00:00:09 Archita: What if your entire day wasn't random at all? What if the conversations you had, the delays you faced, even the emotions that surprised you were symbols speaking to you, much like a dream does at night. Today we are exploring what happens when we stop rushing past our days and start listening to them. Welcome to our room, a space where we slow down, tune in and explore the subtle energy shaping our inner and outer lives. I'm Marcia, and today I'm joined by Caleb Matthews, founder of the Sea Link, an international motivational speaker with over twenty years of experience known for blending depth, insight, and humor to help people uncover purpose through the patterns of everyday life. Our topic today is interpreting your day as if it were a dream. And by the end of this conversation, you may never, ever look at Ordinary Moment the same way again. So welcome to our room. It's it's great to have you here.

00:01:12 Caleb Matthews: Thank you. Rasheeda. It's good to be here in the room. Thank you for the invitation. And I'm looking forward to diving into decoding, uh, our day and interpreting our day with you. Very delighted to be here.

00:01:23 Archita: Yeah. And I think it's it's a pretty amazing topic that a lot of us don't know about. So I can't wait to have this conversation with you. So without wasting any time, let's start. Uh, Caleb, if go anywhere deep, when did you first realize that daily life might be speaking to us symbolically, not just literally?

00:01:45 Caleb Matthews: Well, really, that I have to go back to when? the early years of entrepreneurship, uh, really started to develop. That's what I call in C link, one of my four pillars, the I of I principle. And we all have that principle in operation in our lives. And what is I of I stand for. It stands for the early years of entrepreneurship, of innovation, of being an innovator and looking around us, uh, in our day by day, even beyond the night season. Obviously the night season was a big part of that. But the day by day as well, translating into the day by day when that really began, was at a young age, around the same age where I started to have vivid dreams and, uh, encounters in the night season. But in my day to day, for example, really the way that I was wired, the way that I was raised, being somebody who loved to talk a lot, like one of my nicknames was TM by my brothers and my neighbors called Talk Too Much. I'd love to share stories with the neighbor's dog and read children's books. I'd love to inspire and speak to groups of people. I would notice little intricacies and things around me of the way that my life was and, you know, just unraveling in, you know, in a good way. But also sometimes the chaos that would happen around me of, okay, I'm seeing the world through different eyes. Um, and that came with the territory of blessing, but also resistance as well, from the culture around me. It began around the age of, of six or seven years old.

00:03:18 Archita: That's that's really inspiring. And that also sets the tone for this conversation. I'm so glad that your, um, curiosity led you to this journey, and because of which we are able to hear about it and learn more about it. Uh, so I'm curious, Caleb. Many people assume that dreams are symbolic, but waking life is just reality. So what do you think we miss when we separate the two so completely.

00:03:48 Caleb Matthews: What we're missing is the bridge. And you and I, we are the bridge. And we have to bridge spiritual insight and practical real world strategy. Because a vision without strategy is just a hallucination. And what we're missing is that bridge of real time strategy. We live in a culture of extremes. We live in a culture where people are either extremely into the spiritual, but they don't build a bridge into the practical for everybody else or for their own lives. Or people are so focused on the practical and the emotional and the physical, but they don't have that bridge back to the spiritual where we get it wrong, where we don't build that container of translating and seeing the links of what happens to us around our day by day lives, is that strategy? It's not enough just to have a vision. It's not enough just to have a strategy in life without the vision. But we need both. We need the vision mirrored with strategy.

00:04:57 Archita: Interesting. I mean, vision without strategy is just hallucination. And I'm going to use that phrase from now on. I think that's so true. People need to realize it more that, you know, there has to be some strategy. Otherwise you're just, um, you know, you're no different from a schizophrenic. So in a way, uh, we have been trained to read our nights with curiosity, but our days with autopilot. And that distinction alone already changes how we listen. And, Caleb, let's let's stay with that for a moment. Why do you think symbolic awareness gets switched off once we wake up? What patterns or conditioning disconnect us? Uh, from that way of seeing?

