When the Cookbook Becomes Life’s Manual and Every Page a New Understanding
Dreams and Self-Reflection
Dreams and self-reflection sometimes weave together in the most unexpected ways.
Last night I remembered my dreams – two images that felt so close to what I’m living right now.
It’s about growth, learning, and turning pages – both in books and in life.
And perhaps most of all: about trusting the process where knowledge and experience slowly turn into inner safety.
Read this post in Swedish ->Drömmar och självreflektion – när livet blir lärande
Dreams and Self-Reflection – The Language of Dreams
First, I dreamed of little Emilia, my granddaughter.
We were sitting together with a cookbook, tearing out pages and putting the recipes in a new order.
It may sound strange, but it felt symbolic – as if we were creating new structures, new flavors in life.
Then came another dream: a book, and I turned the pages, one by one.
A simple act, yet filled with meaning.
I think those two dreams belong together – a reminder of how dreams and self-reflection can guide us through change.
Between the mountains and the sky – where thoughts and dreams meet in silence.
Dreams and Self-Reflection in Motion
When I think about it, maybe the dreams weren’t that strange after all.
The cookbook Emilia and I worked on felt like an image of what I’m doing now – I’m not tearing knowledge apart, I’m simply rearranging it.
I’m moving recipes, trying new ways, and letting old wisdom take on new flavors.
That’s exactly how my studies feel – like a living form of dreams and self-reflection in motion.
I use everything I’ve learned over the years, but I do it in my own way now – with my voice, my experience, my heart.
And that other dream – the one where I turned the pages – is probably about trusting the process.
Letting life show its pages one at a time, without rushing to the end.
It’s the same feeling I carry in my education: not everything needs to be understood at once.
The important thing is that I’m in motion, in learning, in growth.
The dreams feel like confirmation.
I’m creating my own cookbook – not with recipes for food, but with recipes for connection.
Conversations, empathy, presence.
What I’m learning now isn’t new in itself – but the way I’m learning it anchors the knowledge deeply in my body.
Dreams and Self-Reflection – When Knowledge Takes Form
I’ve always had a lot of practical knowledge – steady, intuitive, natural.
But now, during my training as a therapeutic counselor, I’m gaining something I’ve missed: the chance to weave together experience and theory.
I notice it in every lesson. I get full marks on the assignments, not because I’m better than anyone else, but because I’ve carried this understanding in me for so long.
The difference now is that I understand why I do what I do.
It’s as if knowledge is moving from being learned to becoming integrated in the body – it lands, matures, and deepens.
But it’s more than that. It feels like knowledge has now found its home inside me, resting safely on a foundation that’s been reinforced.
As if I’ve drained away the surface-level knowledge built on others’ interpretations and begun to read between the lines within myself.
I no longer read just the back cover or someone else’s summary.
Now I build my understanding from within, from all the conversations I’ve had through the years working in treatment and care.
That’s where my foundation grows – from real people, real meetings, real emotions.
Previous courses gave me tools.
This education gives me depth, grounding, and confidence in what I already know – but now with language, theory, and awareness that make it whole.
I now feel more one with the knowledge – as if it has become part of my breathing, a way of seeing, listening, and understanding.
It’s as if I’m no longer standing beside the conversation – I’m inside it.
Knowledge is no longer something I carry – it carries me.
Read also: Positive Psychology in Everyday Life – Living with Presence and Joy
A Cold Swim and a Warm Heart
Of course, there was a swim today.
My lake sisters and I braved rain and wind – the water must have been below ten degrees, because it bit sharply at the skin.
But that’s the point: to breathe, feel, and be here, now.
When you step out of the water, endorphins meet the body’s defense, and everything becomes warm and still inside.
The swim, just like my studies, reminds me that growth happens through contrast.
The cold awakens warmth, discomfort leads to strength, and stillness carries learning.
Related post: Morning Dips and Everyday Joy – Meeting the Day by the Lake
Dreams and Self-Reflection – Rearranging Inside and Out
When I got home, the little one arrived – sniffly but happy.
Between nose blows, he helped me rearrange the living room – again.
My husband will probably shake his head and say, “What you can’t change inside yourself, you change on the outside.”
Maybe he’s right.
But I think it was me who planted that thought in him from the beginning – even if he’d never admit it today.
And maybe that’s how it is: every time I rearrange the furniture, something small inside me finds its place too.
Reflection
Maybe the dreams, the swim, the studies, and the rearranging all connect.
It’s all about movement, change, and allowing things to shift – both in thought and in space.
Last night I turned a page.
Today I rearranged the room.
And somewhere between those moments, a deeper understanding grew – a quiet calm that tells me I’m on the right path.
Everything is movement, change, and dreams and self-reflection woven into everyday life.
In every layer of mist lives a thought longing to be understood.
AHA – Between the Lines
What I feel most strongly right now is that I am part of my own development – right in the middle of what has always fascinated me most: the power of conversation.
Conversations heal.
They carry, lift, and mend – both the listener and the speaker.
I’m beginning to truly understand that it’s about trusting the process – not forcing, not knowing everything, but resting in the fact that it unfolds anyway.
Knowledge has taken on both body and soul.
And somewhere between theory and feeling, the conversation becomes a living space where people can truly meet.
Related reading: Leaving the Victim Role – When History Rests and I Choose to Live Now
“Yesterday has already found its rest in history, tomorrow waits farther ahead.
But right now – this is where life happens.”
— Carina Ikonen Nilsson
Want to read more reflective texts?
Subscribe here: Subscribe to malix.se
Support my writing:
PayPal – malix.se971
