|SPIRITUALITY|PANDEMIC|DREAMS|LIFESTYLE

Have Your Dreams Been “Extra” Lately?

Why your dreams reflect our new normal

Wherever you live on the planet, I’m certain your normal lifestyle has been affected by current events. It might be a drastic change. Layoffs, homeschooling, social distancing, and social upheaval are serious issues we now deal with daily. We’ve been doing this for months and it takes its toll in many ways. There has been intense togetherness for some, and disorienting isolation for others. No handshakes, no hugs, no visits with family and friends is not natural behavior for us. Even we introverts interact on occasion.

Has your sleep pattern changed? Perhaps because you are working from home or homeschooling the children. Even with relaxed restrictions, there are still masks and lots of hand sanitizer, and still no hugs.

Your conscious mind is dealing with this by adapting to change, but that is not easy, especially when there are conflicting information and a big unknown factor as to the outcome. No surprise your subconscious and your dreams are working overtime trying to deal with an onslaught of new, and sometimes frightening, information.

Many of my dreams have been different recently. They are usually vivid, but I’ve had a fair number of dreams in black and white or sepia. Sepia is a new dream color for me. Many times I’m in a crowd and I’m interacting with a team on covert missions or trying to solve a mystery. There was one dream with green people, but I’ll skip that for now.

I’ve kept dream journals for many years. There is quite a collection. I record my dreams as soon as possible because the recollection of most of them slips away rather quickly. Unless it’s a dramatic dream, I usually don’t think about it much, but I write names, descriptions of people and places, colors, numbers, keywords, and answer a few questions about the dream experience. I leave a blank page for future notes because when I review these dreams I tend to find many things connecting both dream life and mundane life. Fascinating, and a source of valuable information.

Many people have experienced changes in their dreams during the past few months. This makes sense. I’ve discussed many dreams with friends and family over the past few months because so many of them are puzzled by their dream content. This is understandable. We experience linear time on a day to day basis, seconds, minutes, hours, days. Time is more complex, more fluid. We all experience this with intuition, thinking of a song and hearing it within a short time, or thinking of someone only to have them call you. Recent events have turned many of our time tables upside down. Even if you still maintain a fairly regular schedule, new standards for public health safety and events in the news are mind-boggling. All of this is filtered through your dreams.

Aboriginal people in Australia believe our waking time is not real, but Dreamtime is our true reality. It is food for thought. Dreams do help us cope with our reality, new and old. You can use your dreams constructively to help you solve problems. The key is to pay attention to what your dreams are telling you. There is a wealth of knowledge in your dreams. Not only do they help you deal with change and with stress, but they can also open the door to new experiences and creative solutions.

If your dreams have changed there may be answers to questions hidden there like buried treasure. Here’s a tip for you. Try writing them down, or even voice recording them for a week. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate system. Keep this as simple as possible. After a week, review your dream notes. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what you find. Look for a trend or words that may reoccur. Because I usually record my dreams on awakening, I don’t remember much about most of them until I do a review. I have had dreams that changed my life’s course. That’s a tale for another day.

We are keeping things uncomplicated today. These can be trying times. Think of your dreams as another tool to help you cope with known or unknown causes for stress. You don’t have to do much to use this tool, just sleep. What you do with the information you gather is the key. Wishing you all pleasant dreams.

Thank you for taking the time to read this story. Much appreciated. You can find me and my stories right here: