Accessing our Dreams - Part 3

Part 3 - Things that help us to engage and develop our imagination.

Over the past two weeks we have been looking at how do we access our dreams and bring them to reality. We have explored the importance of having dreams and some of the things that stop us dreaming or making them a reality. In this blog we will look at some things that help us engage with our imaginations in order to be able to dream and to help us to dream in a more focused way.

These are just a few ideas to get you started there are many more and I would encourage you to research more for yourself or contact me and I can give you more information (if enough of you ask I will write a blog on them!).

I’m going to briefly introduce some ideas to get you started. The key is to be intentional, disciplined, and consistent in practicing them. At first they might seem strange and awkward, particularly, if you have not been used to letting your imagination free.

Find a comfortable environment.

For me I have three go to ‘places’. I love walking in a quiet place with spots where I can sit down and think, or I lay on the bed with music but one of my favourite places is sitting in a coffee shop daydreaming. In all these places I seek to let my imagination wander, to daydream. I may use one of the exercises below to help me engage with God and to help me to dream. For you it will probably be different, and you will need to try different things and places at first until you find one or the ones that work for you.

Imaginative contemplation.

This is an exercise where you read a story and then imagine yourself either as a bystander taking it all in or as one of the characters in the story. I let my imagination wander with the characters in the story. When you are settled in the story you start to questions like: What would it smell like? How would I be feeling? How would I react? – this is a really good way to kickstart your imagination.

Films.

Watching films helps stimulate your creativity and imagination. I have a broad range of different genres that I watch, and I made a promise to God and myself a long time ago to allow my emotions to be released at these times. Films allow you to get lost in someone else’s story. After I have watched a film I will sometimes take some time to imagine myself there in the story. If I was moved or inspired by the story or theme ask questions. Why was I moved or inspired? Is it something I feel I should aspire to? What would that look like for me? What would/could be different? What would be unique? How should I explore this?  

Recently, I have watched two or three films that have really moved and inspired me. As I have prayed and meditated on why, it became clear that some of the characters in the film were at a similar stage in their lives to me and were facing similar challenges. As I thought about that and how they faced those things I started to ask myself what my response to my situation could be and started to engage my imagination and visualise what this next season might look like in the light of those thoughts.

Reading

Read the things you enjoy. Again, I have an eclectic bookshelf. I deliberately push my boundaries. I find books engage my imagination more than anything because you are imagining the scene, the smells, the colours etc. I love books where the author encourages you to do that by describing it. I remember reading The Godfather and The Sicilian by Mario Puzzo for the first time. I was captivated by his descriptions of the views of Sicily, and in particular the scent of the lemon trees. Even now as I am writing this I imagine I can smell those lemon groves!

After reading something that has stirred your imagination is a good time to go with that flow and focus on your dreams, your story. I will sometimes intentionally stop when I am reading something that has caught my imagination and imagine yourself in the story or take some time to think and imagine and develop things that I have been mulling over in terms of where or what I want to be doing in the future. But the reality is if you read things that you know will stretch you and engage your imagination then it becomes easier to get into the flow and use it other areas of your life.

Make a list.

Make a list of things you are interested in and then look for materials and research. Listen to stories and testimonials – watch a load of YouTube videos. Look for things that encourage you, inspire you, stimulate you to do bigger and better things.

Journaling.

Journaling is a great way to get things deep inside out of you, and infront of you. It can, for some people, be very releasing to write down thoughts, hopes, aspirations, dreams, and how they feel about it all. It seems that as you bring it all into the ‘light’ somehow it becomes more real!

People

Gather people around you who want you to succeed and want you to dream. People that will help and encourage you, even if they are not sure you are right. Having people, you trust to talk with about your dream is important. Find people that will encourage and challenge you to think things through. If getting it on to a page makes it more real, then speaking it out loud really makes it real! It is important to have people around you that you trust will facilitate you to see it from different angles and perspectives. Find a group of people with whom you can ‘brainstorm’ ideas. Make a list of people to share your dream with.

Honesty

Be ruthlessly honest with yourself about what you need help with to enter into this dream and then go and put those people and things in place.

Invest in trusting yourself.

We are often taught not to trust or be led by our imagination or our feelings. That is sort of good advice. You see, neither should we trust our (rational) mind. God has given us all three things to help us find a course forward: feelings, imagination, and our rational mind but all three being subject to the leading of the Holy Spirit. He has also given us a community to be part of to help us discern the way forward and He will use all three in us, in the midst of your community, to help guide and to discern the way forward and to dream impossible dreams and see them come to fruition.

Let me finish with this:

There is an African proverb –

“…it takes a village to raise a child…”

Let me apply this concept to say this:

“…it often takes a village to birth a dream...”

In the next blog we look at some ways to get started!