Dreams

I've long felt that the dreams we have while sleeping are memories from "soul school"--where we go at night to learn lessons to use in waking lives.  For years, I captured my dreams on waking, and then immediately afterward, I would journal about them.  Rarely did a day pass that I didn't find useful insight from "dream school."

A key component of the Intentional Living Intensives that I used to facilitate with coaching clients was work with their dreams.  Most were busy executives or professionals, and when we started, most would say they didn't dream.  I had a process that I used to bring dreams forward, and I would just ask them to follow the process.  Every time the client started remembering dreams on the first night. By the end of our three days together, some were remembering as many as six, which we then used for our intention work during the day.

I believe that acknowledging and using our dreams is key to remembering them.  They are a gift, and when they are treated as a sacred gift, we get more.  If we shun them, gifts pushed away stop coming to us. Because my clients were actively using their dreams, an abundance of dreams were available to them.

A few years ago I either stopped having or stopped remembering my dreams.  When I am being honest, I had become like my Intensive clients before their retreats.  I was so busy that if I remembered any of them, it was just gibbets, and because I always seem to race through life, I didn't make time to write down what I did recall.  Over time I stopped remembering them at all except for an occasional one on a vacation, when I did record them.

When I embarked on this week's retreat, I had two intentions.  Since I am cleaning out and thinking about this new nine-year cycle, one was that I wanted insight about what I should be dreaming about--what I want--in these next years. I've shared a number insights which I got during my retreat. However, as I put the retreat behind me, I was little disappointed that I'd not received any insights about the direction for my metaphorical hopes and dreams.

Then, this morning, I "got it."  The Universe is very precise about our requests.  When I created my intention, I had metaphorical dreams in mind.  The Universe took me very literally. The third night of my retreat I had, and remembered, at least one dream from my sleep. I recorded it in my dream journal and then wrote about it. This morning I recalled three related dreams from last night.  They were much more complex and insightful. The gift of just one dream appreciated has been reciprocated with more dreams.

After finishing my dream journal, I meditated on the dreams and the day ahead.  Only in that meditation did I realize that I had asked for metaphorical dreams as an intention for my retreat; the Universe sent literal dreams. I literally laughed out loud.

In my case, that's a very good thing.  My dreams have been rich sources of insight over many years and I couldn't be more grateful if someone handed me a check for a million dollars.  Really!

I expect that when I start working my nighttime dreams regularly again, I will probably get insights on what to dream about metaphorically for this new cycle of life.

Lessons learned: be exact in what I ask for and be grateful when the Universe responds literally.