Are there benefits to exploring our dreams?

Our dreams hold a mysterious and captivating quality that sparks our imagination.

Dreams have always fascinated and intrigued me.  I’ve remembered long sequences or simple fragments of dreams since I was a child. As an adult I have written many of them down, but never really went any further than that.

But dreams can be more than just fanciful stories that unfold while we sleep.

What if I told you that dreams can be a spiritual practice that nurtures wellness and strengthens faith?

The Power of Dreams

Dreams have been revered and interpreted for centuries in various cultures around the world. Ancient civilizations believed that dreams were messages from the gods or a gateway to the spiritual realm. Even in modern times, psychologists and spiritual practitioners recognize the profound significance of dreams in our lives.

Understanding Dreamwork

Dreamwork is the practice of actively engaging with and exploring the content of our dreams.

It can be a transformative spiritual practice that enhances our overall well-being and deepens our connection to the divine.

Dreams have the ability to reveal hidden desires, fears, and unresolved emotions. They can serve as a mirror to our subconscious mind, reflecting aspects of ourselves that we may not be consciously aware of. By paying attention to our dreams and engaging in dreamwork, we can gain valuable insights into our inner world and uncover the wisdom that lies within.

Nurturing Wellness and Strengthening Faith

Jeremy Taylor has been exploring dreamwork for four decades and therefore has found several psychological and health benefits from studying dreams. Taylor states how first and foremost “all dreams come in the service of health and wholeness.”

He believes all dreams send important messages to the dreamer. Even the seemingly ridiculous ones. And the scariest dreams yell to get our attention.

Emotions are significant as they play a role in our dreams. If we pay attention to these emotions, they could help us process feelings we may be repressing or neglecting due to our busyness in our waking life. This process in turn helps us promote our overall mental health.

Dreamwork helped one woman with her physical health as well as her mental health. In Taylor’s book, The Wisdom of Your Dreams, a lady shared her dream in one of his groups. She dreamed that she was in her home and there was a party going on in her basement. She went down to investigate, but she seemed to be a ghost among the party goers. Also, she had a purse with rotting meat inside of it that smelled terrible. She didn’t open her purse for fear others would see and smell the meat. After sharing her dream with a dreamwork group, they collaborated that she may have a health concern and she needed to see her doctor. At first, she ignored this advice. She felt perfectly healthy. But after some time, she felt an “aha moment” regarding her physical health. She felt she had suppressed some concerns. She followed their advice, but the doctors couldn’t find anything. The dreamer followed her gut and felt the dream was in fact a warning. Sure enough, a different test did detect cancer. She had immediate surgery and has been in remission ever since. Dreams can have the power to possess healing knowledge.

Working with a Spiritual Director or Dreamworker.

Taylor encourages people to share their dreams with others in a safe space.

One way in which we could do this is by working with a spiritual director or another professional trained in dreamwork. Also, taking a group class is also beneficial. A class allows us to tell our dreams among trusted individuals and discern what the meanings can be together. Taylor says this is the best way to access this knowledge, though only the dreamer can truly ascertain what the dream may mean to him or her.

My spiritual direction concentration is in dreamwork, and I competed fourteen weeks of classes with a dreamwork professional. There was a particular dream I didn’t know how to interpret, but my dream group helped me with their collective wisdom. As such, I was able to better understand the dream and gather the wisdom that resonated within me.

I was also amazed at how universal each dream could be. A dream another person shared, while personal in nature, also contained universal truths others in the group could relate to and learn from; feelings of peace or fear, rejection or acceptance, happiness or sadness, etc. were all relatable. We found we were learning from each other in the group as well as from our own dreams. Another person’s dream resonated truths in my own life.

Dreams allow us to connect to our inner selves and our psyche. We as individuals would benefit from knowing our deeper and authentic selves.

In fact, we were created by God to live out our authentic lives.

Taylor’s Ten Basic Assumptions on Dreams

1. All dreams come in the service of health and wholeness.

2. No dream comes just to tell the dreamer what they already know.

3. Only the dreamer can say with any certainty what meanings his or her dream may hold.

4. The dreamer’s aha of recognition is a function of previously unconscious memory and is the only reliable touchstone of dream work.

5. There is no such thing as a dream with only one meaning.

6. All dreams speak a universal language of metaphor and symbol.

7. All dreams reflect inborn creativity and ability to face and solve life’s problems.

8. All dreams reflect society as a whole, as well as the dreamer’s relationship with it.

9. Working with dreams regularly improves relationships with friends, lovers, partners, parents, children, and others.

10. Work with dreams in groups builds community, intimacy, and support and begins to impact on society as a whole.

While dreams help in our self-awareness and personal growth, dreams also connect us to God-given messages. The ancient civilizations were correct in the fact that divine messages may come in the form of our dreams. It is one way in which God speaks to us.

Dreams help to come to the service of our very well-being, as well as help with our personal growth and increase our faith. We only need to take the time to acknowledge our dreams and the messages they may carry.

More information:

Sacred Journey – Thought, Word & Deed (katierea.com)

See also my blog post on Unlocking the Power of Your Dreams – Thought, Word & Deed (katierea.com)

And: The Benefits of a Nightmare – In Thought, Word & Deed (katierea.com)

FIRE BY NIGHT – HOME

DREAM GROUPS – FIRE BY NIGHT Dreamwork group by Laura who is also affiliated with Wisdom Tree Collective.

Classes, Groups, Retreats (wisdomtreecollective.com)

The Wisdom of Your Dreams: Using Dreams to Tap into Your Unconscious and Transform Your Life: Taylor, Jeremy: 9781585427543: Amazon.com: Books

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