Dreams & Creativity

Wake up with the sun and say goodnight with stars. Though it may be tricky when the days are long in summer, I’ve found waking with the sun helps with sleeping well and dreaming deeply. If you need to awaken earlier than the sun rises (say for example if its winter and you live in the northern hemisphere), you can begin your morning and take time to stop when the sun begins to brighten and greet the sun with deep breaths and words of gratitude. At the other end of the day, whenever you have the chance, spend some time with the sunset and as the sky darkens and the stars come out. If you live in a city and the stars are mostly obscured by the urban lighting, the stars are still there and are always shining their light. Breathing in starlight with gratitude before retiring for bed is like giving a plant water and fertilizer – it makes for a blooming dreamtime! Also, giving yourself a bedtime routine that is peaceful, with no screens at lease a half hour before turning in, includes some kind of energy releasing practice (such as shaking off stress and tension just like dogs do 🙂 and – of course – is early enough to give you around 8 hours of sleep time before you need to awaken. Oh and alarm clocks can be jarring to our bodies and our dreams! Try setting an internal alarm clock in your body with the intention and words: “thank you for waking me up at 6:30am tomorrow.” If you feel you need a back up, find an alarm clock with a light that brightens slowly like the sunrise.

Meditating is like a twin sister to dreamtime. Taking time for stillness every day is the way to wholeness on every level – including our connection to dreams.

Eat whole foods in your day. If your body agrees, eat larger meals in the morning and afternoon and eat lightly for the evening meal. Vitamin B rich foods – like dark leafy greens – can be helpful to strong dreaming and calm wakefulness during the day.

BE in nature. Connecting daily with trees, plants, water, the Earth, Our Mother is essential. Dreams become distant and stagnant – basically unhappy – if we are indoors and in human-made spaces too much.

Write down your dreams even if you don’t remember…make friends with your dreams (more about dream-journalling in an upcoming blog)

Follow the wisdom of your dreams. When dreams gift you with inspiration – honour it in the waking realm! It could be something like if you dream of purple flowers, go seek them out in nature or the florist shop the next day. It will often lead to magical encounters, blossoming creative projects or at the very least a gratifying feeling that you’re connecting with an innate and beautiful part of yourself: your dreams!

P.S. This blog post wouldn’t have come about with the wisdom of dreams that gave me the title and everything!! Also big thanks to dream-wise teachers, Toko-pa Turner, Anjali Baxi, Tzivia Gover, Dr. Stanley Krippner and Rodger Kamenetz.

And also my sweet dream-sharing friends Marsha Ward, Breanna May Mashinter of Arts of Compassionate Healing, and all the lovely sisters of Mindful Movement.