How’s your dream life? Mine is alive and well thank you very much! I think I probably have at least ten children’s books flowing around in this head of mine and the numbers keep growing. There’s one where I am the head of a ship and the ocean is filled with screaming babies…those littles are driving me crazy but I somehow manage to use my elastic stretchy arms and grab each and everyone out of the ocean into a big blanket that is covering the entire ship deck. I’d be willing to bet Freud would have had a lot to say about what that one might mean! Truthfully though, our dreams matter and even more importantly they can show us how to solve problems, assist us with grief and generally make our inner self an interesting thing to study.
In the study of the brain and it’s activity, dreaming is just as important as our waking states. For when we dream we are unlocking our creativity. Most recently psychologists have posited that we consolidate our memories, and try to work through perceived threats during sleep state. Over the past twenty years through many studies, there have been some significant strides in learning what our dreaming states mean and how we can use the information we gather during sleep to benefit us in our daily lives.The cortex that we know associates with imagery and movement perception are heightened during sleep while the parts that allow us to recouping socially inappropriate and logical thoughts are depressed. Perhaps this is why often you will hear someone say they have dreamt something WILD. It has no logic whatsoever because in our wonderful dream state there is absolutely none… and there’s no need for it at all, after all you dreaming!
Some of the best known art and science have come from dreams. Did you know that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Dmitry Mendeleev’s layout of the periodic table and Friedrich August Kekule’s discovery of benzene’s structure all yes indeed all of them came from a dream? So I think it would be of great interest to each of us to take a few notes down when we wake up just in case one of us happens to be a genius and just not know it quite yet! A few years ago when I began to consider myself a serious writer, I started leaving little notebooks on my nightside table and always carrying one in my purse. That way when something popped into my head it could be written down. There have been a few nights that I have forgotten to get up and write the good stuff down only to find that in the morning my stuff was gone… but I know its still in my head I just can’t access it! Can we say FRUSTRATING!! You know that feeling too I am sure. So that was when I made the commitment to not loose the good stuff by simply being lazy or sleepy. It has paid off, granted I have a lot of very weird and sometimes socially unacceptable stories or episodes that I figure when I am retired will make for some great writing exercises or at the very least a great little story to develop and tell my grandchildren. I can see though after analyzing thoughts where I have worked through problems. It is there in the good stuff along with the random and sometimes strange.
Training your brain to catch the good stuff is healthy and fun. Here’s a few ways to make sure what your dreaming is remembered so you can thoughtfully contemplate what subconsciously you are going through or use the information to become the next big thing!
- Before you go to sleep write down your thoughts… like a dairy? you ask? yep… just like that. It can be a problem that is bugging you or it can be a loved one you miss that has passed away. It can also be how much you want to go on vacation with a visualization of that place including the smells and scenery description.
- Get in the bed and think some more about what you just wrote… think bout it til ya fall asleep!
- When you get up don’t roll out of bed and start your day… snuggle in and try to remember what you dreamed about. Whatever comes to mind, no matter how disconnected the thoughts…write that down. If you keep consistent with it, you can bet that some of your good stuff will eventually come to the surface too!
Take Care of YOU!
Have you had some interesting dreams? Wanna share them? email me at alisa@absolutelyfocus.com
