Each morning sees some task begun
Each evening see it close.
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Think Tank
Submerged in thought, cool sea, dive down deep and
sculpt myself around the rocks, currents and eddies.
A necklace of stone, bones, shells worn so long
it's become part of my skin.
Under the skin is a pen with light colors, illuminating all thought.
Sometimes the urge to write is so powerful
I find myself
writing on counters, walls, tables, chairs, stairs---
The words must emerge.
Susan R. Grout 1994, published in Dream International Quarterly
Throughout the centuries one piece of advice given to solving problems that seem insolvable is to sleep on it. The above poem was written after I awoke from a dream about being under water and able to write easily and beautifully. I went to bed doubting my poetic abilities and was given this dream. As a task in therapy I often tell people to request a dream about whatever problematic topic they are dealing with. This can create some interesting solutions if the problem is not too enormous or complex.
If my problems are too monumental usually the first thing that happens is I stop getting a good night's sleep. I toss and turn, the adrenaline is up full volume and sleep has to be coaxed. Because I'm not getting the very needed sleep, there are no dreams and that aggravates my soul and helps nothing. I had severe loss of sleep several years ago when my mother had a serious stroke and was dying. When I did finally fall off to sleep here is one of the dreams that I had:
I've discovered a barn on our property and in it is an old horse that, sadly, has been tied up next to hay bales and very much neglected. I offer to take care of this horse and realize that it's going to be a huge undertaking.
I awake saddened and with a heavy, anxious feeling.
It doesn't take a genius to figure the above dream out. Even though I had just spent a week with my mother I felt horrible that I wasn't there to care for her after her stroke, Then two days later she died. The guilt would have been unbearable except for the fact that Mom was surrounded by four of my wonderful, caring sisters and very well attended in her last hours. Several months later Mom came to me in a dream that was sweet and healing.
People who insist on telling their dreams are among the terrors of the breakfast table. Max Beerbohm
My poor older sister has suffered because of me. I've always remembered my dreams and tortured her with their recitation. Sadly for her this happened many a morning from the time we were little girls. I know I'm unusual in that I find my dreams and the dreams of my friends, relatives and clients fascinating.
Dreams can be enormously helpful and give you a leg up on what's going on in your internal life. They can also neatly summarize how you are truly feeling about a situation. You can see from the dream I had about the old, neglected horse how I felt. Thank God I got that loving, peaceful dream about Mom months later.
With the gained insights from your dreams you can arrive at clues as to what direction you can go in your life. One of the most endearing and memorable bits of dream work that I did in counseling was with a young man, Albert*. Al had moved to our area to start a new life. Al came to counseling because he really wasn't satisfied with his new career. He had diligently tried to be a writer and took a boring day job to keep himself afloat financially. The biggest truth to me was that he very much missed his sweetheart Louise who he'd left in another state. The series of dreams that Al brought into counseling were remarkable, Labyrinthine and extraordinarily detailed. To me, it was increasingly obvious that he desperately was trying to convince himself that leaving Louise was the only alternative. "Why did you have to leave Louise?" I said. "She has an important job in that city and she is very well respected and needed in her position," he said. "Well and good," I said, "but shouldn't you let her know what's in your heart and let her make up her own mind?" Finally after several weeks of counseling and his increasing yearning, Al decided that he needed to go back to that state and plead his case to Louise.
The end of that story is Louise missed him terribly as well. She decided to quit her prestigious job and come to be with him. Shortly after she moved here they married, and shortly after that they had children. Happily, Albert was brave enough to trust his dreams as his inner truth and it yielded him the love of his life.
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| Dreams like childhood are fleeting |
Another positive side of dream recall are the possibliites of creative ideas, like my "Think Tank" poem. Paul McCartney woke up one morning with the entire melody to the song "Yesterday" from a dream he had. He kept playing the melody to his fellow Beatles because "I just couldn't believe that I'd been given such a gift in a dream". He said, "I thought I must have heard this tune somewhere". I believe that it's one of his best songs and it came effortlessly in a dream. So the point is, don't dismiss what comes to you in a dream, it could be quite valuable.
Here are a few tools that you need to enhance dream recall:
- During the day walk around and think to yourself, "am I awake or am I dreaming." This stimulates the brain to get ready to remember a dream.
- Put a pad of paper and a pen by your bed.
- Start this project on a night where you don't have to wake up to an alarm clock.
- Prior to closing your eyes to sleep say to yourself, "I am remembering my dream."
- When you awake in the morning lay very still and let the thoughts from the night be in your head.
- Talk about the dream out loud [to the spouse or the cat or dog] and go over the contents, ideas and the feelings of the dream.
- Write down the dream, then you have it forever more.
- See if you can figure out what the dream means to you. How do you feel, who is in it, what is the theme?
- Repeat this procedure for more than a month and see what emerges.
*Albert and Louise are not their real names
susansmagicfeather copyright 2014 Susan R. Grout all rights reserved
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