Do your sleeping dreams inform your waking life? Are your daydreams aligned with your intentions? What sort of value can you find between the two?

A funny thing happened on the path through the pandemic, a lot of us started getting a lot more sleep! Setting an alarm used to be a daily Monday through Friday ritual, now it’s been just for special occasions.

I’m often asked “What day is it?” If it wasn’t for this Monday newsletter and my Friday night DJ stream, I would probably lose track too. But as far as hours of the day go, it’s gotten pretty squishy. About the only constant is the fact that our dog starts begging for his walk about an hour before sunset every day.

For me, sleeping in means more dreams. It’s amazing how much the dreams you have at night can set the tone for your day. Sometimes my sleep will be a bit more restless and fitful, on those nights I might be having a serious of disjointed snippets that never seem to reach a conclusion.

Other nights I might be sleeping like a rock, and have some long-drawn-out story that seems to carry a narrative from bedtime till dawn. You’ve probably had those nights where you woke up feeling pleasant with a rosy glow based on your dreams from the night before.

And then there are the nights that are a complete blank. If there were any dreams, I don’t remember them at all. But more often I do, and the recurring themes can be a fascinating mirror of my waking life.

No surprise, there are often turntables and records involved. “I’m set up for the party, but where are the wires?!?” Workshops, welding, and work-related activities are frequent subjects. I’m often re-creating versions of the retail shop I used to run. Everyone has a different interpretation of their imagination, and your dreams are yours alone.

Some dreams are so strong that the impressions are long-lasting. There are a number of scenes and scenarios that I can bring to mind immediately if I so desire. This is actually a handy trick to use for falling asleep, if your mind is too wrapped up in the events of the day see if you can recall a particularly pleasant or remarkable dream and chances are you’ll drift off right away.

It’s somewhat akin to the relationship between books and movies. I don’t know about you, but if I see a movie before I read the book, then reading it later is always going to be colored by the director’s interpretation of the story. The characters can’t help but have the voices, images, and personalities of the actors in the cast.

When you read the book first, your mind fills in the details so that when you see the movie later you’re comparing it with the ‘real’ version which is what the author and your imagination put together in your mind. Sometimes a movie lives up to the book, sometimes not so much.

Reflections of your life in your sleeping dreams and parallels of storylines in Hollywood adaptations are both examples of non-linear imagination informing reality. Taking it one step further and you can posit the effect of your intentional daydreams and unconscious beliefs and the results you manifest in your physical world.

Beliefs are like muscles in a way – if you allow yourself to be lazy and let negative ones persist, they’ll set you up for failure every time. If you focus your imagination on bolstering your positive beliefs, you’ll see those bear fruit just as reliably.

In other words, if you believe that everyone is out to get you, they probably are. If you believe that most people are good at heart, then you’ll likely make friends wherever you go. So it’s worth the effort to make a habit out of questioning and evaluating your beliefs in order to weed out the less-than-loving ones by putting intention and imagination into your beneficial ones.

The interesting thing about beliefs is that with the help of your imagination and intention, you can ‘try them on for size’ much like a pair of shoes or a new coat. Your subconscious has the unique ability to shift your world in the direction of your beliefs regardless of how you come about them.

These are crazy times that are sure to be a turning point. Use some of your dream time to dance with your intention and put your imagination into action dreaming up a world where all your ducks are in a row…

Much love and happy quacking till next week!

M+

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine