We wake up, pop out of bed, already on go! for the events of the day.

We forget to experience appreciation for the night. Appreciation for the rest we receive, for the work our bodies do while our consciousness is on hold. We don’t think to hold on to our dreams.

Dreams combine images, sounds, smells, memories into a potent condensed language. Or, as many scientists attest, they are bits and pieces of garbage from the brain’s cleanup each night.

Trash or gems—your preference—dreams are informative.

(Yes. One’s actual garbage is informative. The author Stephen King wrote he learned about his alcoholism when he did a double take of the recycling bin one day, filled with the bottles he had emptied in one week.)

I worked with dreams for many years. Not to interpret them for people, but to serve as a guide into the process of self-discovery. Only the dreamer really knows the meaning of a dream.

The process I used was something like unscrambling word jumbles in the newspaper. We examined the parts of the dream, the feelings in the dream, looked for puns and associations, and waited for the moment of aha!—when the pieces fell together in a new, accessible arrangement. So that’s what it means!

It’s a good approach. It opens doors, permits insight.

But it takes effort, time and practice. Sometimes the issues that arise have been in a closet. Dream work can be an abrupt, alarming way for them to surface. The first meeting of a dream group can be very intense because of how quickly the work gets to the hidden core material, surprising not only the participants, but even the
experienced group leader.

What if that approach were softened?

What if by laying in bed for ten minutes before rising one might drink in the benefit of what the brain does in the night. Just acknowledging the dream, holding it, appreciating its parts without worry about meaning. If there is no dream holding for a few minutes the first sensations of the day. Honoring the gift of the early-morning softened consciousness.

We slow down, grow more in touch with ourselves. We have our flying bears and crying sharks, giant flowers and broken trees, gold teeth, torn currency, untended fires and locked houses alongside of us, doing their work in their own way. With their help, we see what we are not seeing. The self may take a hint without needing to be confronted by an articulated meaning, and we can move forward.

It is rich stuff, stories and dreams.