4 Special Quotes to Anchor Your Dreams

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From Denny: Two of these quotes are amusing yet true - and two are certainly good advice. Dreams remind us we are spiritual beings living in a physical world. Here we can easily discover our inner Universe at a much slower pace than in the pure spiritual realm. The physical world is governed by temporal Time so we can process our experiences with less confusion. The pure spiritual world can be daunting and downright disorienting for the uninitiated without knowledge or understanding. Take advantage or your Dream Time. Enjoy, learn and grow with it.

One of the ways to accomplish spiritual growth with your dreams is to set your attention upon a particular thought as you go to sleep. Your spiritual mind will take the waking mind's interests and instructions and deliver the messages back to you that you most are in need of at this time in your life. Any of these quotes would be a good starting point.


Quotes


* Dreams are free therapy, but you can only get appointments at night. - Grey Livingston

* Dreams are nature’s answering service – don’t forget to pick up your messages once in a while. - Sarah Crestinn

* Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you. - Marsha Norman

* Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions. - Edgar Cayce


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How Is Your Relationship With Your Inspiration Muse?

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From Denny: Today there was an online conversation with fellow poets about the subject of muses. Some had them; some didn't. All the muses seemed to be female in gender.

Several of the poets were lamenting how life's little distractions get in the way when inspiration pays an unannounced visit. They were frustrated of how many interruptions they experienced every time they tried to revisit the inspiration and write, only for that awesome inspiration to fade quickly.

We have all experienced moments like this. For creative people it's especially difficult because we can grasp the importance of what we were offered and it too quickly slipped away, seemingly elusive.

What a lot of people are unaware of, and our inspirational muses are trying to tell us, is that these moments are actually spiritual moments. The way to interact with those moments successfully is to develop a discipline of cultivating them.

Well, just how do you go about developing this discipline? When inspiration knocks on your inner door just make a mental note of where you left off when the interruption occurred so you can return to that moment. What is happening here is that it is lucid dreaming or a waking vision where your spirit is talking clearly to your waking mind - and your waking mind is aware of this conversation.





Pelikan fountain pen by David Blackwell @ flickr



A quick mental note of how you feel in the moment and maybe scribble a couple of words or phrases down on a piece of paper ( heck, the wall will do when the inspiration is fading fast - you can paint over it later). This hand-mind coordination works together to help your memory so you can regroup later and return to the inspiring moment. It's just like returning to a room you left a few moments ago.

The mind can be trained to remember your dreams, your waking visions, your inspirations. It just takes time to train yourself. Develop the structure, the obvious cues for you. For instance, always using the same pen and notebook. You could try always writing in the same place like a corner of the kitchen or your bedroom. The goal is to create familiarity and comfort which, in turn, will stimulate your memory to flow quickly and easily.

It will take a few times, maybe months, depending upon how much you practice to develop this discipline. If you practice it every day for a few minutes at the same time of day and place you will develop the habit rapidly and easily. A little bit of constant effort to create your best structure you respond well to is well worth the time to capture inspiration sublime!

As to the subject of gender for muses, well, mine has always been male. And this guy can get downright demanding and a bit of a pest at times. :) Of course, the crazy spiritual relationship with this spiritual energy is well worth it for what I've learned about the spiritual world and myself over time.

This is an amusing poem I wrote in response to a writers group recording their muses. They were all romantic and serious and my account was quite different - a bit shocking for some - for I recorded reality as I live it: always with a wry grin.







Dreaming Words



Warm



Comfortable



Drifting




Toggling between this waking world
And the world of dreams symbolic
Sheets, those delicious summer skimmers
Glide as bodies turn side to side in repose




Gently





Quietly



Softly, the growing silence
Easily falling down to fade



*Wake up!*
Comes an unwelcome startling voice
Eyes closed tight, tighter
Face grimacing a frown
*Wake up!* that voice insistent, repeats



Ascending the dark stairway of knowledge
Rubbing my inner mind’s eye
Flinging open the huge door to light
Asking an irritated *What?!*
About to fall teetering backward
Into the comforting quiet dark



*What?!*

*Write it down* he says

*Now?* comes the complaint:

