Creative Goal Setting for 2010

A. Make a list of your CREATIVE GOALS for 2010.

-- Any projects that you've started and want to finish, ideas you've had but never started, projects that pay the bills, projects that seem unrealistic, dream projects and forgotten scripts. Make a comprehensive list.

B. Now, prioritize those goals.

-- Number them starting with 1. Which is most pressing? Which is most urgent? Which is most important to you?

C. Now, starting with Project #1, make a list of the steps you need to take to take that project to completion.

Example:

1. Finish Ghostwriting Novel

-- Ten pages a day for ten days

-- Collect photo images

-- Ask agent about how to insert into manuscript

-- Notes from author

-- Notes from agent

-- Final polish

D. Do this for each project.

E. Now, go back and assign dates for each of these steps. The date by which it will be completed.

F. Now, put the list away and close your eyes. Which project has your heart? Why aren't you working on that one? What can you do to make room for that project?

G. Visualize yourself at the end of your creative journey for that dream project, your heart project. What does it look like? Are you holding an Oscar in your hand? Are you signing books at the Union Square B&N? Are you shooting a film? Are you staring up at the marquee with your name in lights?

DREAM BIG!!!!

timothy karpinski

Thanks to Lauren Graham, I have recently been introduced to the work of Timothy Karpinski and have just fallen in love with the quiet, peaceful meditative qualities of his images. Perhaps it's my childhood in WV, but his paintings conjure those nights under the handmade quilts in your Grandma's guest bedroom. The nights when you slept peacefully and dreamt of snapping green beans, woke to the smell of pancakes and bacon.

Want to bring your attention to his website, paintings and installation work.

From his site, Timothy says:

From a young age ive always been making things. Building forts turned into building skate ramps which lead to building art installations. I love the art making process, from the initial spark of the "idea", the creation to the finished product. Art for me is very personal and everything i make is a direct reflection on my feelings about this world and my struggle and fascination with trying to understand it and find my purpose within it.

His artwork is available at:

Los Angles - Thinkspace Gallery: http://www.thinkspacegallery.com/

Portland - Together Gallery: http://www.togethergallery.com/

Or check out his website: http://www.timothykarpinski.com/

free membership to omebo.com

THIS WAS SENT TO US BY DAILY CREATOR, LUCIA:

There is a really dynamic website that I would like to share: http://omebo.com

This is a web-site that a friend of mine (Blake Roberts), who is an inspiring, loving, thoughtful & generous human being & artist started as an open forum for maintaining & documenting individual dreams. Blake has offered me & any of my friends free membership. So come on board & join Omebo.com!!!

Here is a little info about Omebo.com:

Omebo is an online magazine dedicated solely to promoting, inspiring and helping people to live their dreams. Each month we do features on members of Omebo from all around the world who are want to share their story, their dreams and their world with us. We have a collection of some the most amazing and inspiring stories, told by individuals in their own words. Since the beginning of Omebo, we have three of our members who have already had their dreams come true, shortly having others read them and come to their aid. We also just gave out our first $1000.00 Ombeo members scholarship to a member to aid in helping them fulfill an immediate need. In addition to our popular Expressions section we have articles and entertainment and lots more to come!!!! Take a tour at www.omebo.com

Here is how to sign up for free membership:

Go to www.omebo.com click on the Sign UP and go directly to the sign up page. Then click on the drop down where it says type of membership, put in promo, then complete the rest of the information requested...in the bottom box it will ask for promotional code. type in friends1825 and you will have a free membership. Please feel free to give the promo code to anyone and everyone that you think might be interested in Omebo. For the next 90 days we are offering free memberships to anyone who wants to join the site. We don't allow anyone under the age of 14 years old however.

your creative space

I've been thinking about the separation of creativity from the work it takes to be creative. By this I mean, we artists spend a tremendous amount of time filling out grant applications, hustling to get our work seen, sending out resumes or samples of our work, schmoozing at events so we can meet the "deciders" of our fate, going on auditions, trying to lock down an agent or manager, applying for residency programs, etc.

