Put your Dreams to Work

The other day after a vigorous yoga practice, I took half an hour to luxuriate in the warmth and silence of the steam room. After about 10 minutes in the heat, I entered that delicious realm of relaxation – that blurry place where the conscious and thinking mind and the beautiful mystery of what lies beyond intersect.

I love experiencing in meditation or in waking dreams those few delicate seconds stretched beyond time where puzzle pieces slip magically into place and solutions to problems are revealed with incredible ease and simplicity.

Don’t you wish you could access that tap of wisdom at will? Imagine employing the power of your subconscious to create the life of your dreams…

I contacted my beautiful friend Kelly Sullivan Walden, a dream therapist, to see how she engages the subconscious to do her heavy lifting. Here’s what she had to say about dreaming and her writing process…

“While I was up to my elbows mid-way through writing my recent book, ‘I Had the Strangest Dream…the Dreamer’s Dictionary for the 21st Century’ (Warner Books), I developed the practice of rolling out of bed and into my “writing station.” While still in the in-between-worlds place I would open my laptop, take a deep breath, and with eyes half closed, let my fingers do the tapping. Before my logical brain woke up, I would give myself permission to write whatever wanted to be written from my subconscious/dream state.

This “dream state” writing would often wind its way to being relevant to the particular aspect of the book I happened to be working on. Even if my writing took a detour I would nonetheless find myself opened to a smorgasbord of thoughts and feelings that I could apply to the subject at hand that never would have occurred to me otherwise.

If there was nothing in particular that wanted to be written, I would simply write about my dreams from the night before. This actually has become a practice I believe will be with me ‘til the day I die, and perhaps the most valuable practice I have ever discovered. I believe there is a brief and precarious window period between the realm of sleep and awake, and if accessed, our entire day becomes brighter with a heightened awareness and aliveness. I feel that this may very well be the short cut to truly developing and strengthening our intuition. As a writer, what gift could be more valuable?

I believe it is specifically due to this practice that I was able to “dream up” an entire novel. About a year ago, I awoke at 3am (many writers tell me that their best writing ideas come to them at this god forsaken hour) with the entire story…the beginning, middle, end…the characters, their names, dress, voice tonality, the whole 9, as it were.

Without having to painstakingly figure out these characters and plot line, it was delivered to me, and all I had to do was take dictation.

I’ve talked to many writers that receive their best ideas, or plot lines from their dreams…and why not? Our dreams connect us with the vast aspect of who we are…as we sleep we dance with souls from time immemorial and explore realms about which have heretofore never been written. Why not let your dreams do your heavy plot lifting for you so that you can spend your precious awake time downloading these inspired messages. Who knows, tonight you just may receive the plot twist you’ve been praying for!

May your wildest and most wonderful writing dreams all come true!”

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Dream Doctor, Kelly Sullivan Walden is the author of Warner Books’ I HAD THE STRANGEST DREAM, THE DREAMER’S DICTIONARY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. Author of DISCOVER YOUR INNER GODDESS QUEEN, an Inspirational Journey from Drama Queen to Goddess Queen, Kelly is a regular guest on FOX news New York, WZZR FM (Florida) and has recently been featured around the country on ABC, FOX, and NBC news, as well as in Cosmopolitan, Woman’s Day, SELF, ELLE, Woman’s World, Bride Magazine and the Chicago Tribune. Kelly is the creator of The Dream Project, a local movement for Global change.

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