*It’s the middle of the night!*



Aware it’s a losing battle
Dutifully returning to the waking world of dark
Reaching out, fingers fumbling for bedside notebook and pen
Scribbling on lines overrun from hands half asleep
Too large is the messy handwriting
Next morning tough to decipher



Words tumble down onto paper out of the inner dark
That vast library of knowledge, universal to all
Opening the heavy tall thick door
Written words enter, marching out onto now
The waking world bathed still in eerie moonlight



Fulfilled the bleary-eyed scribe’s task
Tumble backward to welcoming sleep
Covers pulled high over weary, oh, so tired, body
Descending the long narrow stairway



Down






Deeper







Arrived



The loving library of inner knowledge
Infinity to yet explore
Artifacts of knowing to drag home
And leave quietly on some welcoming doorstep




Denny Lyon
Copyright 22 June 2008
All rights reserved



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Your Dreams: 5 Common Characteristics

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From Denny: Dreams are an endless fascination for humanity. It's how we process our outer and inner worlds. Most times the dreams make sense to us. Then there are those highly symbolic dreams that trouble, frighten or engage us.

The curious, the artists, the psychics, the kings and queens of world governments have studied dreams and gathered around them those who could interpret their dreams. They knew their own spirits or even God was talking to them and they wanted to make sure they got the message right.

In modern society, dreams have been studied by the likes of psychiatrists like Freud, Jung and now a scientist, a sleep researcher by the name of J. Allan Hobson. In a 1988 study he identified five basic characteristics of dreams. Think of it as a simple class in dreaming to get you started on figuring out your own enigmas of self.





Intense Emotions

Emotions in dreams always seem to be excessively intense like fear, anxiety, painful and just plain wear-you-out intense. The most common dream is one of embarrassment like being found nude in public unexpectedly. Like you could plan for that one? :) Then there's the fear dream like being trapped in a seemingly impossible situation or being chased by some unknown attacker for no good reason. Of course, when the dreams are that intense you end up interrupting the dream and wake up abruptly. It's really bad when you fall back in bed too quickly and darned if that crazy dream doesn't start back up right where you left it. Annoying, isn't it?! :)

Anxiety, fear and surprise are the most commonly experienced emotions that are intensified by dreaming. That's why sleep researchers recommend taking time to wind down before you go to bed so your dreams will be calmer. Often the emotion you go to bed on is the emotion that first gets processed - which is why the admonition of not going to bed angry with anyone is good advice.





Disorganized and Illogical Dreaming

This is where the fun begins when you work on interpreting your own dreams. Discontinuities, ambiguities and inconsistency are all hallmarks of where your dreams just refuse to follow an easy plot line and easily identified theme to give you your bearings. You just don't know which end is up. It's like suddenly your magnetic compass came into contact with an excessive magnetic field and starts spinning and you are no longer able to tell which direction to go.

It can be like you entered a horror movie or at least the twilight zone between the world you once knew and now an unknown situation. Whatever the case it turns out to all be a bit bizarre and nonsensical. All the natural laws no longer apply like you are in some alternate universe where time, place and what you thought you knew about people, animals and plants does not work like in your waking world. You might experience talking animals, time travel, find yourself flying over the globe, suddenly people morph into something or someone else (creepy) and my all time favorite: you get whisked out of one setting into another so fast you can't catch your breath or your emotional balance.





Strange Dream Content is Too Easily Accepted by Your Mind

Have you ever noticed that when you wake up from one of those dreams of odd events and weird content that you are hard pressed to logically present the dream in any context that makes sense? It lets you know just how flexible is your dreaming mind to accept anything illogical or nonsensical in order to deliver the message to the dreamer. Makes you glad you can't go to the voting polls in this state, now doesn't it?! There's no telling what kind of politicians we might end up governing us. Then again, maybe that explains a lot of the crazy politics we have had for the past 25 years. Maybe there is a whole generation of sleep walking dreamers going to the polls... :)

Apparently, sleep researcher Hobson thinks that "the unquestioning acceptance of dream content is due to the strength of our internally generated emotions and perceptions." Within the dream context nothing is out of place, even if the events are strange and illogical and our perceptions or objects are not in their usual places or context. These are always the dreams that tend to have very individualized symbols unique only to the dreamer. Say, for example, a cat to you represents happy contentment because of the purring quality while to someone else a cat is feared for their intense emotions. These dreams are often the most difficult to explain because of the oddities in them and the very personalized symbols.





