Dreams are a Terrible Thing to Waste

When we do dreamwork, (meaning we pay attention to our dreams, learn to understand what they are saying to us, and we do the emotional homework that they are in a sense assigning to us each night), things actually get a lot better for us. For starters, we get in touch with our untapped resources: intuition, inner guidance, and deep wisdom.

But most of the possible benefits of dreaming are being washed away in the shower before we even get to the breakfast table. While everybody dreams, several times each night in fact, people are only remembering a small percentage of them: some 2-3 dreams each week out of the 21-35 we’re having on average.

And it seems we’re less likely to talk openly about our dreams than we are to talk openly about money or sex. Which seems strange, because dreaming is a natural and healthy part of our lives.

While science hasn’t reached consensus yet on precisely why we dream, we can assume that the brain and body, so efficiently designed, would not put so much time and energy into an activity that is useless or harmful.

Proven benefits

Here are some proven benefits of dreaming that we can agree on:

• Emotional regulation. Dreams help us process emotions, and looking at our dreams can help us work through relationship issues, grief, and difficult transitions even more efficiently than traditional talk therapy in many cases.
• Problem solving. Because the dreaming mind is adept at making random associations — bringing together surprising and seemingly unrelated people, events, and images — dreams help us get new perspectives on problems and prepare us for insights and epiphanies.
• Memory consolidation. Dreams are like a nightly janitor who disposes of unnecessary memories, or an industrious librarian on the night shift who catalogues and consolidates our memories, making room for new ones.
• Better sleep. Doing dreamwork with a trained professional can even help cure nightmares, thus helping nightmare sufferers overcome insomnia .
• Mother of Invention. Many famous inventions, discoveries, and artistic creations have come through dreams (everything from the electric sewing machine, to the Periodic Table, and the Beatles classic, “Yesterday”.
• Dream Happy. Plus, I have found time and again, that dreams come to help us be more balanced, healthy, happy and whole.

©  2017 Tzivia Gover

MFA, Certified Dream Professional
Author of Joy in Every Moment
The Mindful Way to a Good Night’s Sleep

If you want to remember more dreams, start here:

https://thirdhousemoon.com/ask-the-dreamer/

If you’re ready to sleep and dream better, book a dreamwork consultation with me and I’ll help you learn to take a mindful approach to bedtime, and discover the meaning and messages in your dreams to support you all day long.

Let’s Talk About Your Dreams

My book The Mindful Approach to a Good Night’s Sleep is chock full of information and exercises to support you in sleeping and dreaming better. And it’s now available for pre-order!

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