OUR DREAMS OFFER US VALUE and enjoyment on multiple levels.

Perhaps the greatest value of the material in our dreams is its pragmatic nature. Our nightly dreams come to us in service of our daily health and well-being. Like a loving parent or mentor, our dreams offer insights into our own puzzling and sometimes confounding behavior patterns, the intricacies of our relationships, our physical and mental health and the world around us.

To these ends, our dreams offer us a unique perspective. Consider your dream’s apparent ability to view you and your daily life from above, as though from a helicopter. Our dreams seem to have a 360-degree view of us as well as the capacity to see us from within.

Maybe on a subconscious level we know what our dreams tell us, but we are often too deep in the forest of daily business to find the pathways our dreams readily see. No doubt, the language of dreams can be perplexing, but it can be learned. Those who take the time are rewarded with the universal “ah ha!” of self-knowledge and an opportunity to progress beyond a snag in their personal growth and development.

Our dreams also bring beauty in images and sensations that are not available to us in our waking lives. Their contributions to the creative accomplishments of some of the most exalted writers, artists, musicians and thinkers of all time are well-documented. And such dreams are available to us all.

Dreams of flying are among the most pleasurable of all. Most of us hold memories of such dreams for our lifetimes. They are valuable for the exhilaration alone, but can also offer the impetus to explore new horizons in life.

In each weekly column, we attempt to help dreamers make the connections their dreams present while sharing methods and strategies for working with dreams. Now we offer a series of Dreamwork Workshops for our readers’ benefit and enjoyment.

Sunday, June 7: Session 1 will offer dreamwork basics for understanding your dreams and applying their insights to your daily life and life-long aspirations. Recognizing symbols, metaphors, puns and wordplay are the building blocks we will explore.

Sunday, June 14: Session 2 offers advanced strategies developed by leaders in the dreamwork community, including Projective Dreamwork by Jeremy Taylor, Ph.D., co-founder of the International Association for the Study of Dreams and the Marin Institute for Projective Dreamwork; and Dream Themes by Robert Gongloff, past IASD president.

Sunday, June 28: Session 3 will explore the power and beauty of dream incubation and lucid dreaming. We will present methods for “hatching” a dream that responds to a dreamer’s specific problem or question. In addition, we will offer processes used to induce lucid dreams and the many possibilities such dreams raise.

For details visit Benicia Dreamwork Meetup: www.meetup.com/Benicia-Dreamwork-Meetup/?scheduleNow=true. You may attend one, two or all three sessions. Hope to see you there!

Sweet dreams to you, Dear Dreamer!

Carolyn Plath, M.Ed., is a Benicia resident and member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. Reach her at sendmeyourdreams@yahoo.com.

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