Bizarre Sensory Overload or Unusual Experiences

Don't you just love the one where you experience the sensation of falling? That's a common experience among all of us. It sure is a weird feeling. Some other odd sensations people experience is not being able to move quickly in your dream, like your body does not respond well for some reason that makes no sense. Or the worst experience is not being able to control your body movements and you do weird things like someone who is hypnotized to do silly things for a laugh. Definitely those are dreams about various stages of losing control in your life.


Dreams Are Difficult to Recall

How many times have you experienced those intense dreams you think you can never to forget? Then you wake up, start your day and then when asked what you dreamed about that night you end up drawing a complete blank. Talk about frustrated. Sleep researchers have found that 95% of dreams are forgotten entirely upon awakening. Apparently, our memory is intensified during dreaming, yet when we wake we lose that easy access to our dreaming content and it diminishes quite rapidly as our brain turns away from dreaming and into our waking life. I guess our brains are not happy to be multi-taskers on some situations.





Shared Experiences in Dreaming

Most of us have experienced these characteristics in our dreams. Few realize just how commonly shared are these experiences. In our dreams objects and people and situations can be found to be as naturally behaving as in our waking world. Then again they can be collages of our current reality or just plain unbelievable fantasy only a computer could recreate. Everything could march along according to existing laws of the universe or behave in the most absurd, improbable or impossible manner. What's fun about those situations is it makes it easier to record or remember the dream.





Dreams as Path to Spiritual Maturity

I look at dreaming as a fantastic spiritual source to mine for furthering our spiritual development. Often, dreaming is just processing what happened during the day. The real fun begins when you pose a question or problem that requires resolving before you go to bed and then let it rip during dream time. Keep a notebook and pen by your bed so when you wake up from time to time during the night you can jot down a few notes or key phrases to jog your memory when you fully wake.

When you do wake, before fully shaking off the proverbial cobwebs, make sure to be quiet for a moment and collect your thoughts about the dream, maybe enter it again briefly to refresh your memory of the setting, the characters, the theme and the plot line. Record your dream as best you can into your notebook. Again, later in the day, give it at least four or five hours away from the dream, revisit your notebook and write some more details as you recall them.

When you keep tabs on your dreams like this you tend to take care of business regularly and don't end up with those disturbing intense dreams. Those dreams are usually God's way of talking to your spirit to pass it on and talk to your conscious mind that you are on the wrong course in life and need a course correction.

Many times our dreams talk to us about our attitudes, our choices and our future path in life. Listen to your dreams. They are free, always available and ready to help at a moment's notice.


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A Beautiful Poem For When We Dream

*** Are you honoring yourself every moment of your life?

From Denny: Every Friday I put up an original poem for the Libations Friday segment over at my news, politics and poetry blog, The Social Poets. I also like to pair wonderful photography from my friends over at flickr with my poems. Discover someone new and enjoy their photos! Here is this week's offering:





Today was one of those triumphant days when a friend broke through into a new realization of where fear had taken her was a place she did not find comfortable. There comes a time in our spiritual development that we cannot return to the "tried and true" of third dimensional thinking and doing. We must finally stop, be still, patient, learn to wait and trust. When we do, life falls into place faster and into a better fit.

Often we are restless but cannot pinpoint as to why. We rush off to solve our immediate problems by creating still another. Usually, it's best to stop long enough to listen inside ourselves to learn where we belong at each moment of our life. When we do, we ease into a harmonious perfect rhythm that enriches us on so many levels. Take the time to honor yourself today and grow in your awareness.






Honoring Ourselves






Today I was faraway deep in thought,
Tapping away the late winter sighs and
Pondering the way of honoring ourselves,
Gathering the movies of life in my mind.







I looked over my shoulder at the day that was
And smiled to the moments of the hours
That touched lightly in their passing each other,
Stepping the path of the footprints left behind.