And then, add on top of that that a big percentage of us still have to have a "safety job" as I like to call them - a job that might be completely unrelated to our creative work and where do you find the time to actually CREATE???

TODAY'S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Look at your current creativity space. How much of the space is devoted to pure creativity and how much is devoted to "the hustle" of being an artist?

Do you have bills, applications, gym schedules, your "to-do" list, headshots, resumes, etc. stacked on top of that script you're trying to finish, that painting you just sketched out, that table that's supposed to be for collaging, designing, dreaming?

Do you have files of your past taxes, your car repair log, your press clippings hanging alongside your inspiration file, your notes on a character, your dream file? Do you even have a dream file???? A file that holds images of things you hope to one day do, see, be, own or create. Get one!

Is there a way to create a division between the two sides of your business as an artist?

Because we have two major goals: Create and Give The Creation To The World. That's it. That's all we're supposed to be doing.

Of course, we also have to eat and pay the rent so...we apply for grants, we fax press releases, we do the Artist Hustle.

Can we atleast use our physical surroundings to separate the two? Separate the Creative from the Hustle?

Look at your space. It can be a physical, visual, spiritual, mental separation - whatever works for you.

beyond concurrent control

“Looking at yourself in the mirror isn’t exactly a study of life”
Lauren Bacall

No, but it might be a start for helping us move beyond concurrent control into lucid consciousness. Let’s practice again, using another one of the experiments from Ms. Levitan’s and Mr. LaBerge’s Testing the Limits of Dream Control: The Light & Mirror Experiment.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Today, observe your reflection in a mirror. Notice the details of your face without judgment! You are a scientist. You are an observer. Touch your face with your hand. Touch your hair. Watch your reflection closely. Before you go to sleep, visualize your reflection. Try to remember the details of your hand movements and facial expressions. As you drift to sleep, tell yourself TONIGHT I WILL SEE MYSELF IN A MIRROR IN MY DREAMS.

As you dream, see yourself rise out of bed and find the mirror. See yourself reflected in it. Now, make your hands move over your face and hair. Tell yourself that this is a dream and you are now lucid. Try to walk through the mirror to see what is on the other side.

When you wake up, make sure to record your experiences in your journal.

lucid dreaming

”Why exist in symbols when you can transcend into direct insight.”
-- Tony Crisp

In Testing the Limits of Dream Control: The Light & Mirror Experiment, Lynne Levitan and Stephen LaBerge, the founder of the Lucidity Institute at Stanford, define “concurrent control” as the ability to determine or alter the course of a dream as it happens.

They argue that concurrent control is not limited to lucid dreaming, but occurs anytime we act in a dream even if that action happened unconsciously. The goal for our work is to move beyond concurrent control into lucid consciousness. We want to be able to make deliberate choices and take action during our dream. We want full knowledge that we are experiencing a dream and we want to be able to observe the effects of our choices. We want the ability to stop a dream, go back and begin another course of action.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Ms. Levitan and Mr. LaBerge performed experiments as part of the “Night Light” studies to determine how successful people are at accomplishing a well-defined task in lucid dreams. Let’s use a version of their methodology to experiment on ourselves.

Today, practice turning on and off the light in your room. Look at the light, look at the switch. If you have a dimmer, notice the changes in the light brightness. This is your practical rehearsal. Before you go to sleep, visualize yourself turning the light one and off. Try to remember the details of your light switch and the quality of the actual light’s brightness. As you drift to sleep, tell yourself TONIGHT I WILL MAKE MYSELF TURN ON A LIGHT IN MY DREAMS.

As you dream, see yourself rise out of bed and find the light switch. Turn it on and turn it off. Now, try to turn the lights on and off by just willing it to happen. You don’t need to touch the light switch. Try to change the quality of the light from dim to bright. What else can you do?

