As we close our eyes and enter into sleep, our minds stay mysteriously active and we dream.
Though dreams can range from silly to confusing or even frightening, each of our dreams are important. We always have something to learn from the dreams that we dream.
But our dreams do so much more than simply awaken our imaginations. In fact, dreams are so important that if our dream sleep is interrupted or nonexistent, our bodies and minds are negatively affected. Through dream-filled sleep, we heal ourselves and find greater connection with our inner thoughts feelings and desire.
And through lucid dreaming, we can take our already healing dreams to a whole new level, as we gain control over their healing power and potential.
Defining Dreams
In a world of go-go-go, it is easy to write off dreams as silly and unimportant. But in fact, dreaming is an important process that uses the familiar in unusual ways to give us insight into our unconscious desires and needs. Essentially, dreams become metaphors that we can interpret to better our waking lives.
When we are awake, we are constantly restricted by reality, but in dreams we are free from time, space, and even the laws of physics—so we are free to explore our unconscious in interesting and useful ways. This is what makes lucid dreaming such an important tool for personal growth.
"Lucid dreaming has considerable potential for promoting personal growth and self-development, enhancing self-confidence, improving mental and physical health, facilitating creative problem solving and helping you to progress on the path to self-mastery."
Stephen Laberge, PhD
In the past, scientists were skeptical of lucid dreaming. Some even believed that lucid dreaming was a completely made-up phenomenon. However, recently there has been a shift in scientific thought about lucid dreaming. And now lucid dreaming is widely accepted as a possible and even useful possibility in human dreams.
Lucid dreaming has reached scientific status as a testable occurrence among lucid dreamers. By using brain scans, scientists have found that lucid dreamers can in fact achieve consciousness while dreaming.
For instance, lucid dreamers in the study at the Max Planck Institute were asked to perform a simple task before and during sleep, and the brain scans found the same brain activity in the dreamers in the initial test and while they dreamt. This amazing discovery has lead to greater attention to lucid dreaming in the scientific world.
The scientific nature of lucid dreaming leads to further questions. If we can truly harness the power of our dreams, what can it do for our emotional health? And how do we learn to use this power and take control of our own lucid dreams.
This is where lucid dreaming and the power of DreamLeaf comes in.
Reaching Beyond Our Dreams
If lucid dreaming only affected our sleeping minds, then the effect would be minimal. But our dreams have a profound effect on our waking lives and emotional and physical states. This means that the power of lucid dreaming can extend far beyond our sleep and into the intricacies of our lived experience.
This is because our dreams are intimately involved in our subconscious. The subconscious mind is a portion of ourselves that we cannot easily access in waking life, however, it governs every action we take without our knowledge.
In our dreams, we gain unique access to our subconscious, and the better we understand this portion of ourselves, the more control and understanding we can gain over our decisions and emotions.
This is evident when you look at the power of a dream to affect your waking emotions. Have you ever had a dream where you were fighting with a friend or hurt by someone you love? Often times after a dream like this, it takes time to separate your dream emotions from your waking feelings about that friend. This is because of the power our subconscious has over waking life.
With lucid dreaming, you are able to consciously experience your unconscious and work through your dream metaphors. Once you have done this, you can gain more emotional stability in your waking life.
Healing Emotionally with Lucid Dreams
Now that we understand the connection between dreams, the subconscious, and waking life, we can use these connections to heal ourselves.
One of the most common ways that lucid dreaming influences emotional healing is in relation to nightmares. A true nightmare can terrorize our minds in sleep and even in waking life. And when you have dealt with nightmares for even one night, you know how awful they can be.
But what if you could change the outcome of your worst dreams? With lucid dreaming, you can combat the terror of your nightmares by actually taking charge in your dream. Once you realize you are dreaming, you can do what it takes to return your control and undo the damage of a frightening experience.
It works kind of like fighting a boggart in Harry Potter. Lucid dreaming helps you to take the terrifying and turn it into the ridiculous. Instead of your dreams controlling you, you have the power to control your dreams.
And remember, the effects of these lucid dreams will extend into your waking life.
How to have lucid dreams:
Although truly anyone can learn to lucid dream, it can be a difficult. Natural supplements like Dream Leaf use the natural power of simple herbs and supplements that have been proven to increase your ability to lucid dream. The reason we lose the ability to control our dreams when we enter into sleep, on a neurological level, is due to the fact that acetylcholine dissipates. And this is because the neurotransmitter acetylcholine is the primary connector piece between your thoughts and your memories. The ingredients in Dream Leaf successfully maintain that connection, which can work wonders when you're seeking to start lucid dreaming as soon as possible.
For more on lucid dreaming techniques and such, this other article has some good ideas too. In the meantime, sweet dreams.
:)