“If your dreams dont scare you, they are not big enough.”
~Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Entrepreneur
When you were a child, dreaming wasnt a task to fit into your day, the way it is now. Dreaming was what you did, it was your work when you were little. Over time, the focus needed to shift from dreaming to accomplishing, to meeting deadlines and objectives, and that became our work.
What is dreaming?
Dreaming is a gateway to inspiration and possibilities that often lie beyond our current situation. When we dream at night, anything is possible – any thing! You can fly, you can dance like Fred Astair, you can go to the moon or visit planets that humans havent discovered yet, and it is the limitlessness of our dreams these adventures possible. We need adventure. We need new. We need possibilities. We need them because it helps us to expand our view of the world we live in.
What happens when we stop dreaming?
Do you ever feel stuck or limited or trapped? When you don’t make time to dream, you have a more difficult time overcoming the conditions of your life. These conditions are what we perceive as our access (or lack of access) to what we need: time, money, support, energy, health, etc. As a result, you may start shaping your life to the limits of these conditions. This behavor shows up in your life when you use phrases like: “I can’t until…”, “I will consider that when I have more (time/money/etc)…”, “If only I had (ime, money, resources), then I could do what I really want to do.”
Does this sound familiar to you?
This kind of thinking reinforces itself, because when you shape yourself to fit the limitation, the focus on the limitation grows larger and your feeling of power, agency and access diminishes.
And that feeling of being stuck grows.
How can I begin to dream again?
Dreaming is like riding a bike, you know how to do it, even if you feel wobbly as you get your balance back. In order for this to work, you need to be willing to feel ‘wobbly’ as you get started.
Here is a list of actions you can take to begin dreaming…
- Sit quietly and do nothing for at least 10 min every day.
- Wake up an hour early and sit outside or near a window.
- Sit near water – a lake, a stream or river
- Go for a quiet walk – no buddies, no earbuds, no pets, just you
- Ask yourself questions you don’t know the answer to ( and don’t need the answer to), like:
- What if clouds were made of spun sugar?
- What would it be like if I were a tree for a day?
- What would I be experiencing right now if I were only 1 inch tall?
- Watch a documentary about a topic you know nothing about
- Read short stories or poems
- Listen to music and sounds you don’t normally listen to
As you can see, dreaming begins with creating space for something new to enter in to your consciousness. Sometimes the space that is needed is silence and stillness. For most of us, that can be really uncomfortable. If you want to begin, start with 10 minutes a day for 1 week and see how you feel.
Dreaming is like riding a bike, but you have to be willing to get on to find out. I hope you choose to give time and space for your dream. Be prepared to feel lighter, more at ease and open to possiblity as a result of starting this practice.
Enjoy every moment you gift yourself to dream. And then…. DREAM BIGGER!