Dreams are Creative Workshops

by phil on Saturday Nov 6, 2010 1:17 PM

I noticed in my dream journals that each dream (which is more like a 5-minute vignette) contains 50 or so elements from my waking life. I can always point to something in the dream and say, "Oh, that's because I smelt that chapstick a couple days ago, and it reminded me of Magic: The Gathering" or "Oh, that's because the words my boss said to me when she was mad have been swirling in my mind lately."

Your internal dream-maker is a playwright whose resources are your buffer of interesting incidents from the week. He or she then puts on a show with all these elements colliding with each other. Think of it like an improv skit with audience-participation, where you're the only audience member. The skit follows the same improv rule of "Yes-And" whereby for every place the skit goes, you're supposed to accept it and ask what's next. This makes it extremely fantastical, but also very creative. The skit then becomes like a giant what-if machine, letting your mind speculate on a tremendous number of possibilities for whatever's on your mind.

So your dreams become a place where you can see your social conflicts resolved or you can find the missing piece for your dissertation. And while your memory of the entire skit is erased as you wake up, you still retain a lingering sense of epiphany.

So consider each of the 50 dreams we have a night like 50 creative workshops, whereby your issues are hashed out. This is why we feel a renewed sense of understanding when tackling our problems after a good night's sleep. But only if we choose to begin the day anew.

Comments

Roger von Oech said on November 8, 2010 6:30 PM:

Sounds like you're "Listening to Your Dreams"
http://j.mp/cwp112

Adrienne said on November 10, 2010 1:03 AM:

usually have such a strong connection with my dreams. If I don't remember them, then I feel like I've missed out on some part of my life. And if I do remember, I always think that I could have interacted with them better. I've (as of yet) been very unsuccessful having any type of lucid dreaming experience. Even in a really recent dream of mine, I couldn't figure out the logic of time in the dream (huh.. I've missed a couple of hours and don't know where they went- this doesn't seem right)... and I still didn't realize I was dreaming. I hope to have a better interaction thinking about my dreams and within my dreams.