What we really want in life is to be spiritually connected and be filled with joy, right?  For me, this happens when I am connected to my inner Source. One open door to Spirit is through your dreams.

Last week, I was sitting in a coffee shop thinking about you and wondering what it is that I really want you to know about dreams. This is it. Understanding your dreams can be a source of joy and creativity.

How have my dreams brought me joy? There is an inner awakening that happens when I pay attention to my dreams. I can see things about myself that I totally miss in waking life. I love the “aha’s” I get from working with my dreams.

Even those pesky shadow figures point out aspects of myself that can use my attention. They are an invitation to own all of the parts of myself.

The goal in dreamwork and, in life, is wholeness. The more we know about ourselves, the more we can relax into who we are. We get glimpses of our true brilliance.

As I accept all of who I am, I unleash my creativity. I see that I am unique. I have gifts to offer the world! My dreams become the source of my own creative thoughts.

I hope that all of you are recording your dreams and working with them. May they be a Source of joy and creativity for you.

Please email me if I can help. Here’s the email address: nancy@nancyhuslage.com

Want to take a fresh look at your dreams? Here is a new question to ask yourself when you are thinking about that very strange dream you had last night. Ask yourself this: what is the point of transformation for me in this dream?

Let’s go over some basic steps for working on your dreams.

1. Record your dream in present tense. (“I’m in the grocery store….”)
2. Give the dream a headline, and make it specific. You want this headline to make the dream easily identifiable. You may have lots of flying dreams, so if you name every flying dream something simple, like, “flying”, it won’t help you find it after you have recorded hundreds of dreams. Instead, for example, say something like, “Flying over Madrid with Fairy Wings”.
3. Draw sketches of unusual images.
4. Remember, dreams come to break new ground and give us new insights.

While it is always preferable to work with someone, either one-on-one or in a group, there is some dream work you can do on your own.

I think one of the most valuable ways to work with the dream is through a little meditation exercise I have created. Read the dream and get a real “felt sense” of it. Now, close your eyes and ask yourself the question, “What is the point of transformation for me in this dream?”

Wait for a thought to come. It may take a few minutes. You want to allow the thought to emerge. This is a very different approach from taking each symbol and doing mental exercises to figure out what each symbol means.

In my experience, this is much more personal and deeper work. In this process, we are truly letting our dreams transform our waking life. This process takes us to the heart of the matter.

You may get a message, as one of my students did, to make a phone call he had been avoiding making. In working with the same dream, another person realized that she had a situation in her life that she was avoiding.

The thing to remember about dreams is they come to bring us health and wholeness, and they come to tell us something we do not know. So, allow new thoughts to emerge.

Dreams take us in a positive direction in our lives. Yes, even the nightmares!

This exercise will take you to one level of meaning of the dream, but every dream has multiple layers of meaning. Those other layers are best discovered working in a group. Stay tuned.
New groups, either in person, or by teleconference will be forming soon!

I remember one of the most transformational moments in my life happened at a dream conference in 1994. Jeremy Taylor was speaking and he said, “Much of the wisdom of the Universe is locked away in the unconscious. The way to bring it forward is through working with our dreams.”

That comment blew me away! I thought at that moment that I would spend my life getting people to bring forth their wisdom, and bring forth my own wisdom.

Just imagine a world where people lived fully conscious lives, knowing that, on some level, we know everything we need to know. What a world that would be!

Ghandi said, “Be the change you want to be in the world”.  That change starts with us. If you are like I used to be, I was always looking outside myself for how to be that change. I would look to different people I admired for the answers and then try to be like them.

That all changed when I “got it”. The wisdom that is unique to me is the way I change the world. The challenge is how to access that inner knowledge. There are several ways to access that wisdom: meditation, prayer, intuition.

For me, the most reliable way to my inner wisdom is through my dreams. Every night, my inner movie maker gives me something new to look at. What makes dreams reliable is that I can’t control the content that is coming forward!

