Can Your Dreams Shape Your Future?

Yes, they could. 
Especially if you consciously daydream

Dreams are the images, thoughts and feelings experienced while we sleep.

While psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung saw dreams as an interaction between the unconscious and the conscious, noted psychic Edgar Cayce believed that we dream in advance of anything of importance that will happen to us. He saw dreams as tools for transformation.

Dream researchers say dreams can offer inspiration, contribute to our creativity, offer direction at crossroads in our lives and even afford us glimpses of the divine.

Unfortunately, a daydream - which is a fantasy, usually of pleasant thoughts and hopes, experienced while awake - is looked upon negatively because it represents ‘non-doing’ in a society that emphasizes productivity. We are under constant pressure to do, achieve, produce, succeed. But daydreaming can be beneficial in many ways and, ironically, can actually boost productivity. Plus, it’s something almost everyone does naturally.

From the first time we play make-believe, we begin dreaming about our futures. Ask preschoolers what they want to be when they grow up, and you’ll hear answers ranging from policemen to firefighters to astronauts – and every one of those dreams is achievable!

We all have a wish, a star, or an idea that we hope for in the future. To dream is to live a vision, to embrace magic, to see the future and its possibilities.

There are numerous examples of composers, novelists, and filmmakers, developing new ideas through daydreaming. Similarly, research scientists, mathematicians, and physicists have also developed new ideas by daydreaming about their subject areas.

Your personal dreamlist sows the seeds for your future. Everything we want begins with us thinking of it first. When we dare to dream, we dare to find ourself.

Dreaming is a path and if you follow it with perseverance you will be greatly rewarded. Keeping a written dream journal is a must. What are your dreams? What would you like to achieve? How would you like to love? What would you like to learn?

As soon as we connect our dreams to specific goals, we have greater focus, a better job, more money, a new car, quality family time, a new outlook on life, or anything else we can imagine. We build an energy bridge between our desired goal and ourself.

Olympic athletes and performers use this kind of visualization, which has been shown to help their performance in the way that actual physical practice does.

Practice conscious daydreaming. Let your mind wander, and instead of thinking about things you have to do, simply imagine things, places, people. You will in a much better mood with a clearer mind.

When you consciously dream about scenarios in which you’re trying to convince someone of something you believe in strongly, you are also in a sense getting to know yourself and what you stand for better.   At their best, daydreams allow you a range of possibilities which, in the hard cold light of reality, aren’t possible. The beauty of dreams is that nothing is impossible.

I invite you to consciously daydream (without any limitations) and share your top five dreams through this column. I promise that no names will be divulged if we analyse these dreams.

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Thought for the Week

“The future belongs to those who believe
in the beauty of their dreams.”

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)
First Lady of USA (1933 to 1945)

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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times