The Dream and the Dreamer

[Lynn Serafinn]

My book "The Garden of the Soul" is about the process of becoming whole.

To me, that process is often facilitated by our dreams--both our daydreams and deepest desires, as well as the dreams we have when we sleep at night. And while the overall book is not about dreams per se, I did use some of my own actual dreams to propel the story of "The Garden of the Soul", and I also gave several other parts of the book a dreamlike quality when I wished to dive more deeply into the process of my own personal evolution.

I don't remember my dreams every night, but when I do remember them, the memory of them tends to be powerfully vivid. To this day I can still remember one particular dream I had 40 years ago, when I was about 14 years old. I remember it because I knew at the time it was a message from my inner Voice calling me to step into my authentic Self. But although I knew this at the time, when I was 14, I wasn't ready to hear this "hero's call".

I am no dream "scholar", but I have interpreted my own dreams for years, as well as helped others in my life to understand their own. I believe that every "character" in our dreams is really an aspect of our own selves that is speaking to us. I also firmly believe when we have a truly vivid dream that stays in our memory in great detail, it means that we are in deep process with something highly significant. For me, dreams of that nature ALWAYS signalled a message from my "authentic voice", and were there to show me "the path of least resistance to my Self".

I never believed that dreams could ever be "interpreted" by anyone but the dreamer. As a coach, I also hold that same ethical stance... that the significance of anything (dreams or not) that occur in a client's life can only truly be understood by the client. However, as a coach, I always attempt to provide a clear mirror to the client so he/she can see the significance that may be there.

And what is so interesting about that is that I have also had to apply this same strategy when writing my book. I wanted to include several dreams in my book for purpose of unfolding certain concepts I was discussing. But I didn't want my "rational mind" to get in the way of truly understanding the dreams. It was an interesting process of simply telling the story and then allowing the metaphors to speak for themselves.

Using dreams as vehicles to create a mystical and other-worldly environment was a great experience for me in the writing of "The Garden of the Soul". It allowed me tremendous freedom to explore the realm beyond what seems "logical" or "possible". And in doing this, I found I gave myself much more freedom to write in a genuinely expansive way in other parts of the book that were not, technically speaking, taken from "dreams".

But as one of my own coaches said to me once, "It's ALL made up by you... so how can you say one story is more of a dream than another?"

So let the dream and the dreamer awaken within you. Let them dance, fly, swim, sing and transform. Do not believe that your writing (or your life!) need be limited by what the mind knows to be logical. Step into your land of dreams, both sleeping and wakeful one, and tell us your stories.

Sweet dreams,
Lynn
"The Garden of the Soul" website coming in January:
http://www.give-receive-become-be.com
Free chapters from "The Path of Least Resistance to the Self" at:
http://www.create-a-life.co.uk/articles/least_resistance_request.html
My coaching website:
http://www.create-a-life.co.uk