When you wake up, make sure to record your experiences in your journal.

a dream of on-going significance

”A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

In my 20’s, I had a dream that I was climbing a very steep mountain someplace far away like Nepal. And as I was climbing, my hair became longer and curlier and I was aging into my 30’s and then my 40’s and I was becoming stronger, more competent and more beautiful. I understood, even while I was dreaming, that the mountain was a symbol for my life. That I would ascend but the climb would be a challenge but I would reach the top in my 40’s and that I would have amazing, long curly hair when I got there.

That dream has been with me for ten years now. An analyst would say it is a dream that has “on-going significance” because my memory of it is as vivid now as it was the day I had it. The interpretation ten years ago relied on my unknown future. At that time, the mountain symbolized the passage of time, climbing toward success, the struggle to reach the top.

Ten years later, the dream has taken on a much more literal layer of meaning. I am approaching my 40’s (how did that happen?), am growing out my hair (which is coming in curly and gray!) and have been writing about a journey to Nepal.

Maybe that mountain wasn’t a symbol of my career – maybe it was an actual mountain in Nepal! Regardless of whether the dream was prophetic or symbolic, it has sustained me for nearly ten years.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Is there a dream, in your memory, that has on-going significance for you? Think back to the night when you had that dream and what it meant to you then. Spend the day today meditating on that dream, trying to remember its details. Why was it significant? Why has it stayed with you?

How has your interpretation of the dream changed from then to now? Has the dream been instructive in any way? Has it influenced any choices you have made? Write all this down in your journal and take note of any “body truth” that might shake loose while you’re remembering.

"Three things cannot long be hidden the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
- Confucious

What does it feel like to recognize the truth of a dream? For me, the big sign that I’ve been shown a fundamental personal truth is that I burst into tears. That’s not an exaggeration, I actually burst into tears for about 30 seconds and then it’s over.

It’s rare that a dream moves me to tears but when it happens, you better believe I pay attention! I have learned these tears are not sadness but are instead the way my body releases tension and expresses a profound touch to my heart. It’s taken me a long time not to judge these “truth tears” and to stop stuffing them back down. I kept placing the improper interpretation upon them. I called them “despair” or “upset” when in fact, they are joyful, tears of relief! It’s my body’s way of saying to me:

I’ve been banging you over the head for a month about this, thank God you finally heard me!

People respond to truth in numerous ways. A friend recently told me that she becomes physically sick if she’s doing something “off her path” while another friend uses the phrase “the chill of truth” which reminds me of those tingles you get up and down your spine.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Tonight, give yourself 10 or 15 minutes in bed, alone, to meditate. Dim the lights and if you want, listen to some music. Use our “Watering The Garden” or our “Fruit Morphing” meditations to center yourself.

Tell your subconscious that you are ready to face a truth. Ask your dreams to make this truth very clear to you by showing you very literal representations and speaking to you clearly. Thank your subconscious in advance for the help it is going to give you tonight.

When you wake up and write down your dream, notice how your body is responding. Are you sleepy and numb? Is your stomach in knots? When you feel something, stop and breathe into it. Clear your mind and take a moment to listen internally. What is your body trying to tell you right now? How is it related to the dream?

life is art is life

“Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter.”
Alice Walker

In the past few days you have identified some recurring themes or symbols and sought out possible interpretations of those symbols. Do you recognize any of these symbols, themes in your creative work?

You’ve also interpreted a dream in detail. Does that interpretation relate to any of your creative work? When you receive feedback or criticism of your work does it sound anything like those interpretations? Are the two related? Just as you identified the recurring themes in your dreams, I want you to now turn that detective vision onto your creative work.

I dream often of pools, swimming in them, being able to breathe underwater, etc. My most recent two plays no, make that two plays and a screenplay have scenes in pools! In my work, the pools represent rivers, bayous and hotel spas but they also represent baptism, resurrection, cleansing and loneliness. Maybe I need to apply my understanding of the larger symbolism from my plays to my dreams. Maybe the reverse is true for you.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Pick only two or three pieces from your body of creation. Maybe it’s a series of plays done over several years. Maybe it’s a recent series of sketches that are not yet finished. Maybe it’s the lyrics to songs you haven’t sung in fifteen years. Maybe it’s a series of gardens you’ve grown season after season. Think about your body of work and expand your understanding of “work” to include what you have created in your life. Your home, your friends, your children, your cooking.

