Dream Visions

Problem-Solving in Dreams | BYB

More and more, I find that I wake up with solutions to problems. However, it is not like the dramatic stories you read about solutions to problems coming to people in dreams.

It feels more as though I worked on the problem all night instead of really sleeping. Have you ever waked up in the morning and felt as though you had been working all night in your sleep? It feels as though you have merely dozed lightly, while your mind worked on the problem.

I suspect that a lot of the problem-solving actually goes on in that dreamlike stage between waking and sleeping. Whatever it is, it works, and to me it is a blessing.

How about you?

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Creative Dreaming | Blog Your Blessings

When I started working with dreams, years ago, Patricia Garfield was one of the two best authors on dreamwork that I found. She is a clinical psychologist who also works with her own dreams.

Currently I’m reading the second edition of her book, Creative Dreaming, and I highly recommend it.

Garfield’s books are different from those of Robert Moss (Conscious Dreaming, Dreamgates, and Dreaming True). She spends a bit more time explaining the research that has been done on dreams and the methods that she recommends for getting/shaping the dreams you want.

She writes very clearly and simply, so her books are fun to read and easy to understand. I also think that she is a bit more detailed in explaining how to work with dreams. So it seems easier to understand her methods and put them into practice.

Garfield gives great practical advice on transforming nightmares into pleasant dreams. She also has a lot of interesting information on how to use dreams to get answers. And she devotes a whole chapter to Native American beliefs about dreams and visions, and what we can learn from their methods.

This is a great book, and I’ll probably write more about it later. Meanwhile, give it a try, and let me know how it works for you.

Creative Dreaming was published several years ago, so you should be able to find it in the library. You can definitely find it on Amazon, where I got mine.

Sorry I haven’t blogged for awhile. I got a new job—but with a long commute. Then I got sick. I’ll get back on schedule with blogging as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, I feel really blessed to have a great job, working with fun people.

One Way to Work with Dreams | BYB

People who work with dream journals sometimes notice that certain illnesses and injuries correspond to messages from their subconscious that they have not recognized or heeded. That is, if your subconscious mind is trying to get a message through in one way, and that fails, it may try another way—illness or injury.

Hay House publishing company was founded upon the recognition by author Louise Hay that illnesses are often symbolic ways of communicating emotional or mental issues. For example, she noticed that people who come down with severe colds often are in the midst of trying to make a difficult decision and are in need of some downtime.

Sometimes the messages are obvious, such as tennis elbow, which may be telling you to get some rest or improve your technique.

Often, though, the message is a unclear. You have a sense that an illness means something, but try as you might, you can’t figure out what that is.

That is a good time to turn to dreams. If you keep a dream journal, read back over the last couple of months to see what your dreams may have been telling you. Look for what you may have missed that could possibly relate to the illness or injury you are coping with.

Sometimes the message will just jump out at you from the pages. Other times it may require a little thought. You may have to meditate or ask for clarification.

If you have not been keeping a dream journal, or you can’t recall any dreams that seem to apply to the situation, try incubating one. That is, during the day, and before falling asleep, ask your subconscious to give you the message in a dream.

How to incubate a dream:

1. State that the illness or injury has not conveyed the message so that you can understand it.
2. Ask for the illness or injury to be healed immediately.
3. State that you are open and ready for the message now and are paying attention.
4. Ask to receive the message in a harmless and easily understandable way such as a dream.

I did that the other night, and I had a vivid dream that seemed to apply. Of course, now I have to interpret the dream. But that’s different story for another time.

At least I’m feeling better. The process does work, if you let it. Why not give it a try?

Becoming aware of the communication from our subconscious minds and how to access it is worth working on. It can save a lot of time, mistakes, illness and heartaches.

Receiving and being able to act upon information from our dreams is a valuable skill. And it is potentially available to all of us. I’d call that a blessing. Wouldn’t you?

A Different Kind of Dream? (BYB)

This is a reminder that there are different levels of dreaming. That is, we dream differently at different levels of sleep.

Hardly anyone can remember their dreams from the deepest levels of sleep, deeper than the normal rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep that most people think of as dreaming. At those deeper levels we do dream, but even in dream research labs the dreamers were able to recall only the faintest, vaguest wisps of dreams.

Most of us think of only the classic REM-sleep dreams as dreaming. Those are the dreams we have when we know we were asleep.

