad congestion episode, I’m typically able to associate it with the overconsumption of some food or beverage during the preceding days. 
 
In recent years, I’ve come to understand that the primary cause of my congestion issues is acid reflux.  If you are interested in learning more about how this can be, I’ve included some notes and resources in Appendix II below.

Appendix I:
More Examples of Dream Guidance for Health/Diet

Chips & Salsa
 
May 5, 2014 (Monday)
Dream 2 (6:43 AM).  I’m participating in a free throw shooting contest. . . .The scene morphs and my shooting takes the form of flicking tortilla chips at the basket.  I dip the chips in salsa before taking each shot.  I’m also eating some of them.  I’m lying down as I do this and I miss all of these “shots”. . . .  Ann is there.  She notices that it is now raining outside.
INTERPRETATION:  At the time of the dream, I was in the habit of picking up lunch several times a week at Moe’s Southwest Grill.  My lunches there always included a large serving of tortilla chips and salsa.  Also, around the time of this dream, a family member had just participated in a basketball fundraiser where he had to sink as many free-throws as possible during a limited period of time.  The inner advice I got from this dream was that I should moderate my rapid-fire consumption of chips and salsa.  I understood the “rain” at the end of the dream to represent the generation of large amounts of mucus by my body after I overconsumed chips and salsa.
 
Chocolate/Coffee
 January 26, 2013 (Saturday)
Dream 7 (7:03 AM).  The setting is the backyard of a house. . . . I see a shovel situated on a table.  On the blade of the shovel, I see some items that I associate as treats intended for Shadow (one of our cats at the time of the dream).  I toss Shadow a chocolate covered espresso bean.   Shadow excitedly scrambles after it.  Then I pick up part of a Snickers bar.  I break into smaller parts and toss them out for Shadow.  Shadow is excited and eats them up.
INTERPRETATION:  I re-read this dream several years after writing it down.  It was only then that I came to understand that the dream was about my own diet and not Shadow’s diet.  A chocolate covered espresso been might be the most acid-forming food that exists on the planet.  The timing of this dream (early 2013) corresponded with the emergence of my chronic respiratory issues described earlier in this blog post.  At that time, I was regularly consuming chocolate covered espresso beans as a treat.  I was also consuming significant amounts of chocolate and coffee (often together) in many other forms.  At the same time, Shadow was having a problem where he would throw-up around the house after eating blades of grass during his forays outside.  Shadow’s body could not digest the grass. In like manner, this dream was advising me that my body was having trouble digesting the volume of chocolate and coffee that I was consuming, especially the chocolate covered espresso beans!
 
Convenience Food
 
July 7, 2019 (Sunday)
Dream 3 (7:47 AM).  I’m driving past the Harris Teeter located at the intersection of Ben Sawyer Blvd. and Chuck Dawley Blvd.  I’m surprised to see that the Harris Teeter has been replaced by a Circle K and that the Circle K has also expanded beyond the footprint of the Harris Teeter, to include some of the shops that used to be adjacent to the Harris Teeter.  The color scheme of the building is now red to reflect to corporate color scheme of Circle K.  The changed color scheme is extensive and strikes me as over the top.
INTERPRETATION: This dream clearly relates to my diet.  For both of the days immediately preceding the dream, I had lunch at Five Guys Burgers. Throughout most of the day on Sunday (same day as the dream), I was dealing with significant nasal congestion. The dream was showing me that I had replaced the food that I normally purchase at Harris Teeter supermarket (which is typically balanced) with “convenience” food,  represented by the Circle K.

Appendix II:
Acid Reflux Resources

When I first heard of the theory that acid reflux could cause sinus and respiratory issues, it made little sense to me.  I thought: How can issues with my stomach relate to issues with my sinuses?  But practical experience has shown me that, at least with my body, there is a strong connection.  When I moderate my intake of acid reflux trigger foods and beverages, I experience less acid reflux and less sinus/respiratory congestion.  When I overindulge in consuming my acid reflux triggers, the contents of my stomach encroach into my esophagus and then filter into my lungs.  My lungs then create mucus to clean out the debris, which leads to my experience of congestion.
 
It is always helpful to supplement information gleaned from my dreams with waking life scientific resources.  Below are two sources that have helped me sort through my acid reflux issues:
 
Susan E. Brown and Larry Trivieri, Jr.
The Acid-Alkaline Food Guide: A Quick Reference to Foods and Their Effect on pH Levels
 
Dr. Norman Robillard
https://digestivehealthinstitute.org/
Dr. Robillard’s theory is that the core trigger of acid reflux is pressure coming up from the intestines caused by the production of gas in the intestines.  His studies have shown that the overconsumption of carbohydrates is a prime cause of this excess gas production.  His recommendation for combatting acid reflux is a reduction in consumption of carbohydrates.
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