The Art of Dreaming

The Art of Dreaming Part 2

You can shape your dreams. Like a sculptor with clay, you can mold them into a form that will actively serve you. You can produce a thing of beauty and usefulness that will sustain and enrich your life.
– Patricia L. Garfield

Remember your dreams

hThe Art of Dreaming begins with remembering your dreams. It is important to have good sleeping habits for regular dream recall. Otherwise sleep-debt occurs when you regularly don’t get enough sleep. When sleep-debt builds up, the sleep you do get is so deep that it makes it harder to remember dreams.

You can develop almost total recall for your dreams. Accept and value each dream no matter how foolish or fragmentary it may seem at the time. Keep a dream journal and record even those fragments. A dream journal can be auditory (using a recorder) or written. You can include drawings, mind-maps, even create collages from the dream.

When you record your dreams over a span of time – as in years or decades – you get a view that can illuminate your inner world and the journey you have taken.

Your dreams can give you remarkable insights.

Sometimes you can find significance in a dream that is years old. Linear time does not exist in the dreaming mind. It can give you a dream in childhood that speaks to you for the rest of your life.

When going to bed, plan to remember whatever dreams come to you. Place a pad and pen or recorder within easy reach of your bed. The best technique I have found for remembering dreams is to repeat three times before going to sleep, “Tonight I will remember one dream.” When you are regularly remembering one dream, change the message to, “Tonight I will remember all my dreams.”

Once you remember your dreams and record them: you can begin to decode them. What kind of dream is it? There are different types and categories of dreams.

Some examples of dream categories are:

  • Television dreams, containing characters from TV, movies and books.
  • Precognitive dreams about the future.
  • Symbolic dreams; they contain symbols and metaphors that hold messages about your life or a current life situation.
  • Therapeutic dreams where every aspect of the dream is a part of yourself.
  • Guidance dreams from your Higher Self and Soul
  • Healing dreams

As you become skilled in dream recall, you can program for specific dreams using the same technique of self-suggestion. For example: Tonight I will have a healing dream. (three times) Tonight I will dream my next (creative project or goal.) Tonight I will have a guidance dream about… (problem.)

The best time to begin developing skill in dream recall is during an unpressured time in the morning when you awaken naturally.

Only you can interpret your dreams. Your dreams emerge from your psyche. The part of you that creates them knows what each dream means. Only you, the dream’s creator, know what you wanted to communicate to yourself via the various elements and events in your dreams. As you begin to work with a dream, its meaning and significance will start to unfold.

Synthesis

All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.
— Jack Kerouac

Dreams play a significant role in processing what is going on in your life. They help you grieve a loss or heal disconnected parts of yourself. They help you through life-changing events and help you learn. Your dreams can do a lot of the work.

Ask yourself what step or steps can you take to follow the advice of the dream. Is there anything you can do to paint, draw, dance, sing or sculpt the dream or some aspect of it?

Your dream journal holds the record of the dream and its meaning. It should be titled, dated and recorded in the present tense, which brings clarity of understanding to the dream.

Dream-sharing is another way to enhance your dreams. As you share a dream with another person or in a dream group, new insights often emerge. It is especially valuable to share the significant dreams you have. Always make sure that you share your dreams with people who are respectful and positive.

The Magic of the Night

Slowly, gently night unfurls its splendor
Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender
Turn your face away from the garish light of day
Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light
And listen to the music of the night.
— Andrew Lloyd Webber, Music of the Night

I love the night. I love the mystery of the night and dreams. I love to wake up with a dream in my mind. In fact, I count on my dreams to help me, guide me and heal me.

I love going to bed and wondering what my dreams will bring. Or calling for a specific dream, knowing that when I wake up in the morning, I will have new insight. Or the creative block will be cleared. My reality will be different because of a dream.