Don’t overwhelm yourself. Remember, I said above “Pick only two or three pieces from your body of creation.”

Now answer this question:

What are the similarities between the way you live, the work you create and the dreams you have?

methods of interpretation

“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art.”

-- Susan Sontag

It is one thing to pick and choose symbols for interpretation, but what does an entire dream say to us? One of the artists on this blog sent a dream to me and I thought I might offer it up as a chance to explore interpretation.

“I have a recurring flying dream that is terrifying because I can't come down or land, I just keep rising higher & further from the tree tops.”

Is this a “classic” anxiety dream? Me, I claim to the Queen of Anxiety Dreams, I have them so often. What seems most important is not the flying but the sense that the dreamer has lost control and is scared. Unsaid, but suggested, is the deep desire to get “grounded” which seems to be less and less possible as the dreamer floats further away from the rooted trees.

This is just my interpretation of the dream. I bet you have your own. What seems most important to you about this dream? Are your dreams more vivid when you go to bed worried? Do anxiety dreams help you work out an issue?

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Pick one of your dreams and explore it in detail. Interpret it first based on the emotions you felt while dreaming. Explore why these emotions were triggered. What are the opposites of those emotions? If you felt terrified, does it mean you actually want to feel safe? If you’re frantic from being chased, does it mean you want to stop running?

Now rewrite your dream using synonyms or different descriptive adjectives. Like above the word “rooted” refers both to the tree and the dreamer’s desire to stop flying. What if I had replaced the original words “tree tops” with “Nature” or “The Earth” or “forest” – how does that change the interpretation?

Some therapists also suggest “free association” interpretation where you pick a word from the dream such as “terrifying” and let your imagination riff on it such as:

terrifying – horror – movie – business – agent – work – checks – bank – bills – need to do my bills

interpretation

“In intuitive dream interpretation, we are looking for an immediate, holistic response to the dream.”

-- Henry Reed

Yesterday, you reread your dreams and made a list of any recurring images, similarities and themes. If you had a new dream last night, compare it to the notes you made and add any additional images to your list. It’s time now for you to do some research to find out what these images might mean.

First, think about the way you spent your day before you had the dream. Did parts of your day get replayed while you were sleeping? Are there any images that are clearly the representation of the people or places you deal with daily?

If the images seem to be more symbolic or confusing, then it’s time to delve look for answers. You have been a collector of dreams now become an interpreter.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE: You have a couple of options today.

Visit the website: http://www.soulfuture.com. There is an online dream dictionary that lists several thousand dream symbols plus there is a dream interpretation tutorial that might be helpful. (There are tons of sites that offer up interpretation – pick and choose the ones that seem interesting to you.)

Go to a used book store or a library and find a dream interpretation book or a book about tarot, read through it and see if the images/meanings resonate with you.

Call a friend who knows you well and talk about the images, retell the most vivid of your dreams. Sometimes an outside eye can see the obvious when we can’t!

No matter what you choose to do to aid in your interpretation, listen to your gut. No one knows you better than you and a symbol or image can mean many things to many people.

I always know when I get that “aha” feeling that now my dream make sense and I’ve found what I need to know.

posted a little early - the search for symbol

“Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self.

-- Jean-Luc Godard

Last night, we made a specific request of our subconscious. We said “help” and maybe we received that help or maybe, today, we are feeling abandoned, lost or even more confused. Did you have a dream that seems completely unrelated to the question you asked? Did you wake up unable to remember anything at all?

The best way to understand our present is to examine our past. And sometimes, the past is as simple as last week.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Reread the dreams you have written into your dream journal. If you journal every day, go back and reread any dreams you’ve had in the last few months or year.

