The Art Of Dreaming
By Claudette Rowley

When is the last time you allowed yourself to dream -- while
you were awake? For some of us, dreaming is a lost art. While as
young children we knew how to dream, over time we can lose touch
with the skill. At the age of 30, 40 or 50, most people discover
that in order to transition to a new life phase, they must
relearn how to dream.

Day dreaming can have a bad reputation as a wasteful, idle,
“pie in the sky” activity – and an optional one. Here’s the
truth: the ability to dream is a life skill and especially a
critical business one. Our dreams carry us to the vision of what
we want, they help us identify core truths and they help us
relate to ourselves and other people.

These are common objections, obstacles and oppositions to
dreaming. Which ones can you relate to?

- Dreaming isn’t realistic.
- If I dream about something I need to make a lifetime
commitment to it.
- I don’t remember how to dream.
- Dreaming is for kids, not adults with responsibilities.
- What’s the value in a dream? I’ll only think about something
that I can’t have.
- I have no idea how to dream; the thought of it makes me tense
and stressed.
- I’m trying to dream and it’s not working.
- Dreamers are people who don’t get anything done.

Dreams assist us to form our identities. When we don’t dream,
we’re cut off from an important part of ourselves – the
unconscious mind that drives much of decision making and action
taking. And the universe does want to help us bring our dreams
to fruition. It’s truly enough to say, “This is my dream. What’s
the next best step?” This request scares some of us. It can
dredge up notions such as, “What am I worth?” “Do I deserve to
have my dreams come true?” “If my dream comes true, do I have to
pay in some other area of life?”

Here’s what I’ve learned: Dreams come equipped with big safety
nets underneath them. And when we consider our dreams carefully,
make the right decisions for us, and understand when to take a
risk and when not to, the net is relatively close to the cliff
that we’ve just leapt off of. But no matter how careful the
consideration, any dream does require a leap of faith into the
unknown. There’s no way to skip this step.

So let’s get dreaming … here are some tips to start your
dreaming process.

-Identify something in your life that excites you. Let’s say
that you’re writing your first short story in ten years. Use
that excitement as a springboard into a dream. If you amplified
your excitement about your short story by ten, one hundred or
one thousand times, what would the dream be? A best selling
novel?

-Stop yourself from making dreaming a chore. You can’t “try” to
dream. You need to let it emerge in your mind, on paper or in
the air – dreams live in the spirit of fun and adventure. “What
if I could live in the house of my dreams? What if I could live
in another country? What if I could become a consultant?”

-Dreaming requires space. Go for a walk, or a drive or a trip
down the grocery aisle (without children). Do anything that
allows your mind to free associate.

-It’s important to remember that just because you dream
something doesn’t mean that you have to commit to it. A dream
can be simply a dream. Notice little kids – they engage in one
passion after the next. As soon as they’ve used up their
passion, they drop it like a hot potato and move on to the next
passion without judging themselves.

-Barbara Sher, the author of Wishcraft and numerous other
books, talks about how you only need to identify one passion to
start dreaming. This is because passion begets passion. One
dream will open the door to the next dream. Knowing this, we can
let go of the idea that a dream needs to be the “right” one.

-Excitement can not be overrated. If you feel excitement about
anything at all, follow the trail and see where it leads you –
there’s probably a dream at the end.

-When you dream, start to notice the feeling around it. Do you
feel excited? Scared? A combination of both? Excitement and fear
or a combination of both are signs that you’re on the right
track.

Reconnecting to your inner dreamer will move your life forward
in new and exciting ways. Dreaming, an internal creative
process, precedes most new ideas that populate our minds.
Everything good starts with a vision -- in truth, fantasy can be
reality. Happy dreaming!

About the Author: Claudette Rowley is a professional coach,
speaker and author who helps savvy professionals identify their
true purpose and mobilize the resources and strategies to pursue
it. Sign up for her free monthly ezine "Insights for the Savvy"
at http://www.metavoice.org or contact her at info@metavoice.org

Source: http://www.isnare.com

Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=182132&ca=Advice