I have been recording and working with my dreams for most of my life. Even as a child, I recognized that my dreams had value, that somehow they were important. Through them I receive communication from my soul and Higher Self. My dreams are a bridge into other dimensions, into the wisdom and freedom that I don’t have time to access during the day, yet need in order to feel whole.

In my counseling and hypnotherapy practice, I have been privileged to have others share their dreams with me and to help them find meaning in their dreams. Something happens when you share a dream with someone who values it. It is a kind of validation. It is an acknowledging of a deeper self we each carry within us.

Dreams are powerful and beautiful, healing and entertaining. Many people find a group with whom to regularly share their dreams. It is a different and deeper way to know others. Dreaming and sharing our dreams is part of our humanity.

So tonight when you crawl into bed and close your eyes with the intention of going to sleep, remember to take a moment to give a thought to the dreams you are going to dream, the messages you are going to receive, and the healing and insight that will come through the night.

Sweet dreams…

You can become an artisan of dreaming


General, The Art of Dreaming

 

 

The Art of Dreaming Part 1

My dream self meets friends, strangers, the dead, the living … and holds both rational and irrational conversations with them upon subjects which often have not been in my waking mind and which, in some cases could never have been in it.
— Mark Twain

hIn my 2 part series, The Art of Dreaming, I want to share information with you about the function and use of dreams, and how to consciously work with your dreams. I hope this series will open you to the amazing possibilities your dreams offer, and help you to value them in a whole new way.

I love the world of dreams. In fact I count on my dreams as a valuable source of knowledge, wisdom and healing.

When I discovered that I could participate in my dreams and consciously open the doors to those places beyond my everyday world, I was filled with joy, curiosity and enthusiasm. My life is richer because I dream.
— J.R.

THE PURPOSE OF sleep is not only to rest and renew the physical body and mind: it is to dream. Your subconscious mind is responsible for dreaming. As your conscious mind and body sleep, your subconscious takes over.

The Art of Dreaming is about stepping through the looking glass of your dream life and participating in your dreams in a whole new way. When you bring them to life, your dreams, in turn, provide you with information, problem solving, healing and creative ideas to enhance your daily life.

Dreams have been fascinating us human beings since the beginning of time. There have been cultures, such as the Masai of Africa, that have venerated dreams and integrated them into the fabric of their daily lives. There are also cultures, like ours here in North America, that tell their children their dreams are unimportant and to forget about them: “After all ­– it’s only a dream.”

We don’t teach our children how to dream.
— Stephen LaBerge

Even animals dream. As they lie beside you, asleep, their legs may move, muscles twitching as if they are running, even a little growl escaping from time to time.

Function and use of dreams

You may already have sensed a hint of the possibilities that exist in dreaming. Some dreams are a release from the day. They finish the unfinished emotions, creating a safety valve for our unprocessed emotions. By finishing off experiences from our waking life, dreams free us.

Some dreams are a trying out of probabilities. We “try on” different scenarios in our dreams first, before we manifest them. Some dreams reflect the function of our body renewing and recharging itself through sleep. Many dreams are coded messages from our soul.

Marion Woodman, noted psychotherapist and dream analyst, states:

Dreams are the language of the soul and our soul’s gift to us that we can learn to decode.

As we begin to look at our dreams this way and value them, they will respond in the most powerful, magical and beautiful ways.

Altered state of sleep and the language of dreams

Sleep is an altered state in and of itself. Your conscious mind and body go to sleep: your subconscious mind never sleeps – in fact it becomes the control centre. During sleep, your problems, fears and hopes are viewed from an entirely different standpoint.

The sleeping mind communicates in scenes, actions, stories, symbols and metaphors. This is the language of dreams.

Problems can be solved when you are awake through logical reasoning – but also during sleep when they are passed on to the deeper mind. Dreams are the vehicle the subconscious mind uses to work on our problems and issues. We awaken in the morning with new ideas, a new perspective we did not have the day before. Hence the saying “Let me sleep on it.”

You can become an artisan of dreaming


General, The Art of Dreaming