i can remember my dreams again!

Yay!! My dreams are back. For some time, I haven’t been able to remember my dreams, which bothered me because I’ve always felt my dreams were an important part of my inner life. When I was young, I often had vivid dreams of traveling outside my body. I really miss those dreams, if I should even call them dreams. I understand that it was in actuality astral projection, but I say dream because it happened at night during sleep, even though I was quite conscious.  From an early age I knew what astral projection was, and when it was happening with me. I was reading about the subtle bodies and soul travel in the works of Alice Bailey by the age of fifteen (who reads that stuff as a teen?? no wonder everyone thought I was weird!) Back in the day, one of my favorite songs by my favorite band, Yes, was Astral Traveller. There was one night during my teens when I was floating along, in the air, side by side with a sea turtle, I still clearly remember that I was accompanying that turtle to it’s death, it was simply understood, no words were spoken, and there was no fear or sadness. It was what it was. Some time later I remember being blown away when Sting released “dream of the Blue Turtles.” I always wonder what the connection is with events like these, and I believe the convergence of things in our lives is no accident.

Now how is it that I can so clearly remember a dream that happened so long ago, but I haven’t been able to remember any dreams from the past few years (with the exception of when I was sick or taking medicine)? Maybe I haven’t dreamed at all during that time, but that doesn’t sound right to me. Doesn’t everyone dream, whether they remember it or not? Is the forgetting of my dreams related to being depressed? Is the recent remembering related to a breakthrough of sorts, or is it the St. John’s Wort? It’s really tough to pinpoint a cause, because so much is going on. On top of the St. John’s Wort, I have also recently started taking Levoxyl at my doctor’s request, even though I loathe prescription drugs, because she said my thyroid was low. I hadn’t even considered this as a possibility until I started writing this. I know NOTHING about this drug, and when I expressed my reluctance to take it, my doctor said most women who go on this pill come back thanking her because they feel so much better. So let me say if you are feeling depressed, for God’s sake go get your thyroid checked! Couldn’t hurt. Guess I’d better do a little research on this, that should be good new post fodder. Anywaaaaayyyyy….

I’ve only begun to notice over the past week or two that the content of my dreams is staying with me during waking hours. I find myself thinking about the previous nights adventures, wondering what it means. I’ve always had a keen interest in the meaning of my dreams, although I do not really have a knack for interpreting them. I actually have a couple of dream dictionaries, and I’ve either never been able to find my dream in them, or the description of what I found didn’t really fit. I’ve decided that dream dictionaries are bogus, because our dreams are not ‘one size fits all,’ if two people had the same dream, it would mean something completely different for each dreamer.

As you probably know, even if you remember a dream when you wake up, it slips away as you get into your day. So if you want to remember your dreams, I recommend keeping a pen and paper right by the bed so you can write it all down before it gets away. Before I became able to remember my dreams, back when I could remember my dreams at all, they would come to me in the morning hours, something would trigger my memory. So I frequently found them slipping away from me again as I went about my daily routine. Maybe a solution for that would be to carry a dream journal or even a voice recorder.

I’ve seen some references to lucid dreaming in one of my favorite blogs, Steve Pavlina and even a post about astral projection. I’d like to explore lucid dreaming, I can remember a few lucid dreams from long ago, and as far as astral travel goes, I strongly feel that even though I’m not remembering it, I still travel out of my body at night. Remebering my dreams is a good sign for me that I am on the right path back to myself.

Interestingly enough, the title of this post has a dual meaning as it also refers to my waking dreams (my goals and hopes). My old interests have awakened within me, the things I felt passionate about when I was younger. I think to become whole again we must retrieve our dreams, because they are a huge part of who we are. If we abandon our dreams, we abandon ourselves. This requires the unlearning of all the well intended, dream crushing conditioning that we pick up from others and make our own, the conditioning that makes us into someone who we are not. (did that make sense? it makes perfect sense to me). I am beginning to feel quite alive again ( I say ‘beginning’ because I am still very tired at times) as I return to myself the dreams and ideals that I left behind so long ago in favor of being ’sensible’. It is very refreshing and encouraging to finally feel that I am in an upward spiral! In future posts I will write how I got this far, and I hope you will join me on this trip!