00:05:42 Caleb Matthews: We're programmed Within our neurological pathways and our brain by the conditioning of the construct of the society around us. Now, I know that's a mouthful of what I just said. I'm going to break it down a little bit here. And that is, we live in a world where social media and culture and peer pressure is so rampant. We are taught that we have to get right on the hamster wheel of busyness, of hustle culture, of having to be somebody on social media. We feel that we have this perception that if we're not engaging online or we're not seen on the stages of culture and society around us, that we're missing the boat. And unfortunately, a lot of people, a lot of us, you know, speaking to the crowd myself, there are days, there are times, there are moments and seasons where we can fall for that. Or some people in their lives. They live that as a lifestyle where they always have to reach for the phone. When they wake up, they always have to feel like they have to get on the rat race of just busyness, and they completely push away the symbology, the visionary experiences in the night season, and by doing that with the night season and not treasuring the night season by journaling or writing dreams down like I just did this morning before I got on this call, I was like, oh gosh, I've I've got about twenty or thirty minutes with this podcast. And I was like, no, I gotta take some time to journal what I just saw in my dream. If I think I'm going to remember it later, then it's going to be forgotten. Ninety five percent as a statistic of dreams are usually forgotten when we just think that during the day we're going to remember them. So I wrote mine down before I got onto this call as a practical activation. But in the same way that we're supposed to write down dreams, we're supposed to write down our day by day, at least treasure them, or take into account what's happening around us the way that we steward or not steward. The night season is going to be the way that we steward or not steward the links around us, the parables, the messages that are all around us in our day by day lives. And that's the decision, that's the choice that we either have to engage with our trichotomous being or engage with our dichotomous being, because most people are stuck in the dichotomous. And that's why a lot of links are missed in the day by day.

00:08:10 Archita: Yeah. No, that that totally makes sense. Like you just said, I think so many of us are on autopilot mode and in this hustle culture because of all the competition that's going on. And yeah, I think all of that has actually taken us away from, um, dreaming. We don't really have time for that. Or even if we do end up dreaming, we don't often think about it or try to, you know, make sense of it anymore because we just don't have the time. And what you just said. That's powerful. I mean, the idea that meaning doesn't disappear, we just stop asking what things mean and that it's really important. And, you know, um, Caleb, that makes me wonder if if we treated our day the way we treat dreams as symbolic rather than literal, what kinds of messages might we start noticing in ordinary moments?

00:09:06 Caleb Matthews: We would start noticing the messages like our ancestors did. And History Speaks is always an example. One of the four pillars I have within see link, and it is directly connected to seeing the links to the early years of entrepreneurship, to the DNA of our design, and to understanding mysteries of the night season. It's all connected how we be able to grasp these things more when we start to notice these patterns. Well, let's use an example from history. From biblical history. Moses, when he had his encounter with God at the burning bush. It says that he was tending to his father in law Jethro's flocks in Midian. He was in the desert. He had been in the desert for many years, and Moses was used to a lot of the desert by. At that point he had seen many things, including the phenomena of a burning bush, and it wasn't uncommon to see a burning bush. Uh, bushes would be able to ignite all the time when fire would, uh, would consume the bush based on, uh, based on the heat, based on the wind. And it would have been easy for Moses to be able to just walk by this burning bush when he saw the bush burning on fire. But there is something about the fire. There was something about the bush. There was something about the flames that were calling to him. There is a link there to be seen. And because Moses turned aside and said, I'm going to go, it says in the Bible in Exodus three, I'm going to go and investigate this strange sight. There is something about the way the bush was being consumed that was strange to him. and what was strange was that the bush was being consumed. But it wasn't burning up. It was on fire, but it wasn't completely being destroyed because that's what a bush does if it's on fire. This one was living with flame, but it wasn't burning up. Why do I get to that point? Because Moses made a decision to say, I am going to investigate this strange sight. And he made a decision with his spirit, not with his soul. His mind could have said, it's time to move on. We've seen in Bush hundreds of times burn up. But he decided with his spirit, no, I am going to investigate this strange sight for you. And I like Moses. We have a spirit. We also have a soul. And there is that clash. There's that battle ground between the intellectual, between the soul, between the mind, will and emotions, and the spirit which is wisdom and conscience. And Moses made a decision to turn aside. We must make a decision to turn aside from the mundane tasks. And what if behind the mundane tasks like going on the bus for transportation to work or walking through the park or walking by the ocean, going on a trip, speaking with friends, encountering a stranger in passing, going to the marketplace, and seeing somebody with a strange, um, outfit on that is really interesting that's speaking to you. What if these things aren't just random, but they actually have messages decoded behind them? When we start looking at life like that, to see behind our day by day as if it were a dream, it completely changes the dynamic of our lives.

