YOUR DREAMS & YOUR ART
 

Please bring your lunch, a spiral notebook, any art supplies you may want to use, and one, two or three dreams.

TIPS: This is a three-part process so I’m listing tips for RECALLING your dreams, RECORDING them and then RE-WRITING them for sharing, illustrating and/or revising as prose poems.
 
RECALLING DREAMS

You might be saying to yourself, “What if I rarely remember a dream and if I do it vanishes by the time I begin my morning routine?” No problem. Here’s what works:

• Before you go to sleep, tell yourself that you will remember a dream because you want to and because someone out there wants to hear your dream. That “someone” may be a close friend, a partner or a therapist. If you’ve had negative experiences telling dreams, you may choose to wait and share in our class, where you will have emotional safety. Throughout the years, I have innocently and wrongly assumed that selected friends or acquaintances would be interested in my dreams. It is wise to be cautious. (In my dream sharing classes, I enforce strict rules for feedback.)

 

• Have a small spiral notebook and a pencil or reliable pen by the bed to record dream snippets before you stand up. Sometimes standing up and walking can erase the memories. I know this from experience and have frustrated myself by forgetting important dreams. However, after you get into a routine of practicing dream recall you can write them while you’re having breakfast. They won’t fade so fast.

 

• Stay in the same position when you wake up to see if you have a dream memory. If you don’t then turn over – to your side, to your back, or any position you use for sleep – and be still for a few seconds to see if a dream memory comes.  I learned this technique decades ago from Patricia Garfield and it works very well.

RECORDING DREAMS

Write down whatever images come first even if you need to record the dream in reverse order. Details are important and sometimes forcing your mind to work in linear fashion will cause it to shut down or shut out key elements. Write as fast as you can. Go for images, feelings, people, words you heard and don’t assume anything is not important. Our conscious mind loves to make assumptions and often it is incorrect.
 
RE-WRITING DREAMS FOR SHARING
 
Now that you have the details, write the dream in chronological order and in the present tense. Why in the present? Because whether you now read it back to yourself or share it with another person, it will have a greater impact. You re-live it as if it were happening now – and that allows its power to work on your creative, artistic mind as well as the mind of the person who is listening.
 
If you have any questions, please call me at 303-635-6632 or email me at marywillix@earthlink.net.
 
I look forward to a powerful, fun and inspiring day with you, your dreams and your art,
 
Mary Willix