Listen to Your Dreams

There is a healing instinct within you that can manifest in dreams. You'd be surprised at the straightforward health advice they give, either spontaneously or on request. Tips on food, preventive therapies, treatment options constantly come through -- but we miss them. Once remembered the essence of many of our dreams is lost because we, or our therapists, misinterpret them. A patient told me about a recurring broccoli dream. "You can't be serious," he said, chuckling. "It's actually trying to tell me what to eat? A vegetable?" Yes -- it was. We often dismiss such practical suggestions as meaningless. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Keep it simple. Try something new. If you dream of eating a luscious mango, run out, devour one. Or when, in a dream, you're soaking in natural hot springs, make a date to go. I have a friend who dreams of a health spa in Mexico every few years when she's overly stressed. She takes it as a signal to make a reservation.

How do you know if the advice you receive is right? What if you feast on an entire, incredibly scrumptious, gigantic chocolate mousse cake in a dream? Does that mean you should run out to buy one, then eat the whole thing? Of course not. Who needs the calories or the bellyache? Count on common sense to direct you.

In addition, there's an intuitive level to understanding dreams of which I'd like you to be aware. Reliable intuitive information stands out in very specific ways.

 Watch for these clues:

�?Statements that simply convey information

�?Neutral segments that evoke or convey no emotion

�?A detached feeling, like you're a witness watching a scene

�?A voice or person counseling you -- as if you're taking dictation from an outside source

�?Conversations with people you never met before who give instructions about your health

I've found that my most dead-on intuitions either come across as compassionate or have no emotion at all. I once correctly dreamed that a patient was going to have a stroke. Of course I was alarmed. But the information itself at the moment I received it was uncharged. Develop a careful eye as you practice separating the content of your dreams from your reactions to it. Soon you'll be able to tell what is reliable health guidance and what is not. You'll know just what to do with that chocolate mousse cake.

You are in partnership with your dreams. Initiate an ongoing dialogue with them. It's like consulting the wisest old-time family doctor you can imagine who knows you inside out. You can ask your dreams anything -- even what seems most impossible. How can I keep my blood pressure down? What about my hip pain or allergies? Are there ways to stop catching so many colds? No question is trivial if it is meaningful to you. Expect answers. Some will be direct. Others may require interpretation.

Dreams can keep you well. Dreams provide answers. But first you must retrieve them. How many nights have you awakened with the most amazing dream you were certain you'd recall? The next morning it was gone. Our memories deceive. During sleep we experience a kind of amnesia. Dreams are not of the rational mind. Your intuitive memory is what is needed. Here is a method I recommend to remember your dreams.

It's helpful to practice it each day.

Soon it will become second nature to you.

 

Four Strategies

To Remember Your Dreams

1. Keep a journal and pen by your bed.

2. Write a question on a piece of paper before you go to sleep. Formalize your request. Place it on a table beside your bed or under your pillow (like you did as a child when you made a wish to the tooth fairy).

3. In the morning do not wake up too fast. Stay under the covers for at least a few minutes remembering your dream. Luxuriate in a peaceful feeling between sleep and waking, what scientists call the hypnagogic state. Those initial moments provide a doorway.

4. Open your eyes. Write down your dream immediately; otherwise it will evaporate. You may recall a face, object, color, or scenario, feel an emotion. It doesn't matter if it makes perfect sense -- or if you retrieve a single image or many. Record everything you remember.

When you're finished refocus on the health question you asked the previous night. See how your dream applies. One, two, or more impressions about the who/what/where of your solution may have surfaced. My own answer to preventing recurring sinus infections came in a dream: the flash of an acupuncture office. An elevator. An old Chinese man. A rush of vitality. These were my signposts. Take note of yours. Get in the habit of recording your dreams regularly. Be assured I've never met anyone who can't be taught how to remember. Keep at it. If your answer doesn't come the first night, try again. More details will emerge, rounding out the picture. Then look to your daily life for evidence of what your dream tells you. The woman's face you glimpsed for that split second could just be that of the healer you've been searching for.

I'll let you in on a secret. One of my favorite ways of conjuring up dreams is to turn on music at twilight as the moon rises and dance. You can try it too. Instantly I'm out of my head, into my body (a basic formula for intuitive awakening -- memorize it!). In my living room, gazing out at an expanse of purple ocean and pastel sky, with no one to please, I gyrate wildly to Nirvana's heavy metal blasting, boogie to Miles Davis, or glide like a raven on the wind's currents to haunting Gregorian chants. Tension dissipates. Energy surges up my spine. I leap, spin, twirl faster than light. I flash yellow on the horizon -- then become invisible. No more mind. Memory returns. Dreams fly through me. I become them. I am open. I can see.

Dream Divination 

This page may be used by nonprofit organizations for teaching and/or the promotion of religious freedom