00:12:15 Archita: Yes, that really puts perspective into things. I think a lot of things that we, um, go through in our life are symbolic, and we we need to make sense of them. And that that reframes daily life as something that's speaking to us, not just happening to us. So, yeah. So, Caleb, when someone begins interpreting their day like a dream. How does, um. Okay, I already asked this question. I'm so sorry. Um, Caleb, if someone wanted to start today gently, without overthinking, how might they begin interpreting their daydream like, uh, without spiraling into analysis?

00:12:58 Speaker 3: It starts with.

00:12:59 Caleb Matthews: Stepping back and really looking through a lens with the question, what is this a picture of? Because the answer to that question is going to look different for every one of us. For for myself, for our listeners, the fascinating thing is that no one of us human beings are exactly alike. And the way that I interpret an eagle will be different than the way that our cheetah interprets an eagle. Uh, for me, uh, an eagle is a powerful creature that I've always seen from my childhood onward that is always flying over top of overhead and circling and like a watcher and something that makes me feel like seeing the bigger picture for our cheetah. It could be that and more. It could be that the eagle was some. Just going to make up a story here. Um, it could be some, some, um, something that a neighbor had, uh, what, like one of those eagles that lands on the neighbor's wrist and then sends the eagle back into the sky? That maybe she had a neighbor that trained an eagle, and it was more than just an animal in the wild, but it was actually something that represented training. You see the difference there, just in that, even though I made that example up from our from our cheetah, your perspective that that an animal, even an animal, animal symbology of an animal can mean something different for you than for me. Therefore, in our lives, there's always these puzzles that can be dived into in real world time. And overanalyzing is getting too much into symbols. That's why I don't personally believe in dream interpretation symbology books. I don't believe that one size fits all when it comes to dream interpretation or interpreting our day by day lives. There's no formula in a world that says A plus B equals C. Often the case that's very Roman, that's very Gregorian, that's very much structure. We've been taught and raised in a world that believes that structure is the answer for everything. Well, structure can be a support, but it can never be your assessment for authentic lived experience and for you and I and for us. We have to get out of the analyzing and get into the inner intuition. That's the difference.

00:15:18 Archita: I think. Yeah, I totally agree with what you said. I think it's up to interpretations, and one thing cannot mean the same for everyone. I think people see things differently. Like you just said, an eagle might mean something else to you and might mean something completely else to me. So yeah. And I think that grounding is important. Curiosity without pressure, um, awareness without forcing meaning. So definitely. But, you know, dreams often exaggerate emotions. Like fear becomes a monster, desire becomes a journey. Uh, do you think our day does the same thing? Just in a subtler way?

