Most of us at some point in our lives have had the experience of going to bed with a problem on our mind and waking up in the morning with a solution to that problem. We know deep in our hearts that we do problem-solving in our sleep but most of don’t know that we can learn to do this, at will, almost any night; that; we can actually create dreams at work or at home.
This is very exciting, considering that most of us grew up thinking that our dreams don’t mean much, or, if anything, they just bother us with strange or uncomfortable images.
I’m sure you could point to something in your life right now that is causing a problem for you. Maybe you’re having difficulty in a relationship or there’s something at work that’s causing you a lot of anxiety and frustration or maybe there’s something at home that is not right? Do you find yourself angry very often or feeling sad inside?
Pick a particular problem that you’re having in your life right now that you’d like to understand the reason why it’s happening and how to solve it. In order to know more about anything that is going in your life, you can have a dream on that topic tonight.
Here’s a simple five step process that will help you do this:
1. Before you go to bed, write down the date at the top of a piece of paper
2. Write down a few lines, no more that a paragraph about what you did and how you felt during the day. What did you see as the cause of your problem? Have you recognized any solutions? How do you feel when as you’re writing this? Do you feel anxious? Angry? Excited?
3. Come up with a clear, one-line phrase that states what you want to understand or what information you want to gain. For example, the phrase might be “What keeps me from finding the career I really like?”
4. Write down this phrase, turn out the light, and repeat the phrase over and over again until you fall asleep.
5. Keep a paper and pen by your bed so when you wake up, whether it’s in the middle of the night or in the morning you can immediately write down whatever you were dreaming about.
One of the most valuable insights you can get from your dreams is to uncover what’s really going on inside you. Getting to know your true self, because often times we lie to ourselves about what our real motivations are, so when the time comes to act on these feelings, it is difficult to make a decision.
We usually can’t make good decisions because we can’t see the basic information available to us, we’re so caught up in our own ego that we only see what we want to see. We do this out of fear of knowing who we really are, but if you use your dreams with courage, then they will help you develop your courage further.
Once you’ve chosen the problem that you want to solve and followed the five steps of dream creation, you’re ready to analyze what your dreams are telling you.
When you wake up, whatever your dream was about write in down in as much detail as you can remember, without any judgments as to whether or not it has anything to do with your question. Don’t assume that you will always get the answer every time you do this. In others words don’t try force fit a dream into addressing your problem because you may, have dreamed about different, more pressing problems or forgotten about the useful dream in favor of a more vivid one.
Sometimes, your dreams will be less literal. Then you have to think about whether it makes sense. Would your dream help you solve your problem? Don’t jump to conclusions about the meanings of complex dreams. For example, maybe you asked a question about what is wrong with your marriage and you had a dream about an old girlfriend. Don’t assume this means your subconscious mind is telling you to leave your wife to be with your old girlfriend.
Rather, it could mean that there’s something about your old girlfriend that’s an issue in your current marriage. It may be that there’s an attraction from that relationship that your marriage doesn’t offer you, something that you miss. Or it could be that you current wife is more like your old girlfriend than you’d like to admit.
Whatever your dream, take some time to seriously think about it, and don’t jump to conclusions. By tapping into the wisdom of your dreams, writing them down and creating a personal dream dictionary you’ll discover a wealth of information you always possessed but didn’t know that you had at your disposal.
