Ship with Butterfly Sails, Salvador Dali
Every day we’re flooded with thousands of images designed to sell us products, politics, lifestyles and self-improvement programs. Are these external enticements more valuable than your own inner wisdom and creativity? Every night in your dreams you’re on an odyssey to discover a more creative view of your life path and potential. Cozy under the covers, you surrender your daily roles and concerns to dive deeply and boldly into the world of your dreams. In dreams you are free to explore your feelings and memories plus all possibilities for your future. The multiverse of dreams is infinite with no limits in time and space. How exciting is that?
A dream is a voyage into the deep space of soul where you can discover possibilities for your future and find the courage to live with more authenticity. What’s alive in us but forgotten or not yet manifest is welcomed to take center stage in our dreams. Dreams invite us to take a second look. So become an activist for your dream life. Activate your dreams by welcoming your nightly visitors into your daily life through art, movement, journaling and more.
When the curtains come down on the external stimulation of your busy daily life dreams are created in the theater of your imagination. Dream Discovery™ awakens you to the power of your imagination, the artist of your life in both your dreaming and waking worlds. The vivid artistry of dreams reveals that an artist is alive in every dreamer.
Hollye Hurst
Dream Discovery™ offers opportunities every day for creative exploration and imaginative play. When we engage in imaginative play, we’re activating parts of the brain adults don’t typically use in daily life. In an interview for The Dream Discovery Blog, dream researcher Kelley Bulkeley, Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkeley shared that:
"Whatever value we may get from interpreting dreams and understanding their meaning, there is a deep value to the process of dreaming as an opportunity to play, to stretch our minds and try out different possibilities, to imagine, to rehearse, to play.”
Whether you work with a dream every day or just a few times a year, Dream Discovery™ can awaken within you a deep source of wisdom and creativity. Here are a few of the creative ways you can become an activist for your dream life.
Be an Activist for Your Dream Life
Dream Mapping
Some dreamers enjoy mapping a dream with pictures and just a few words as an alternative to writing a narrative of the dream. A Dream Map is essentially a series of sketches of dream scenes using crayons or colorful markers on one or several large pieces of paper or poster board. You can fill in with as little or as much detail as you like.
Dream Collage
Honor a dream, a dream visitor or theme with an impressionistic collage. People and groups such as libraries often give away old magazines that can be a free source of inspiration. National Geographic is the perfect source for dreams featuring wild animals. You may enjoy embellishing the inside or the outside cover of your dream journal using color markers and collage materials, perhaps depicting favorite dream symbols or characters.
Deerman, Melissa McCalahan
Draw, Paint or Sculpt a Dream Visitor
When drawing or painting a dream visitor you can simply focus on color to express something significant about the dream visitor, such as their energy, movements or a feeling, rather than trying to create a detailed representation of the image. Forget about critiquing your artistic skills and simply enjoy expressing yourself.
You can also make a sculpture of a dream visitor using clay or another sculpting material found at your local craft store. When you sculpt a dream character don’t attempt to represent the figure realistically but simply embody its spirit. One dreamer made a series of miniature amulets of favorite dream visitors that she often wears as jewelry. She’s encouraged many people to tend to their dreams by sharing with them how dreams have inspired her creations.
Dream Poetry, Song, Music & Movement
Many musicians and composers of all genres have received inspiration and even entire songs from their dreams. You can read about this in "Dreams and Musicians." Why not sing your dream? Dreamers have discovered it’s often inspiring to sing parts of a dream or short dreams that seem completely nonsensical to the rational mind. Let your imagination take over.
You can also experiment with creating a poem from a dream by beginning with the dream’s most essential elements. The practice of identifying with dream symbols can be enhanced with poetic expression. You can create a haiku or experiment with is the “I am” poem. Create a poem with a simple list of characters from a single or multiple dreams. Close your eyes, slowly speak aloud your brief poem and listen as dream metaphors come alive. Experiment with movement if you wish. Here is one dreamer’s “I am” poem:
I am…
sleeping wolf
weathered gate
broken mirror
floating diamond
Experimenting with movement can inspire a depth of meaning words can’t reach. Imagine a dream character – what it would be like to live in this visitor’s body? If your visitor happens to be an animal, what would it be like to live with that long tail or furry body? Experiment with discovering their body rhythm with movement. Allow your curiosity and imagination to guide you. Why not dance with your dream visitor? What is it like to move as they move in your life?
Ballerinas of Cairo, Mohamed Taher
Invite a Visitor into Your Daily Life
Invite a dream visitor to accompany you for the day. From time to time, check in with your visitor to experience their wisdom in your daily life. Kathy experienced a powerful dream featuring a magnificent bear. When she invited her dream bear into daily life, Kathy discovered it was a guide for learning to listen to her instinctual, body self. Dream Bear encouraged Kathy to take a few moments throughout her day to truly relax and sometimes even take a needed nap. Her dream bear guided Kathy to stop living so much “in her head” and to revitalize herself by taking time for relaxation and rest to nourish her body and soul. How would you like to activate the messages of important dream visitors in your daily life? Invite significant dream visitors into your Dream Council, allies you can consult with on a regular basis. What does each Council member feel about a particular situation in your life? What wisdom do they offer?
Another opportunity for dream activism is to visit a place your dream visitor would appreciate and receive its inspiration. During a health crisis, Michael had a series of compelling dreams featuring trees. Listening to his dream oracle, Michael began to visit forests where he discovered both the psychological and the physical healing benefits of being among trees. When Michael invited his dream trees to guide him, it was also the genesis of his true life’s calling — photographing and planting trees to help restore parks and forests for the health of the planet. Like other dreamers, Michael discovered that the wisdom of the dream serves both our personal and collective well-being.
Check out "The Dream Discovery Course and Workbook" for more ways to practice “Dream Activism” such as...
Dream Mandala
Dream Oracle Cards
Dream Theater
Dream Labyrinth
Allied with your Dream Discovery Workbook and become a dream activist. Soon you’ll be on your way to an ongoing treasure hunt in your dreams. Ignite your intuition and creativity as you navigate the dream world, a world with out limits in time and space. Kick-start your dream practice and learn Dream Re-Living to discover the messages of your nightly visitors and discover the themes of your dream. Build a bridge between your dreaming and waking worlds to cultivate a relationship with your inner life coach - dream oracle - your agent for change who knows the next step in your life journey.
Nicolas Bruno
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