According to Wikipedia, a dream is a succession of images that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Dreams can be an enigma, an invisible transcendent world of thought, feeling, attitude, belief and imagination. Most of our dreaming is done during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. It is accompanied with low muscle tone and the propensity of the sleeper to dream vividly. The eye movement themselves may relate to the sense of vision experienced in the dream.
REM sleep occurs within the first 90 minutes of falling asleep and the rem sleep cycle repeats several times during the night. It accounts for approximately 20-25 percent of an adult’s sleep cycle and 50 percent of an infant’s. So, it’s no small wonder why we have dreams.
Dreams are part of the landscape of our minds. All of our experiences are recorded, whether we want to remember or not. The good, the bad and the ugly; it is stored and waiting to be inventoried. Even when we are awake we might take a stroll down memory lane remembering, bringing back those pictures of the good times, the happy times. Most of us do not want to remember the bad and the ugly. Because it is just that UGLY. However, when we are sleeping our minds will sometimes unravel, dream and take us on a journey. It is free to take its own wild inventory. We’re not the boss anymore, we’re sleeping.
WE MAY GO FOR A WILD JOY RIDE BEFORE IT’S OVER
It may feel like a roller coaster ride experiencing all the physical manifestations as if the body is actually in the dream; sweating, rapid heart rate, rapid breathing, laughing, yelling and screaming. Some may refer to the mind as being in a primal state. We can not be the director of these irrational movies of bewilderment. We don’t even get to choose the actors or the scene. Upon awaking we try in our own way to make sense of what lead us to dream what we dreamed. That’s if we can remember it. Sometimes we’re just left with pieces of a puzzle, picking up the pieces of a dream.
ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT…
Our physical body takes all the nutrients from our food; once it gets what it needs it gets rid of the rest in the form of waste. Perhaps our minds need to do a similar thing in order to further process our past or give us a glimpse into the future. Sometime we may have the same reoccurring dream over and over again. We relive the hurt, the pain, the insecurity and fear. In some ways we may feel that we our being further tormented, that our mind is betraying us. But perhaps it is what our mind needs to do in order to row the boat down that river towards healing and new discovery. It may need to happen over and over until we get there, to a place of PEACE, HOPE AND LOVE.
IT’S SHOWTIME!
Dreams can also be entertaining. There has rare times where I have dreamed in sequences. I would wake up. Go to the bathroom, come back, fall back to sleep and pick up where I left off. I thought it was pretty cool because it was a fun dream. It was like going to the movies.
Try to keep a pen and paper close by on your night stand. Upon awakening (if you can remember) WRITE down whatever you can remember. Keep a DREAM JOURNAL. There might be some interesting stuff in there. There may be a story, art, music or you may even gain further insight into solving a problem of some sorts. Whether you are a writer, scientist, artist, butcher, baker or candle stick maker you might be able to create something worthwhile and learn more about the psyche.
Some of the Spanish artist Salvadore Dali’s artwork depicts very dreamlike imagery. The German organic chemist, August Kekule discovered the carbon ring in 1865. In a dream he saw atoms dancing around linked together. Then in a second dream he saw atoms forming themselves into strings and moving in a snake like fashion and formed an image of a snake eating its own tail. This dream gave Kekule the idea of the cyclic structure of benzene.
So, what have you been dreaming lately? Perhaps you are sitting on a wealth of ideas and imagery that can lead you write, to create, to heal, to love, smile and laugh. Remember, let’s not take ourselves too seriously. JUST KEEP ON ROWING. IT GETS EASIER WHEN YOU’RE ROWING WITH THE CURRENT.
ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT
GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM
MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY, MERRILY
LIFE IS BUT A DREAM
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