July 2008 - The Muse of Dreams

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Dreams reveal a great deal about your inner self. They are a great way to tell you more about your life, your issues, your concerns and even your gifts and talents. Sometimes I suggest to my clients that they pay attention to their dreams, even write them down every morning in a bedside journal. Here’s an article below to get you started.

The Muse of Dreams
By: Marjorie Miles, DCH, MFT

“Images of your sleep and waking dream states, bring a wealth of ideas and inspiration that are more authentic and powerful because they reveal your underlying spiritual self.”
Tom Crockett

“Have you ever run out of creative juice or felt stuck?  Then you will love the rewards of dream exploration. Images you receive during a sleep dream, daydream or guided dream journey, tell so much more than stories about your life. Your dreaming mind proves you to be an inspired problem-solver, creative artist, natural poet, storyteller and mythmaker.

Dreams also reveal how you really feel about something, where you have been and why, where you are headed, and the easiest way to get there. Dreams are really about waking up…to living your highest potential.

Through the ever-changing balance between conscious and unconscious activity, your dreaming mind offers rich and rewarding evidence that you are indeed an Artist of Everyday. Vincent Van Gogh said it this way, “I dream my painting and then paint my dream.”

When you engage in any creative act – from drawing a picture, arranging a bouquet of flowers, or writing a poem – you are listening to your soul’s voice. These soulful whispers are heard more clearly through dreams. Dreams draw from both the well of personal experience and from the reservoir of universal experiences, images, metaphors, symbols and mythology. Sometimes dream messages defy words and can only be expressed in a drawing, a dance, a poem, a sculpture, a collage or some new invention.

These creative outpourings also offer additional ways to interact with your dream symbols to discover new and deeper layers of meaning.  When acted upon, the muse discovered within your dreams will naturally spark your imagination for self-expression in your waking life – with amazing results.

When working with any dream or dream symbol, the key to discovering your artistic soul is to adopt an attitude of playfulness and discovery. Then trust – and act upon – the creative flow that follows.

How to Find the Secret Muse in Your Dreams

1. Select a dream, a dream image, or a dream element that you wish to explore creatively.
2. Read the entire dream and your dream title aloud.
3. Notice what feelings, inspiration, urges surface.
4. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.
5. Open your eyes and follow your playful instincts and create something new from your dream.

Allow Creative Forms to Evolve

A single dream or dream symbol can produce more than one form of self-expression. For example, a story from a dream can be used to create a poem, which can then become a drawing, which can be transformed into a dance and then even into a song.

Write a Dream Haiku

1. Select a dream element that intrigues you and list three adjectives that describe this character or object.
2. Then add other words, arrange your adjectives (in any order) into three lines consisting of five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line.
3. Make sure you give your poem a title

After one of my guided dream journeys (“Reconnect With Your Inner Artist”) I wrote a Haiku poem using these three adjectives (1) imaginative, (2) transform and (3) playful to describe my Inner Dream.

‘I Am the Dream Artist
Playful describes me
Being imaginative’

It’s your turn now…simply select a dream or daydream that intrigues you. Silence any judgments from your inner art critic and just listen to your soul’s voice with an open and playful heart. Allow your imagination to soar. The possibilities are limitless!”

Marjorie Miles is a life coach and the author of “Dream Doors-Unlocking the Genius of Your Dreaming Mind.”

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