The natural rhythms of the day progressed,
Cooking meals, cleaning dishes and laundry,
Working at the office, returning to reunite,
Unwinding into easy conversations enjoyed.







Pulling the warm covers over as we sleep,
Cats crawling up to claim their blanket spot,
We talk quietly aloud of our heart’s thoughts,
Easing from the day into the calming night.







Sliding into rest, our eyes flutter and close,
Our silent dreams liberated once again,
Our tour guide clutches us tightly as we
Journey on the wings of our thoughts.







The sights we see, all that’s imagined is true,
Collecting thoughts, creating fresh reality,
We spiral down through the dark to view,
Awakening to our creation of the new day.








Denny Lyon
Copyright 5 March 2010
All Rights Reserved



*** For more poetry, please visit on Fridays at The Social Poets!

*** Have a great weekend!


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PHOTO CREDITS

Eagle flying between day and dream Photo by alicepopkorn @ flickr

Oceans of waterfalls Photo by Big Jobs @ flickr

Peace found at the water's edge Photo by lepiaf.geo @ flickr

Daydreaming Tree sunset landscape Photo by Harold Laudeus @ flickr

Daydreaming in the fields Photo by h.koppdelaney @ flickr

Footprints within the dream Photo by lepiaf.geo @ flickr

Eagle gliding low over the ocean Photo by lepiaf.geo @ flickr

Awakening single flower Photo by Harold Laudeus @ flickr

How Do Dreamers Create Our World?

Photo by nattu @ flickr

From Denny: What does the future bring in your thoughts? Are your thoughts full of fear, anger, resentment? Are your thoughts full of hope, inspiration and dreams? Our thoughts upon which we focus daily end up determining our level of happiness and success in Life. You would be surprised how powerful our thoughts can be. Dream. Dream of the best for yourself and those around you. Dream a powerful dream that becomes reality.

Quote

* The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. - Eleanor Roosevelt

Do You Remember Your Dreams and Know Why It Is Important?

Photo by alicepopkorn @ flickr

From Denny: This is one the better quotes I've found about the subject of dreaming. Make sure when you go to bed you leave a notebook nearby so you can record your dreams as you begin awakening in the morning or the middle of the night. Remembering our dreams is so important to problem-solving and understanding our lives as they unfold!

Quote

* If a dream affords the dreamer some light on himself, it is not the person with closed eyes who makes the discovery but the person with open eyes lucid enough to fit thoughts together. Dream - a scintillating mirage surrounded by shadows - is essentially poetry. - Michel Leiris

How is the Dream Helpful on Our Life Journey?

Photo without attribution

From Denny: Sometimes, when you are going through so much you really start wondering if you will see daylight. Nurture Hope; keep it alive for it will keep you going along with a good dose of humor.

Much is said in the philosopher circles about being truly awake or just sleep-walking through Life. Many believe that until we learn to become present in the moment, aware of All, are we truly awake. It is then Hope need only be a dream, for we will no longer require Hope. Until then, during the long process of spiritual awakening, a dream of Hope is necessary to encourage us on our journey.

Quote

* For hope is but the dream of those that wake. - Matthew Prior

How Deeply Do You Know Your Dream?

From Denny: It appears former President Franklin Roosevelt was quite the chatty guy when it came to littering history with his interesting quotes. Every time you turn around there is yet one more better than the last!

What's intriguing about this one is that is more than encouragment to follow your dreams. Rather he advises we focus on the intense beauty in all its aspects of the dreams as we engage, follow and become our dreams.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." - President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Photo by Orrakle @ flickr

Two Sides to a Situation

two sides ~, originally uploaded by alicepopkorn.

You see things; and you say "Why?"

But I dream things that never were;

and I say "Why not?"

- George Bernard Shaw

Wisdom - sought by the ancients at the Pantheon in Rome, Italy

The Temple of All Gods, originally uploaded by wili_hybrid.

"Wisdom begins in wonder." - Socrates

The Dream of How to Vision

vision, originally uploaded by alicepopkorn.

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." - C.G. Jung

Photo by alicepopkorn @ flickr