The Influence of Dreams

Posted on February 4, 2008
Filed Under Awareness, Meditation, Spirituality |

Occasionally I wake from sleep without any memory of dreaming, yet I find myself imbued with a deep emotional feeling. The nature of these feelings tend to vary; at times it is pure contended bliss, at others a joy for life, on occasion I find myself seated with regret or anger. Whatever the case though there is always a common thread; the emotion stays with me for most of the day.

As I remember back, I recall often waking with such feelings - but I never attributed it to whatever dream I may have forgotten. Although the dream may have escaped my memories there is no reason that the emotion it evoked should not remain. So without awareness of the influence of dreams - I simply put waking in a bad mood down to ‘getting out the wrong side of bed.

Since such feelings can stay with us for a large part of the day, it seems obvious to me that dreams have a massive impact upon our thoughts, actions and attitudes. I know that I have regularly spoke to people who are unusually happy or moody and have no explanation as to why.

We live in a culture which has long forgotten the importance of dreams. At best they are viewed as manifestations of psychological issues. And even that is not a particularly common consideration.

A part of self understanding must come from recognition of the importance of our dreams and the messages they contain. In this regards sleep takes on an entirely different texture. Sleep is not just about resting and ‘recharging’, but allowing the sub-conscious and unconscious parts of our brain the opportunity to express themselves. For any good to come from that expression, we need to pay conscious attention. Dreaming then is perhaps one of the few places our conscious mind can receive direct communication from the other realms (of our mind).

In this regards I view dreaming as deeply spiritual; dreaming can become a practice…an art. But in order for that to happen our dreams must be faced, and we need to learn how to work with our dreams - rather than view them as some form of psychological side-effect.

For me, once this recognition occurred I was led into the areas of dream recall, because without that we have little or nothing to work with. And from this, we begin to unfold and evolve into entire new areas of being.