Many of us remember them vividly. And even those who don’t remember and claim not to dream at all have them. It appears that cats, dogs, and other animals have them, too.

But there are other kinds of dreams that occur at very shallow levels of sleep, when we are barely dozing. Often these are the problem-solving dreams. If you have ever waked up feeling as though you had worked all night, as though the night had been one long dream of working, you have probably experienced such dreams.

You may not have really thought of them as dreams. You may have just thought that you didn’t sleep well. Many of those dreams are simply your mind being unable to relax enough to go into a deeper sleep. Instead you are hashing over the days events and problems ahead, because you can’t let go.

If you pay attention, you may find that you wake up with the solution to your problem. That makes it sort of worth waking up tired, don’t you think?

In an earlier post, I mentioned getting creative ideas and solving work problems in dreams. I think some people thought I meant the REM “real” dreams, but generally I didn’t. The very shallow-sleep dreams—and even the reverie or half-asleep stage as you drift off to sleep or slowly awaken can be extremely productive.

If you are able to awaken slowly, without an alarm or children, pets or spouse demanding your immediate attention, you may be surprised at the creative ideas and solutions to problems that you may wake up with.

If you can’t wake up slowly, it is best to concentrate on the time when you are drifting off to sleep. Train yourself to remember all the images and ideas that come as you are falling asleep. You may find that some of them are answers to questions that are on your mind.

Sometimes you can drift into a similar, valuable reverie where you get creative ideas if you can completely relax. Medication, yoga, massage, all kinds of things can help you reach that relaxed, creative state.

Here is an example of a problem-solving dream. This week I had promised to create a flyer for my drum teacher to take to an audition or “showcase” where he will be performing in hopes of getting more drumming gigs. He needed a bio (professional biographical information) with a photo and contact information.

I have photos of him, and I’ve written a lot of flyers and blurbs and things about him, but I still didn’t know what to do. He left it open to do whatever I wanted, but it just wasn’t coming together in my head. It would not gel.

I had promised to get it to him on Saturday or Sunday, so I “hardly slept” Friday night. I woke up with the feeling that I had worked on the project all night. But I had an idea! I knew what I wanted to do, and I got it done Saturday morning.

So that “sleepless night” (which was not really sleepless, just mostly troubled dozing) was very valuable. I woke up with my idea and thought, “What a blessing!” So I thought I’d share it with you.

Look carefully at your dreams, even the ones that don’t feel like normal dreaming. Pay attention even to the ones that feel like “daydreaming” just before or after sleep. If you do, often you may find them to be valuable.

Sweet dreams!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Creative Dreaming While Half Awake

Many of us dream of work. Unfortunately those are often anxiety dreams. Some result from working too many hours with not enough sleep.

Sometimes we are neither completely asleep nor completely awake all night. Instead, we may be endlessly hashing over work problems and tensions, unable to let go and really sleep. Sometimes we are kept from true sleep and true dreaming just by knowing that the alarm clock will be disrupting our sleep in all too short a time.

But work need not be a destroyer of sleep and rest. And those half-awake states can be put to positive use. Dream states of all kinds can be useful sources of creative ideas and problem-solving.

I get some of my best creative ideas in the half-awake reverie between dreaming and waking. I also often get creative answers to questions or problems. Usually I remember them, too.

(Isn’t it frustrating to sometimes remember that you had a great idea or found a solution to a problem while dozing but then not be able to remember what it was?)

The most productive times seem to be just before falling asleep and just before getting up. In fact, sleeping late can sometimes be a very productive time for working on creative projects and solutions. Somehow, being awakened in the night—for whatever reason—does not seem to be conducive to creative dreaming for me.

How about you? What is your experience with finding creative solutions while dreaming in a half sleep or lightly dozing reverie?

Dream Answers | Blog Your Blessings

You really can get answers to your questions in dreams. But dreaming does not always require that you be asleep.

Your subconscious mind knows many things that you do not. So if you are wondering about something (that you cannot simply ask about or look up somewhere), allow yourself to fall into a reverie (dreaming state) either right before you fall asleep or just as you are waking up.

Often the answer will be shown to you. Usually it will be visual, but sometimes you may hear a voice, or “just know.”

Being able to tap into the wisdom of the subconscious mind is something that I consider a blessing. Try it, and see how it works for you.