Centipede in a Cereal Box

[MusicMike]

Some other thoughts are

• Centipedes have many legs. I don't think they move by dragging their bodies like a caterpillar. They move all the legs at once. They have many legs. There are some stories or fables I think about the centipede getting confused about coordinating its many legs.
• Centipedes are an insect, making them a more primitive life form, a more vulnerable life form than humans.
• Eating is what uncovers the centipede. Or you could say it's hiding underneath your eating patterns perhaps.
• There's a sense of it being trapped down there. The cereal box is too tall for it to climb out of.

You can do something called active imagination. Start to imagine that the dream is happening right now. What do you feel the impulse to do? What are your feelings toward the centipede? Do you want to rescue it? Are you repulsed by it? If you took action, what would it be?

[Sunset Dragon]

Thanks Michelle.

Originally Posted by mike1127

Some other thoughts are

• Centipedes have many legs. I don't think they move by dragging their bodies like a caterpillar. They move all the legs at once. They have many legs. There are some stories or fables I think about the centipede getting confused about coordinating its many legs.
• Centipedes are an insect, making them a more primitive life form, a more vulnerable life form than humans.
• Eating is what uncovers the centipede. Or you could say it's hiding underneath your eating patterns perhaps.
• There's a sense of it being trapped down there. The cereal box is too tall for it to climb out of.

You can do something called active imagination. Start to imagine that the dream is happening right now. What do you feel the impulse to do? What are your feelings toward the centipede? Do you want to rescue it? Are you repulsed by it? If you took action, what would it be?

A small part of me feels like tipping the box upside-down and releasing the centipede into the garden. The rest of me feels like spitting out the food, sealing the lid, and throwing it in the trash. A part of me feels sorry for it, but another part of me wants nothing to do with it and is disgusted by it.

[MusicMike]

Would you say your unhealthy eating patterns feel "driven" by feelings - - that is, you use food to numb yourself or escape unpleasant feelings? Or it feels out of your conscious control? If so, the centipede could represent the part of yourself that contains these unpleasant feelings that are driving the behavior. Certainly if you feel disgust toward these feelings you will want to escape them.

An insect is a primitive type of being. So perhaps it represents a part of yourself that corresponds to a very early stage of development, like feelings left over from infancy, or archetypes that correspond to basic reactions we humans share with all animals - the instinctual drives.

[Sunset Dragon]

Originally Posted by mike1127

Would you say your unhealthy eating patterns feel "driven" by feelings - - that is, you use food to numb yourself or escape unpleasant feelings? Or it feels out of your conscious control? If so, the centipede could represent the part of yourself that contains these unpleasant feelings that are driving the behavior. Certainly if you feel disgust toward these feelings you will want to escape them.

An insect is a primitive type of being. So perhaps it represents a part of yourself that corresponds to a very early stage of development, like feelings left over from infancy, or archetypes that correspond to basic reactions we humans share with all animals - the instinctual drives.

Well, interestingly enough, my diet is almost solely affected by my energy and motivation. I tend to eat meals which require next to no effort to prepare. There was a time when I was frequently using the gym, doing cardio focused workouts, lifting weights, and eating well. I then picked up a couple of injuries. Once the gym was done with, I stopped caring about the diet because the injuries made me feel helpless. At that point, I was back to instant meals and not wanting to make an effort. It messed with a lot of my goals and suddenly it looked like progress was going to require a lot more steps to achieve. With this is mind, I can see how perhaps other things could tie in.

[MusicMike]

As I believe that dreams are meant to communicate about your unconscious, that is, things outside your direct awareness or outside the field of what you consider in your day-to-day actions, it seems that the centipede is something underlying the eating patterns or your entire patterns of living "without caring" in all domains where that is true (not just eating). It is likely that it represents something you are not currently aware of, directly anyway, although it's possible you can have an "aha!" moment.

Try continuing the active imagination. You said you were divided about how to handle the centipede. Try to pick a single way of handling it, do that in your imagination, and stick with it, seeing what happens next after that.