A dream, at least as we’ve come to understand the word through popular songs and daily speech, means something like 'a desire for something that probably couldn't be' or 'something we wish for that's pretty unlikely,' like dreaming about how we're going to spend all that money when we finally win the Mega Millions lottery.

So, what’s all this talk about dreams in relationship to the real issues that arise during psychotherapy or career counseling? Isn’t talk about dreams just some kind of wishful thinking or magical mumbo-jumbo that really doesn't make sense in the context of something so real and practical and necessary?

Well, as it turns out, modern neuroscience is starting to validate some of the insights of the early pioneers of dream research who stated that dreams are expressions of our emotional states They are an attempt by the mind to integrate and resolve emotional conflicts in our lives.

Carl Jung, one of those early pioneers, once said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” That's a pretty powerful statement of how our inner life can interfere with the conscious intentions that we have for our lives.

If Carl Jung were alive today in our age of sound bytes and marketing messages, he probably would have said something like, “#Dreaming ain’t for sissies!” … Okay, he probably wouldn’t have said that, but I would say to do your dream work is not for the faint of heart, because it does bring you into contact with some powerful forces in your life.

A couple of weeks ago I was driving into Boston to teach a class in dream interpretation. I was running late and I was starting to feel stressed out. I was in a hurry, and I was worried about my students standing in the cold. And I felt like I was fighting the traffic and just generally in a rush. As I got to the top of the Tobin Bridge and I saw the lights of the city, I was struck by how crowded and oppressive it felt. How unwelcoming. It just felt like this unfriendly place full of stressed out and isolated individuals.

Well just a couple of days ago, I was taking the same route, over the same bridge, to the same class. But, this time I was consciously trying to let go of the worries of the week. And I was trying to get myself into a place of relaxation and openness, so that I could authentically talk with my students about dreams. 

And as I got to the top of the bridge, I saw the city lit up. And it was beautiful. I had this intimation of all of the lives lived in that city, each one with it’s own richness and adventure, each one with it’s own struggle and beauty. It truly was a beautiful sight.

So, what had changed? What was different? 

The city was the same city.

I was different. I had changed.

Something inside of me had shifted so that what I saw outside of me looked and felt different. Our inner life -- not only does it shift how we experience the world, but it can literally change our perceptions. We are projecting our inner life onto the world at all times. And our dreams can show us what it is that we're projecting. Our dreams reveal to us the colors with which we paint the world.

When you work with your dreams, it brings you into contact with the voices inside you that tell you what you long for, that long to express your deepest creativity and authenticity. It can also bring you into contact with the voices that resist and block your authentic self. By paying attention to your dreams, and working with your dreams, you can begin to dissolve those blocks and lend strength to the creative part of your personality. 

So, maybe those old songs, in their own way, spoke to a real, authentic truth. And maybe we should dream, when we’re feeling blue. Dream, because that’s the thing to do. Things never are as bad as they seem…

Take good care.