Make a list of things that feel like they may be related. Maybe one dream you were standing by a lake and a few days later you had a dream where you were swimming in a pool. Are they related?

Are there any recurring images in your dreams? Are there certain people who show up time and time again? Do you recognize any patterns in your dreams? Are there any recurring themes? Even if it seems like a flimsy connection, write it down.

Look over the similarities, themes, things that might be symbols…do they mean anything to you? Do they remind you of anyone or anything? Do they have anything to do with this unresolved issue that is on your mind?

dreams to solve problems

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

For the last few days, we have used our dreams to visit fictional places or follow fictional characters or heighten our imagination in order to create original work. We’ve been letting our subconscious practice on things that felt a little safe but now it is time to ask our dreams to give us the good stuff.

What in your life, at this exact moment, feels unresolved? Maybe you had a falling out with a friend or the bills have piled up or your child seems to be having trouble at school or your health could be better. Maybe there are a lot of things that feel like they need to be “fixed” right now!

Take a nice breath. Just thinking about this stuff causes anxiety. So take a break from it and let your subconscious do the work for you. Pick one, and only one, unresolved issue to focus on today/tonight.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

After you read this email, say to yourself: YES, I AM CONCERNED ABOUT ____________ BUT I KNOW THAT MY SUBCONSCIOUS IS GOING TO HELP ME OUT WITH IT TONIGHT SO I’M NOT GOING TO THINK ABOUT IT TODAY. Go about your daily business. Any time that worrisome thought comes up, repeat the above phrase like a mantra.

Go to sleep a little earlier than usual tonight. Really give yourself the time to relax. Remember our “Watering The Garden” meditation? Picture an image that represents your unresolved issue sitting in that barren earth. Imagine that you water all around it and that your subconscious garden begins to grow and surround the issue.

Ask your dreams to help you find a way to resolve the issue. Ask your dreams to show you very clearly what needs to be done. When you are ready to sleep, say softly to yourself: TONIGHT, MY DREAMS WILL SHOW ME HOW TO SOLVE THIS ISSUE. I AM LISTENING AND I WILL REMEMBER AND I WILL ACT

ask from your dreams

“The moment of enlightenment is when a person's dreams of possibilities become images of probabilities.”
- Vic Braden

I’ve recently re-read Stanislavski’s An Actor’s Handbook and was thinking about his insistence that an actor either learn to develop a strong imagination or get off the stage. He believed that some actors had a type of imagination that had its own initiative; the type that would work “untiringly, whether you are awake or asleep.”

He also believed that it was the actors’ responsibility to prod their creative fantasy and to stir up emotions and memories from the secret depths of the subconscious in order to regroup them to “correspond with the images which arise in us.” Creative fantasy was the fundamental, absolutely necessary tool needed to be an actor.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Are you working on a painting, a song, a novel, a play, preparing for an audition? Maybe you have just the inkling of an idea of something you might like to start working on…

Tonight, pick a character from your piece or an image from your painting or a verse from your song. Not too much. Don’t bite off the whole shebang. Just a little piece from what you’re working on.

As you relax in bed before sleep, allow your mind to watch that little piece of your project as if it was floating above you, slightly distanced from it. As if someone was telling you about it, showing it to you.

Ask your dreams to help you know more about this little piece of the puzzle. Ask your dreams to show you something you didn’t know about it before.

When you are ready to sleep, say softly to yourself: TONIGHT, MY DREAMS WILL SHOW ME MORE ABOUT THIS ___________ (CHARACTER, PICTURE, SCENE, PAINTING, SONG).

dream the details

“You see things and you say 'Why?' but I dream things that never were, and I say 'Why Not?'"
George Bernard Shaw

Robert Stickgold, Ph.D., a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard created a study where volunteers -- including five amnesiacs – played a video game a few hours a day for three days. He then woke them just after they fell asleep and found they were dreaming of the game -- even the amnesiacs, who had no memory of ever having played it.

