Dreamwork

Lets get this straight: Active dreaming is a skill set that is, at the very least, as powerful and important as your communication, leadership, or project management skills.

According to Robert Moss to actively dream means to intentionally access our dreams and work with the potential pearls and wisdom they provide. I for one like to view Dreamwork as a very practical way of connecting to the other part of our consciousness; the one that usually stays hidden; and with it also the vast stream of inspiration that might have been long forgotten. I am referring to our deeper self that hasn’t been contacted in a while, and the silent inner voice that so longs to be finally heard and listened to with respect.

Many things that would normally just pass our consciousness unnoticed often find their way to the surface during dream states. Dreams may increase our clarity on what we want or need, suggest potential solutions to the challenges we are experiencing, offer guidance regarding our relationships, our health…

In many indigenous languages, the word for shaman means one who dreams and the word for dream implies a journey of the soul. The Indians believe that dreams reveal the secret wishes” of our soul as opposed to the narrow agendas of our ego.

In the Active dreaming teacher program that I underwent with Robert in Prague this year, we were sharing dreams and exploring how to better use this unconventional source of our internal wisdom. While at the same time I was having a great time with a highly diverse group of dreamers from around the world I realized we were as well developing some fundamental life skills.

The reason I feel inspired to share this insight with you is simple: The skill set seemed to me to be essential far beyond Dreamwork. My hope is that by reading the list below you might get intrigued and perhaps will give Active Dreaming a try yourself:

First of all, Storytelling i.e. creating more engaging stories;

We searched for new ways how to share stories of our dreams expressing its essence to others in a way that is authentic, crisp and highly entertaining. This skill is great for telling someone about our dream adventure but it goes furtherand much deeper than that.

In a way everything in life is nothing but an evolving story…some are stories of joy, love or passion; other times we experience stories of suffering, pain and struggle. Whether we like it or not, we are all telling a story by the way we live and speak about things that are happening in our life. Every time someone asks you “How are you?” you have a choice about how to respond: either you serve them your mundane and boring “Fine, thanks.” or you gift them an inspiring story that is true and radiates some energy… Life creates a constant flow of such “stories” and sharing ours with the world not only makes living much more fun but may also in turn influence all the connected stories of people around us.

The other skill we practiced was Coaching;

We can best help a dreamer by actively listening while they are sharing their story and by asking eye-opening questions in order to raise awareness and encourage action taking on the part of the one who had a strong dream.

One of the key tools that we practiced with is called Lightning Dreamwork. This is a powerful yet surprisingly simple framework. It uses open questions and coaching techniques to evoke more insight about the dream material and its potential personal meaning for the one who dreamed it.

As with any coaching, the process requires trust and openness. This is because it iso nly the dreamer who is going to do the work of extracting the message, positioning it into the wider context of their life, and deciding on their action plan. On the other part of the dream coach, the process includes facilitation of mindfulness, problem solving, envisioning options, and exploring solutions or alternatives. It’s not our job to tell the dreamer what their story means; it’s rather to guide them through the process of discovering their own meaning!

The Third skill was Creativity;

i.e. using various art-forms to capture dream material and finding new techniques to express and work with the energy and message of our dreams. Dreamwork nurtures our imagination and envisioning capabilities and therefore it invites the painter, writer, dancer, singer, actor or poet inside us to join.

Lastly, applying Intuition – our inborn guidance system that leads us in life;

for it is not only our mind but also our gut that can provide clarity about what’s right for us at each moment. In my opinion this skill has an immense unused potential. If only we would have the courage to tap into this inner wisdom and allow its guidance!

Whenever we are dealing with something new or unknown we can first imagine that it is possible to leverage our own intuition as well and then find some stillness to allow and follow its guidance on what to do in order to make it real.Intuition is oftentimes referred to as following our gut; for me it means staying open to a full range of our body, mindand soul perceptions. With some practice I believe we are all able to integrate them, live a richer life and make much wiser decisions.

Active dreaming is very playful, it shows us how not to take life and ourselves in it too seriously. It invites us to seek fun and experience more joy…

Being in flow during the drumming, dreaming, sharing and subsequent co-creating sessions we established strong bonds among the dream teachers. Ultimately we learned how to build such a connection with people that we are able to set a joint intention to dream a common dream. It turned out to be quite trans-formative for all of us to have shared visions, feelings, images…

It’s like listening with both ears or using both brain hemispheres– we can always perceive the awake world and the dream world alike, tune into our inner world while connecting to the ways others experience theirs.

May our doors, paths and gates be open. May the doors, paths and gates between the worlds be open…

Deciding to pay more attention to our dreams, respecting the treasure buried deep inside and working with the energy and information they contain can be truly life-changing. When listening to what our dreams might be trying to tell us we are opening the doors to yet another source of guidance. Its content is 100% customized and always available. We carry this tool with us all the time yet far too many of us don’t pay enough attention to the fact that their dreams are intimately wrapped personal messages ready to be unpacked once we include them in our focus and accept and respect them as part of our reality. This deep well of wisdom is always accessible inside of us and is eternally patient waiting and hoping for us to notice and pay visit…

By taking an action in relation to a dream we honor the received message thus strengthen our connection with parts of ourselves that may have been long ignored. By integrating our day life with our night life we become more whole and can live more deeply, creatively and effortlessly.

So my question to you is simple:

How’s your relationship with dreaming? How do you work withits gifts and potential?

I invite you to share your own story in the comments below!