July 2009
“A Finger Pointing to the Moon” — The Promotion of our Dreams
In last month’s Newsletter I talked about the importance of dreaming to our well-being and made the point that we are at least as dream deprived as we are sleep deprived. I would like to continue with a discussion of how to promote healthy dreaming.
As a first step, I suggest we begin by becoming more cognizant of common dream thieves in our lives. Anything that disrupts sleep can disrupt dreaming. Make healthy sleep a priority. In particular, make sure not to lose the last third of your sleep period, the time when most of our dreams occur.
Many medications, including sleeping pills and antidepressants, can diminish dream sleep. If you are taking any of these, check with your physician or pharmacist to determine if your medication may in fact be disrupting your dreams. Consider other options with your doctor. Remember that alcohol also interferes with dreaming. When dream-suppressing medications cannot be avoided, talk with your health care provider about the possibility of using natural substances to supplement and promote dreaming. Supplements such as melatonin, DMAE and valerian have been shown to promote dreaming.
Set an intention to become receptive to your dreams as you go to sleep. Whenever possible, practice awakening gradually and without an alarm. What we consider grogginess is actually a hybrid form of consciousness – half waking and half dream. Resuming the last position you were asleep in, linger in your grogginess with eyes closed for a few moments. When dream images begin to arise, don’t actively pursue them, just allow them to come to you. If no dreams or dream images arise, notice any emotions present.
We remember dreams in much the same way we remember waking experiences — by paying attention to them. Think, talk, write, and read about dreams. Consider keeping a journal of your dreams and any related waking life experiences. Although it is useful to consider the connections between our dream lives and our waking lives, this doesn’t really require any form of analysis.
Dreaming Together
Ask others about their dreams — and listen with the same interest as if these were real waking experiences, since they affect us in much the same way. Regularly sharing dreams with a partner is an effective way to deepen intimacy. Again, there is no need for “analysis.” Simply listen and share your thoughts and feelings about the dream as if it was a waking life experience. Many cultures around the world ritually share dreams in the morning. In the same way we might ask children how their day went at school, we can establish a routine of asking them about how their night went in the dream world.
Dreaming can be seen as a kind of spiritual gestation period preceding our rebirth into the waking world. We dream primarily under the auspices of the night sky as it resolves slowly back into day, as the atmosphere reconstitutes with light and form. I believe that opening one’s heart and mind to the dream world is a courageous and irrevocable act. When we push past our fear and judgment and dare to go to the edge, we witness a vast and infinite expanse beyond our wildest imagination. We can never be complacent with living in the box of mundanity again. Opening to the dream world changes the way we look at life, ourselves and each other forever, and we will not want to go back.
In the end, dreaming is a natural human capacity that simply needs to be allowed. An Eastern proverb reminds us: All instruction is but a finger pointing to the moon, and those whose gaze is fixed upon the pointer will never see beyond.