Accessing our Dreams - Part 1
Part 1 – The Need and Importance of Dreaming
I was really struggling to find inspiration to blog this last week. I have loads of things that want to write about but just wasn’t feeling it! My writing buddy, Jeff, suggested I write about how I started podcasting* with my good friend Raoul.
As I started to write about the podcast I realised my lack of inspiration was a little deeper than just a ‘lack of inspiration’ but more about a lack of a dream to live out. So, I decided I would do a blog on dreaming. It became apparent that this was either going to be a longer read or I could split into a series of blogs. I decided on the latter option, this is the first of a series of four!
In this weeks blog we are going to delve into the need and importance of dreaming and pursuing your dreams.
Recently, I was having a conversation on the phone with my eldest son, he challenged me that i needed to to take some bold decisions about the future. He also suggested that I should not to take too long, because life is getting shorter for me ~ I am not sure I wanted reminding that I am getting older. However, it is true that I do not have the luxury to procrastinate for too long!
After the call I was doing some errands, and as I was walking back to the house thinking about the conversation, I realised that every time I tried to dream about the future, I was doing a risk analysis of everything, looking at the pro’s and con’s, the obstacles, the things to overcome. This is a really hinderance to dreaming. Instead, I decided to answer the question – What do I really want? If I could wave a hand and it would be done - what would I want to see? How would I want to be living?
I found this was actually quite a challenge, and, I became aware that it had been a number of years since I had had the courage to really dream like that.
All or most of us have or have had dreams. Dreams are good, I want to say I think they are essential. People often say that it’s good to dream but make sure they are realistic. I disagree. I think our dreams should be fantastical, unbelievable and impossible. They should stretch us and those around us. They should challenge our thinking and take us out of our comfort zone. They should enable and encourage us to explore the boundaries, to push the boundaries and make us re-evaluate ourselves and our surroundings. To ask ourselves if there were no limitations, no obstacles, what do I want? How do I want people to encounter me? How do I want to be remembered, how doI want to be thought of now? Dreams shouldn’t just be about the material things – living a certain way or have a particular standard of life - that is too small a thing. They should encompass thoughts of legacy and what impact do I want my life to have on the world around me, as well as having a spiritual and social aspect to them.
The problem with dreams that are realistic or doable is that they have not normally engaged our imagination. Dreams are aspects of the imagination. Dreams should imagine beyond the realistic. A place where we can imagine what it could be like. If everything fell into place, if everything goes according to plan, if it all works out perfectly and becomes a reality what would I really want to see. Realistic and doable, normally, has very little risk but dreams are risky by their nature. What risks are you willing to take? How vulnerable are you willing to become, because dreaming takes us to a vulnerable place. Of course, this will be different and look different according to who we are and how we are wired but they should stretch us whoever we are.
We all know life doesn’t very often work out perfectly, but that shouldn’t stop us dreaming that it might. It shouldn’t stop us aiming for the dream. I want to encourage us to dream like that, to imagine the best, believe the best, hope for the best and work for the best, knowing that our dreams will often need some adjustment but let’s not start there.
Often, when we are growing up we are encouraged to use our imaginations and enter into a ‘dream world’ and we dream of being popstars or footballers or doctors or a super hero or ….fill in the blanks…. and then one day we wake up and things have suddenly changed, the rules of the game have changed. People start to tell us to grow up, to be realistic, to live in the real world, to get a job. For many dreaming is then discouraged or at least when our dreams are shared it seems ice cold buckets of water get metaphorically poured over them. I’m not naive I know the statistics on how many people become elite athletes or popstars etc. and for some they just haven’t even got the talent -we’ve all watched the reality talent shows! Even then let’s not just crush the dream - let’s, gently help them to refocus their dream or to discover their dream. Then for others let’s help them realise they can still live the dream even if they don’t write a million-dollar film script but they can still write a film script and see it made, or make a living as an actor even if they don’t become THE star etc.
Dreams are important and sometimes they need adjustment, but we need to help people be the best that they can be, to fulfil the dream of living in another country, or owning their own business or owning an animal sanctuary or whatever it might be, to the level where they find fulfilment.
Coming back to that conversation with my son, I have tentatively started to do two things:
1stly, to start asking the right kind of questions – questions like ‘what do I really want’, if there were no restrictions what would I want to be doing, how do I want to be living?
2ndly, to start to reflect and look at what has/is stopping me from being able to dream again? I am not talking about the physical, material or circumstantial things but the internal barriers. The things that stop me engaging with my imagination and dreaming the fantastical, unbelievable and impossible, of imagining a life full of vitality and abundance that is life giving and fulfilling and a blessing to those around me.
If I am honest, I am having more success answering the second question and I am still struggling to get into that headspace for the first question at this moment. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising, as removing some of the obstacles that have stopped me from dreaming is a necessity in order to be able to dream!
In Part 2 we will start to look at some of those obstacles and some things that help us to start the process of dreaming again.
*if you want to access our podcast you can do so by searching : Hope in a Mad World on your favourite podcast platform such as Spotify, Amazon music, Apple music etc. You can access all the past episodes as well as listen to the current season.