How many times after having a dream have you said something like, “I couldn’t make this up if I tried”? The fact that my conscious mind is not in charge, to me, makes the information authentic. My mind isn’t editing what I experience!

The next step is learning to speak the metaphorical language of the dream, so that we are able to understand what our wise Self is wanting us to know. This takes practice.

I recommend working in a dream group or with someone trained in working with dreams.
In the next few weeks, I will be posting information about new dream groups forming. Stay tuned, this is a great year for working with your dreams.

I am in the process of writing a book on Transformational Dream Work.  I hope to be finished with it before the end of the year. Stay tuned!

Here’s one thing that the book will cover. As we have insights and “aha’s” in our dreams, what happens to them? Are we transformed by them, or do we just find them to be interesting? I remember Jeremy Taylor saying in a group something to the effect that he believes much of the wisdom of the Universe is locked away in the unconscious and dream work is the best way to bring that wisdom forward. I agree.

If it is true, then don’t we have a responsibility to integrate our new awareness? To keep it conscious?  Here are a couple of suggestions on how to embody the wisdom that has come forward.

Next time you are working in a dream group, or on your own,  and you have “aha’s” from your dreams or another dream that was offered, write down the insight. Later that day, or the next, sit down an do a little writing in your dream journal. Ask yourself these questions.

• If I put this insight into practice right now, how will my life be different?

• What are some steps I can take right now to use the information I was given?

It has been mine and my student’s experience that this is a very helpful exercise. Let me know what you learn from this process!

Today, my granddaughter starts first grade. This prompted me to ask the question, “If this were my first day of school, what would I study?” In the rhythm of the year, just as January 1 encourages us to have a new beginning, the beginning of a new school year nudges us in the same direction.

This is the time I pick up my dream journal and review my summer vacation dreams.  What did that snake that I took to the Catholic Church have to tell me? What did it mean the night that I dreamed I was engaged to 5 women at the same time? What were your summer dreams like? I clearly have things to learn from my dreams, and I imagine you do, too.

Come an join me in studying dreams this semester! There are two new Dream Circles beginning in September. Click on the calendar button to see dates and how to register.

Together, we will learn how to open the gifts our unconscious brings us through dreams.

Summer is a time of relaxation and a great time to begin a dream journal. Perhaps your days are a little lazier and you are not getting up with a “to-do” list a mile long. Upon awakening, don’t bolt out of bed. Instead, keep a journal or notebook and a pen next to your bed and record last night’s dream. By the time the busy fall season begins, you will have gotten in a habit of recording them. One of my dream teachers, Bob Haden, calls dreams “unopened letters from God”.  Imagine that! Every morning you receive a spiritual message from your unconscious. Why wouldn’t you want to start your day this way?

As you begin to collect this information, try to find a dream group or teacher in your area who can help you with your dreams. The practice of recording and working with your dreams can be a wonderful enhancement to your spiritual practice.

If you live in the Raleigh-Durham area, join me for a day-long retreat devoted to learning about dreams.  During this day, you will learn about the symbolic language of dreams. We will also spend time talking about archetypes and the collective unconscious. Most of our time will be spent working on the dreams that you bring. Through our work together, it is my hope that you will open some of your letters from the Divine!

Where: Dream Studio @ Angel Space, 3111 Lake Woodard Dr. Raleigh

When: July 21, 2012; 9am – 3pm

Cost: $60

Bring a bag lunch and your dream journal!

You may register by email, nancy@nancyhuslage. com, or to pay with credit card, just click the “register now” button.

I will be leaving on Sunday to attend the Haden Dream and Spirituality Conference in Hendersonville, NC. I will be leading dream groups at the conference, as well as attending and learning. I’ll have my I-Pad with me and intend to take you to the conference. I hope to blog about my experience several times while I am there.