00:16:01 Caleb Matthews: Yes. I believe that our our day is is giving us those little nudges if we're paying close enough attention. To give an example from my life recently and family's life, like I'm here in Cabo, Mexico, this is where I spend six months of the year in the sunshine. I escaped the winter. I don't live in the winter in Canada anymore. It's too cold and living down here. Um, my parents and I lived down here six months of the year, and that was over at my mother's place for for lunch, uh, one day recently, and we're talking. And then all of a sudden I looked into the glass window that overlooks the backyard, uh, just on the ground level and in the tree, in this fake Christmas tree that we that they use year round for putting lights on to make it really beautiful. Um, there was a hummingbird that all of a sudden flew right onto the branch of the fake tree and was looking into the window. Now, hummingbirds are very gentle. They're very much creatures that appreciate frequency and vibration, and they'll only come close if they're curious or they feel safe. Now, a hummingbird that close to the window, but especially looking in at us not afraid, is very unusual. Um, they're usually pretty shy creatures, especially when the human being is is close. But they'll they'll stay nearby. And this hummingbird was looking into the window and watching us and our conversation. And so my mother goes, quick, get the camera out. So she got her camera out and got a good photo of it and some video before it flew off. But that is a moment that could have been missed. We were in the middle of a conversation just talking about life in the kitchen. And then I leaned around the corner and saw a flutter in the tree. And it was the hummingbird. I share that because it is so easy to miss the links in our day by day. That subtle nudge of something that's calling when nature is calling, when God is calling behind the scenes of nature, say, okay, look over here. See? Study the animals, study nature, study your environment because your environment is always speaking to you. It dreams may be more blown up and and just allegorical and metaphorical, but in literal life, when it's happening in front of your eyes, I think it can even be almost more difficult to actually step back and realize, oh, something's happening here. It's not just nature that's just doing its thing, but we can collaborate with nature like our ancestors did. Like Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. We can do the same things for hummingbird. Hummingbirds represent frequency. So there's a frequency. There was a humming. There was a tone that God wanted me to see through our conversation, but also to step away from busyness in conversation, to really get on the branch, so to speak, with that bird and really connect. But that's just a simple way that could easily have been missed. But we have to choose to look. It's a choice because we take a census of our senses. If we look at something that's good, it's going to lead towards more links to see for goodness, for our purpose. If we don't and we're looking at garbage, or we're looking at the culture of this world that's trying to get our attention, the busyness, then we're all going to see stress and busyness. We have a choice. You have a choice. I have a choice. We have a choice to look at the things either which are seen or which are unseen, that are behind the scene.

00:19:35 Archita: Wow, that that really makes me wonder how even the smallest of things in our life, in our everyday lives, can be symbolic. And we often miss so much of it because we are not actually looking. But when we start looking, we will find so many answers to questions that have always wondered. So maybe our reactions are clues and not overreactions. And so, Caleb, what tends to happen when people try this and then hit a skepticism like frustration or self doubt, especially when life feels heavy rather than symbolic.

00:20:14 Caleb Matthews: Skepticism and overanalyzing and resistance really comes into the picture when perhaps somebody's experience for a long season of time or for most of their life Hasn't been the gentle hummingbird. It hasn't been the eagle example I used earlier. It hasn't been the the peaceful. It hasn't been the good. It hasn't been the glorious. It's been hard. All of us, as human beings, we live through hardship. But some people's lives have been harder than others. And skeptics may come into the picture, especially listening to what I'm saying here right now. If you're listening, audience. Hello on this podcast recording and your life has been hard and you've experienced darkness, you've experienced resistance. You've what you say. Caleb. Okay. The lengths that I look back on in my life, in my early years of entrepreneurship, my history speaks. My night season even is filled with nightmares and dreams of just evil things and my life, my DNA design just feels like it is hard. What can possibly come from that? Well, a gold miner and a panner for gold, especially in the years of the California Gold Rush. To use an example from some of the people who walked on before us and gold miners across the world. But using the California Gold Rush as an example, they they left everything. They left lands and homes and jobs and positions of wealth, of influence, the wealthy and also the poor. It was a great equalizer. Both the wealthy and the poor wanted to push north and go and pan for gold in Alaska. And when the poor and when the rich and when the, you know, all classes, all social classes, they got to the rivers and they got to the place where the gold was. They all had to get down on their hands and their knees, and they had to pan for gold through the muck, through the dirt and find the gold. And that is how we have to look at extracting meaning from our lives, especially if there are those of us who've had harder life than somebody else Through the darkness, through the muck, through the dirt, through the resistance. There's gold. So to the skeptic, I say this to the one who's resisting seeing the links because they say, okay, you're saying this doesn't work for me. This works for our cheetah. This works for Caleb. This doesn't work for me. We have our hardships, too. Everybody has hardship, but some more than others. But to you I say this. If your life has been like you're in a boxing ring, you're getting one blow after another, thrown across the bow at you. I say this extract the gold, go through the muck. Go through your obstacles because your obstacle determines your arsenal. What comes against you will define you. Look across the timeline of human history. Everybody that ever did anything, men and women across humanity, all those entrepreneurs, all those leaders, they had muck and lots of it. Lots of dirt, lots of resistance, lots of moments. They could have been skeptical, but they found the gold They chose to keep going, keep going. Find the gold beyond the darkness and don't judge. But while your eyes see, your natural eyes see. But judge by what your inner eyes see your spiritual eyes, the eye that God has given you upon your DNA of design.