Our dreams can be used to increase our intelligence, solve problems, answer life questions and resolve old emotions. Why not ask our subconscious to help us during times of confusion? Why not “sleep on it” for real?

Let’s start small and not try to tackle life’s big questions or our most pressing personal problems just yet. Let’s visit a place free from our daily concerns and unsolved issues.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Draw or cut a picture out of a magazine of an appealing landscape or an environment that calls to you. Maybe it’s a picture of a mountain range, a castle on a hill, a quiet lake or a beautiful room you wish was part of your house.

Before bed, look at the picture closely. Ask your subconscious to take you to this place while you dream and to show you even more of this amazing space. Ask your dream to fill in the missing details – to show you the things you cannot see in this picture.

When you are ready to sleep, say softly to yourself: TONIGHT, I WILL VISIT THIS PLACE IN MY DREAMS.

Sleep well.

learn to fly

“Only dreamers can teach us to soar.”
Anne Marie Pierce

And only in dreams can we actually soar like a bird! There’s nothing more liberating than waking from a dream where you have flown through the air, unencumbered and free.

Is it possible to trigger a flying dream? Most people believe that flying dreams represent a release of tension or that they only appear when we have come out of a dark, worrisome period of our lives.

But what if we could will ourselves to fly?

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Pay attention to birds and airplanes today. Or make a paper airplane and throw it through the air. Tell yourself that tonight you will fly in the exact same way in your dreams.

Before bed, take a BATH – yes, a BATH! Lock the door and listen to some soothing, uplifting music. In the bathtub, practice your flying stroke. Imagine yourself swimming through the air. Tell yourself that tonight you will fly in your dreams and it will feel very similar to this.

Tonight, go to bed 10 or 15 minutes earlier than usual. Dim the lights, maybe listen to some soft music or remember the feelings you had today while you were watching the birds or in the bath. When you are ready to sleep, say softly to yourself: TONIGHT, I WILL FLY IN MY DREAMS.

Sleep well.

create your own dreams

“Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.”
- Henry David Thoreau

We have summoned our unconscious, opened our Third Eye and learned to pay attention to the colors and sounds of our dreams. We have changed little things about our bedrooms, our routines to make room for dreaming and let our subconscious know that we are listening. We have been very good little observers but what if we could be more than observers…we could be creators?

This week, let’s focus on strengthening our powers of visualization, on developing strong dreaming skills so that we become more than a passive observer in our own inner movies; we become the makers of those movies!

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Find a piece of fruit in your house…an orange. Sit and stare at it for a moment and then close your eyes, keeping its image in your mind. Mentally change the color of the orange to red then blue then pink then back to orange. Open your eyes and look at the actual color.

Now close your eyes and visualize the orange being peeled, split apart into slices. Imagine that all of those slices dry up and shrivel then imagine the process reversing until the orange is whole again. Open your eyes and look at the actual orange.

Now close your eyes and imagine that the orange has turned into a baseball, a tennis ball, a bowling ball, a crystal ball, a beach ball, the sun. Take it back through all the transformations until it is an orange again. Open your eyes.

Tonight, go to bed 10 or 15 minutes earlier than usual. Dim the lights, maybe listen to some soft music or use this “Fruit Morphing” meditation to relax. When you are ready to sleep, say softly to yourself: TONIGHT, I CAN CONTROL AND TRANSFORM WHAT I SEE IN MY DREAMS.

Sleep well.

learn to listen

“Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and

safely insane every night of our lives.”
~William Dement

I had a dream recently that I was reunited with my grandfather (he died in 2003). I was so happy to see him and I told him how much I missed him. I could feel that he gave me a big hug and then I asked him if he had been reunited with my grandmother (who died two years before after a long fight with Alzheimer’s).

I was shocked at my grandfather’s reply. He said, “oh no, your grandma decided to go back and live again.” And he pointed me in her direction. My formerly crippled with osteoporosis grandmother had been magically transformed into a hot salsa Momma in a red dress with flowing black hair and a phenomenal body!