The Haden Institute has a wonderful Dream Leader training program. I was in the first group to attend the training. Bob Haden brings the finest Jungian dream teachers to teach in the program. I will always be grateful to Bob for such great learning.

This is the first year that dreams and spirituality have been combined at the conference and I look forward to hearing from the spirituality teachers. As those of you who have been in a dream group with me know, I think that working with dreams is a wonderful spiritual practice. For me, the world of dreams and the world of Spirit are not separate!

So, come with me and I’ll share my learning with you.

Have you ever had a dream where you are in an expanding house?  In my version of this dream,  I am living in a house (usually not my current residence) and I keep discovering new rooms.  Sometimes I have to crawl through tight spaces. After I get through a tight space, I find myself in a beautiful new room I have never seen before.

This dream is showing me that I am expanding my view of myself, symbolized by the larger home.  In my dreams, it is often about a new insight about the Universe. Essentially, I am in the midst of a pretty significant spiritual expansion. If the dream includes squeezing through a tight space, I may have been through a tough time and see myself emerging into a new awareness.

I usually awaken from this dream feeling affirmed and happy that I am expanding my view again.

Do you ever have this dream?  What is your does your version look like?

Many times when people begin paying attention to their dreams, it is because they have had a terrifying dream of someone dying. They are afraid that someone they love is actually about to die. Very rarely are these dreams prophetic. More often than not, death in dreams is about a deep spiritual transformation occurring in the dreamer.

Something that is no longer serving us is being transformed by our psyche. The old perceptions must die to make way for new ideas. We are beginning to awaken to a new awareness or a new spiritual or psychological insight.

When I am in a period of transformation, I will often have dreams of death. Now that I understand that something is shifting when death comes in a dream, I get excited.

There is a  theory about why our unconscious brings us such a disturbing image when something so powerfully positive is happening to us spiritually. It is really quite simple. We will remember the dream!

Two of my favorite dream authors comment on this. Jungian analyst, Marion Woodman, says, “Our dreams disturb in order to illumine.”  My mentor and teacher, Jeremy Taylor, says, “There is no such thing as a “bad dream” — only dreams that sometimes take a dramatically negative form in order to grab our attention.”

Next time you have a dream of death, or or someone pursuing you, and you think you are going to be killed, celebrate! You are in the midst of a positive transformation.

Well, I’ve finally done it.  I have rented office space!  My good friend, Mary Mooney has a wonderful healing place that she calls Angel Space. It is on a large plot of land with a pond. It is used by several healers and has great energy. I have an office dedicated to dream circles, spiritual teaching, and workshops. I will also have my individual spiritual direction and dream work practice there. The address is 3111 Lake Woodard Dr. in Raleigh.

Getting to this place has not been an easy process. I had some resistance and thought, “what if nobody comes?”. At first, I talked to Mary about renting a space two days a week, but also asked for a price for renting a space full time. Renting part-time would have been like putting my toe in the water. Just last week, on this very blog, I promised to not be sidetracked from my passion to do more dream work.

I woke up on Thursday morning and every ounce of my spirit said, “Go for it!”. I called Mary and rented the space. It has been my experience that when we take that first step toward our highest calling, the Universe comes rushing in to support our “yes”. This was no exception. I checked my email shortly after renting the space and found a note from the editor of a website, AllThingsHealing.com, saying that they are featuring me next week!  She also mentioned needing a co-editor of the Dream Medicine area of the website. We are talking about that tomorrow to see if my taking on that role is a good fit.

This experience has reminded me that we are supported as we make what seem to be quantum leaps of faith. We don’t do it all ourselves, the Divine is there to support us a soon as we have the courage to make the first step.

I have updated the calendar on the uncoveryourdreams.com website with new dream circles and a wonderful class called “Women Living in the Light”. Please contact me by phone or by email to sign up.

I leave you with a quote from Marion Woodman, “Our banquet of dreams is spread each night. We can choose to eat. We can choose not to eat.”