Nine Ways Dreams Wake Us Up

 

Here’s an open secret about dreaming. It’s not fundamentally about sleeping. It’s really about waking up. Here’s how:

 

1. We solve problems in our sleep 

If you want to solve a problem, or need a fresh perspective, sleep on it. Write down your intention (“I would like guidance on X”) before turning in, and be ready to record something whenever you wake up. Even if you have forgotten your dreams, you may find you have your solution.

 

2. Dreams coach us for future challenges and opportunities.

We dream events before they take place; maybe nothing happens until it is dreamed. Dreams not only show us things that will come. They show us the possible future, giving us previews of future situations that may or may not play out, depending on whether we read the message correctly and take appropriate action.

 

3. Dreams show us what our bodies need to stay well. 

We have a wise physician and healer available in our dreamtime every night. Our dream doctor can predict possible symptoms long before they develop, prescribe appropriate treatments, and give us images the body can believe in to make us well or keep us well. Our dream doctor makes house calls and doesn’t charge a cent!

 

4. Dreams hold up a magic mirror to our actions and behavior 

Dreams give us an objective picture of our current actions and attitudes, and show us where they are likely to lead.

 

5. Dreams are a secret laboratory.

Many of our greatest scientists, inventors and discoverers have been world-class dreamers. The list includes Isaac Newton, chemist Friedrich Kekule, inventor Elias Howe (who dreamed up the first practical sewing machine needle, giving us the modern garment industry) and quantum physicists Niels Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli, who said that dreams were his “secret laboratory.”

 

6. Dreams are a creative studio 

To be creative is to bring something new into the world. Whatever our field of interest – from a dinner party menu to the next leap in nanotechnology – our dreams provide a creative studio where we try out new ideas and make connections that escape the everyday mind.

 

7. Dreams help us mend our divided selves 

Our dreams put us in touch with many parts of ourselves, including shadow aspects we may have sought to repress or deny, and also that larger and wiser Self who can help us grow.

 

8. Dreaming is a key to better relationships

Dreams can introduce our life partners. They can also put juice and depth into an existing relationship, or show us when it is time to cut our losses and move on. Sharing dreams in a family circle or among friends or workmates is a great way to build stronger connections, solve mutual problems – and have fabulous fun. Through dreams, we can also heal our relations with our departed, bringing a blessed sense of forgiveness, closure and continuing or reviving love.

 

9. Dreams recall us to our larger purpose 

Australian Aborigines say that the Big stories are hunting the right people to tell them, like predators stalking in the bush. Dreams put us in touch with our bigger stories and our larger life purpose. When we can make a connection between life’s everyday dramas and a bigger story, we find courage and direction for whatever life throws at us.

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Adapted from The Three "Only" Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library.

"Dream Producers" journal drawing by RM