When we drift off into that strange yet personal place of dreaming, after long hours in a wakeful state, we find that there is no awareness of time, desire, food or drink, warmth or cold, longing or lacking.
We are sheltered, for a brief time, from the world outside, sunk deep into a space only we can occupy, twisting left and turning right without much recollection or direction.
It is in this place we find solace. It is in our dreams that we are limited only by our imagination, suspended in a blissful state of relaxation and peace.
It is also in this place we find fear. Manifested and percolated by the trauma seen and felt in the waking world. We are trapped, so it seems, in the unconscious abyss for some time.
And when we wake up some mornings without recollection of that place, we question its very existence. Are dreams real if we have no definitive proof they exist? Are we actually dreaming or just resting the mind?
There is an old and powerful Tibetan practice to help us recall our dreams when we wake, eyes squinting, fragments of visions still floating in our minds.
The practice goes as such:
- Slowly close your eyes before bed or during your evening wind down.
- Begin to rewind your day by thinking back to what happened ten minutes prior.
- And 10 minutes before that.
- And before that.
- And before that.
- All the way back to when you woke that day.
Try and keep the rewinding of your day objective, not stopping on one experience or another very long, just like rewinding an old VCR tape.
When we recollect our day, we begin to recollect our dreams. Furthermore, we can make sense of what we see in our dreams by recording them in a journal, voice memo, or conversation.
The questions go as such:
- What did you see, smell, taste, and feel?
- What was the setting and what was the plot?
- What was the purpose?
- What brought you out of the dream?
- How did you feel upon waking?
Looking back on my dreams through the years has been like stumbling upon a world that seeps into my life. I have had deep visual dreams that predict feelings in the future. It’s wild.
For example, I had a dream years ago that I will remember for as long as I am able:
The setting was one of tranquility. The white, sandy beach and tall, barren cliff of a small island come into focus. I smell and taste the salt in the air and how healing it is. I approach the beach on a small boat, looking all around me and up the Craig. As curious as a cat in Wonderland, I climb out of the boat and approach the cliff’s rocky feet. With no hesitation, I began to slowly climb, gaining height very fast. And as I climbed higher and higher, a sense of fear and trepidation grew. I felt as though I made a huge mistake but couldn’t turn back any longer, both my body and mind suspended in fear. As I keep climbing, the sun grows brighter and brighter. It feels like I am over a hundred feet up now. I reach my arm up and over to a vibrant green vine close to the top and find it not a vine at all, but a surprised, scared snake. It turned violently and in the blink of an eye, struck my right arm. I immediately let go of the wall out of fear and confusion. As I fell, for what seemed like several seconds, the world around me became filled with white, my life partially flashed before my eyes in those seconds. I truly felt I had met my end. The sudden rush of thoughts and feelings of all those I love and care for were gone, my life and hopes and dreams gone as I awoke, sweating, heart pounding, still questioning for a few seconds if I had really left the waking state.
I realized right then and there, that reams are the portal by which we glimpse death, and as a result, the appreciation of life.
In that dream of death, I found the waking of life, an overwhelming gratitude that it was but a dream.
Dreams are also portals of instruction, vision, reasoning, and perspective. It’s how we interpret these dreams that help us navigate our waking hours.
I still climb, in the waking world, and face that fear of falling every time. Only a few other times have I envisioned my death and the deep loss that is felt. Overall though, I fight my fear and appreciate life.
May your dreams be a guide to you tonight.
Dreamy Links:
- A pretty cool, in-depth article on Lucid Dreaming.
- The effect of meditation on our dreams.
- What the hell are dreams?
- Some great tips on how to start a dream journal.
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