00:23:46 Archita: That is such an amazing advice, Caleb. Truly. I mean, it's all about, you know, um, going on, it's I mean, of course there will be setbacks in your life, but it's all about returning again and again to yourself, to your inner self, like you just said. And that's reassuring. I mean that even confusion can be part of the message, not a failure of awareness. So here's a question for anyone listening who feels stuck right now. If your current day were a dream, what emotion would stand out the most and what might that emotion be trying to show you your life may be speaking in symbols every single day. The shift is learning to listen with curiosity instead of control. So, Caleb, for listeners who feel drawn to your work, where's the best place for them to connect with you and explore the ceiling?

00:24:41 Caleb Matthews: Best places to connect with me are on a few of my free resources I've made available. One is called the DNA of Design Quiz. I'll include the QR code and the links in the description for the podcast, but there you can go and you can find your DNA of design type. There's five different prototypes right now in the quiz. I'm eventually going to transition and upgrade them to seven, but right now there's five. And you can find your design type on the DNA design quiz that's on my website on Caleb Matthews net. As I said, I will provide the links for that. The second free resource is my bi monthly newsletter called Seek the Link. If you've heard my conversations with our cheetah today, and especially our conversations on other podcasts. On Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, through the network, we've had our cheetah, and I've had a few of these conversations and my podcasts I've done on other podcasts as well. You can also tune in to my Seek the Link bimonthly newsletter and follow along. I won't spam your email, I promise, but subscribe the QR code and the links will be available in the comments, and you can tune in to what I'm up to with Sealink twice a month, and I'll include some inspiration, some tools for you as well, and of course my YouTube channel as well, the Sealink on YouTube. You can also follow along and connect that way as well. And finally, for those of you who want something a little more than all of that, you want something more than a quiz. You want something more than a free newsletter. You want something more than just my YouTube channel. I have link up one on one paid consultation coaching sessions, one hour coaching sessions. If you're like, hey, I want to hire Caleb and actually do a coaching session, then I do link up sessions where we get into really diving into your DNA design, giving you a game plan, giving you a battle plan, giving you some strategy to take forward in your life. So I do have the Calendly link that I'm going to provide to you in the show here as well, where you can book a session with me if that's something you want to move forward with as well. But our cheetah, thank you so much for having me in the room. It's always great to have these conversations with you and a delight, truly. And, uh, honored to be here. Thank you for your invitation.

00:26:53 Archita: Amazing. So I'll have all the details on my show listing so that our listeners can feel free to reach out to you whenever they want. Thank you for sharing your presence with us in the room today. As you move through the rest of your day, notice what repeats, what surprises you and what lingers emotionally. Maybe your life isn't asking for answers, just your attention. Until next time, stay open, stay curious and keep listening beneath the surface.