10 Ways to Connect to Your Dreaming

Dreaming isn't only about what is happening while you're asleep.

Dreaming is always happening. Through your body, your relationships, those attractions, disturbances, fantasies, movements and, unexpected experiences.

And one idea sits underneath all of these: follow what in you, has energy.

1. WATCH YOUR DREAMS

Your night-time dreams are perhaps the most obvious doorway into your dreaming. Freud famously said that dream interpretation is the “royal road” to the unconscious.

When you wake, write down whatever you remember. Don't worry if it's only an image, a person, a feeling or a strange fragment. Fragments are often the most important part that we will be working with. And don't be too quick to work out what it all “means.”

Try this: Find the part of the dream that has the most energy for you. Stay with it. Draw it, move like it, speak as it, or imagine becoming it. See what happens.

2. NOTICE WHAT FLIRTS WITH YOU

In Process Work, a flirt is something that briefly catches your attention before your everyday mind moves on.

A colour. A sound. Someone's expression. An animal. A word. Something moving in the corner of your eye.

Most of the time we ignore these tiny moments.

Try this: Let something catch you. Instead of moving on, give it your attention. What was it about that thing that found you?

3. LET YOUR BODY MOVE

Often your dreaming is subtle and appears before you can put words to it.

Your hand wants to move. Your shoulders change position. You want to stretch, curl up, push something away or take up more space.

Before you correct the movement, follow it.

Try this: Notice a small movement or impulse and exaggerate it slightly. Let it develop. If your body could finish the movement, where would it go?

4. DANCE

Put on some music and forget about dancing well.

Let yourself be moved rather than deciding how you should move.

There may be a rhythm, attitude or quality that appears, that feels different from the person you usually know yourself to be.

Try this: Follow the movement that feels most interesting, strange, pleasurable or alive. Let it get bigger.

5. GET CURIOUS ABOUT YOUR BODY

You have a tension, a sensation, a heaviness. You feel restlessness, hot, tight, or suddenly experience an urge.

Our first response is often to ignore it, or want it to disappear. But sometimes it can be interesting to get curious about the experience itself.

Try this: Without trying to fix it, notice its qualities. If the sensation had a movement, sound, shape or personality, what would it be?

6. FOLLOW YOUR DISTURBANCES

The things that interrupt our plans can sometimes be surprisingly interesting.

Something irritates you. Someone gets under your skin. You lose your train of thought. Something keeps going wrong.

Rather than immediately trying to get back to normal, become curious about the interruption.

Try this: Ask, if this disturbance wasn't just a problem, what experience is it bringing into my life?

7. NOTICE WHO HAS ENERGY FOR YOU

Pay attention to the people who fascinate you, irritate you, intimidate you, attract you or make you envious.

Sometimes another person can carry a quality, positive or negative, that feels difficult for us to recognise or live within ourself.

Try this: Forget about the person for a moment and notice the quality they represent to you. Wild? Free? Powerful? Sensual? Selfish? Certain? Playful?

Then ask: where do I need little more of that quality in my life, where could it be useful for me?

8. DON'T DISMISS YOUR FANTASIES AND DESIRES

We can be very quick to judge what we want.

Instead of asking whether a fantasy or desire is right, realistic or even something you should literally pursue, become interested in the experience underneath it.

Try this: Ask, what would I get to feel or experience if I had what I'm imagining?

Sometimes the deeper desire is quite different from the literal fantasy.

9. FIND YOUR EDGES

An edge is the place where you meet the limits of the person you know yourself to be.

I couldn't do that.

That's not me.

People like me don't behave that way.

I shouldn't want that.

There may be very good reasons for an edge. You don't need to smash through it. But it can be interesting to look across and see another way of being.

Try this: When you hear yourself saying “that's not me,” get curious.

Who would I be if, just for a moment, it was?

10. PAY ATTENTION TO THE UNEXPECTED

Coincidences. Accidents. Repeating themes. Strange encounters. Something someone says at exactly the right moment.

Just notice it.

Try this: At the end of the day ask yourself:

What happened today that I didn't plan?

What had energy?

What keeps appearing?

And see whether there is a pattern to what’s occurring.

And lastly…

You don't have to constantly analyse yourself and endlessly try to work yourself out, fundamental you are a mystery.

Dreaming is playful.

Follow what fascinates you, what disturbs you, what makes you laugh, what feels strangely alive.

Often you won't know where your dreaming is taking you.

And that's the best part, because you are more interesting than you could ever conceive, and worth exploring, fully.