Dreams arouse creativity by simply being dreams. By their very nature, the experiences we have when we’re dreaming show us unexpected, innovative ways of representing and engaging with reality.
Reflecting on and paying attention to our dreams is, itself, a creatively inspiring and supportive act. Witnessing dream energies opens us to the imaginative domain of a consciousness that says, by example, that we can do things like fly, shape change and breathe underwater in the dream world.
Because dreams appear to us the way they do, revealing previously not thought of or seemingly impossible scenarios and combinations, they provide a rich source for influencing and informing our creative lives while we’re awake.
By apprenticing ourselves to the spirit of our dreams, we connect with perceptions, energies and feelings that can easily spark off ideas for how to cast similarly vibrant states of being, images, writing and forms of music in the waking world.
One way to invite the energy of the dreams to inform our creative endeavors is to look into the dreams to see if they are addressing our waking life creative projects and desires naturally. Dreams will often spontaneously offer up experiences that readily weave into the efforts we’re making while awake. This happened for me when I was recording my meditation and dream incubation album, “Yoro Yoro”.
The night before going into the studio to record tracks for the album, I had a dream that allowed me to inhabit a spirit of the feeling that we wanted to express with the music. The more one is engaged in creativity in waking life, the more the dreams will stir in their own unexpected products, experiences and images related to that endeavor.
Perhaps you are looking to the dreams to motivate and unlock creative juices that aren’t currently running freely. In this case, it can be helpful to incubate dreams that can assist in the movement of creative energy within and without. To incubate a dream is simply to ask for a guiding and helpful experience in the dream state, before going to sleep at night that can help point out ways to liberate the creative energy flow. In this case, the dream might show an inner obstacle that is in the way of making forward progress and provide a hint or clear example of the next step.
For instance, if I’m experiencing “writer’s block”, the dreams will (at the very least) show my various inner attitudes or waking impediments to allowing the muse to come forward. Maybe the dream will show that I have an old judgment about the worth of my abilities or the value of writing itself. The dreams may also reveal how I might not be fashioning the best environment for my writing in waking life. Is the space I’m writing in supportive enough for my process? Are there distractions that myself, or others are placing across the path of my development? These themes could apply to any creator finding him, or her self stuck on the trail to expressivity. How can I dance with those roadblocks? The dreams will evoke multi-leveled and symbolic means for freeing up the energy. Sometimes we may have to go deeper into the blocks themselves before we can move on.
On a related wavelength, the dreams tend to offer up direct, metaphorically clothed solutions, examples and ideas for addressing a specific creative enterprise. Many artists and creators go to dreams, and look for appealing expressions within them, to draw out potential motivations and material for waking life creative outlets.
The more we give time and energy to our creative quests while awake, the more likely the dreams are to comment on them and to provide clear answers or solutions. This is especially true with the effort to incubate, hatch or grow dreams that speak to our waking life questions. It helps to form clear and direct, simple queries to present to our dreams. Just before going to sleep at night and as often as possible throughout the day, it also helps to establish these inquiries and to repeat them in one’s mind while gently intending to receive help from the dreaming source.
Examples you might like to play with in this undertaking include the following (feel free to craft your own questions along these lines – the more you put the questions in your own words, the more likely the dreams will be to respond in clearly understandable forms. I recommend keeping them simple and short):
- What’s blocking my ability to create?
- How can I be more creative?
- What’s the solution to my creative project?
- What does the spirit of my own creativity look like?
- How do my dreams inspire creativity?
May your dreams and creativity be sparked and supported by the ideas presented here! The more we give time and reflection to both our dreams and creative endeavors, the more each will provide helpful and gratifying outcomes for the unfoldment of our rich and vital human and interconnected soul potentials.