My grandfather explained that she decided to go back to the world and live as a “sinner” - to drink and dance and have sex because in the end, it hadn’t mattered whether she’d been good or bad anyway. This was all okay with him and I woke up feeling completely calm and happy for them both.

Are you able to have conversations in your dreams? Can you hear what people are saying to you? Do you remember what you say? You can train yourself to be a better listener. A great skill to have in dreams and probably everyone in our lives will applaud us for improving in this area!

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Turn on talk radio or the television in your house loud enough so you can hear it in another room. Go into a different room, shut your eyes and listen for ten minutes. Now, turn off the tv or the radio and quickly try to write everything you heard. If you have TiVo, you can test yourself for accuracy!

Do this once in the morning and then once again later in the afternoon. Did you improve?

Tonight, before you go to sleep, lie quietly in your bed and listen to the noises around you. Can you hear the sounds of your home? The sounds outside your home? The sounds a few streets over? A mile away?

Say to yourself TONIGHT, I AM LISTENING INTENTLY AND I WILL REMEMBER THE THINGS THAT ARE SAID.

remember in color

As you record your dreams, pay special attention to the colors you remember.

Black symbolizes death and the hidden but can also imply spirituality and resurrection.
Blue represents wisdom, tranquility and may also be a metaphor of "being blue" and feeling sad.
Gold reflects your divinity, masculinity, spiritual rewards and abundance.
Green signifies nature, the senses, a positive change, health and healing. It can also represent wealth and jealousy. Dark Green indicates materialism, cheating, deceit.
Pink represents love, joy, happiness, affection, kindness. Hot Pink represents sex and lust.
Red indicates raw energy, the life force, passion, aggression, blood and anger. It is also the color of danger, shame.
Purple/Violet denotes the reunion of opposites, spirituality, royalty and mysticism.
White represents purity, perfection, peace, innocence, dignity, cleanliness, awareness, and new beginnings. In Eastern cultures, white is associated with death and mourning.
Yellow can represent intellect, energy, agility, happiness, harmony, or cowardice and sickness.

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

Add some color to your memories. Buy a box of colored pencils, crayons or dig out those markers in the bottom of your desk. Go back to one of your dreams and try to draw what you saw or just highlight certain words in the color such as “the man was wearing a cape” and highlight the word “cape” in the purple because you remember it as such.

If you’re already drawing/painting images from your dreams, repaint the images using the opposite color – if you saw red, repaint it as blue. See what changes. Do you remember more about your dream now?

Tonight, when you are ready to sleep, say softly to yourself: TONIGHT, I WILL REMEMBER THE COLORS OF MY DREAMS.

improve your memory

“Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food.” ~Austin O'Malley

Maybe you were able to remember last night’s dream in vivid detail. Maybe you caught only glimpses or woke with an emotion or a single image. Maybe you remember the “plot” but you can’t remember the colors, smells and sounds. Maybe you slept soundly and don’t remember dreaming at all. Maybe your husband snored or your baby woke up and sleep wasn’t even an option!

Like the quote suggests, memory is a strange bird. Entirely subjective, it is nonetheless a skill that can be improved. (As for stopping the hubby’s snoring, I recommend Breathe Right strips! It helps.)

TODAY’S CREATIVITY CHALLENGE:

You remember the game “Concentration,” don’t you? Let’s summon the power of our memory and be a little silly at the same time.

Get a deck of playing cards. Pull out 15 matching pairs of cards – as in the red Kings or the black 8s. You should have 30 cards total. Now shuffle them. Arrange them face down in a 6 x 5 grid. Turn over 2 cards – if they match, pick them up and turn 2 more over. If they don’t match, turn the cards face down and start over. The object of the game? Locate and pick up all the pairs. Too easy for you? Use the whole deck.

Tonight, go to bed 10 or 15 minutes earlier than usual. Dim the lights, maybe listen to some soft music or use our “Watering the Garden” meditation to relax. When you are ready to sleep, say softly to yourself: TONIGHT, I WILL REMEMBER MY DREAMS.

Sleep well.