Harness the Power of Your Dreams

Exploring Dreams: Insights from the Subconscious - By Jilly Shipway

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Do you ever have anxiety dreams? You know the ones where you are about to go into an exam, and suddenly it dawns on you that you haven't done any revision. I don't usually have that particular dream nowadays, but I do sometimes have dreams about teaching yoga. In my dream, I'll be teaching a relaxation and suddenly one of the students might get up and leave.

Other students will follow, and then I'm left teaching an almost empty class. Other times, I'll dream I'm teaching in an L-shaped room, which means I can't see all the students, and they can't see me. In one dream that I had many years ago, early on in my teaching, I dreamt I was teaching a relaxation, and my students were lying on the floor in Savasana, when two young, unruly lads came in and started bouncing power balls all around the class. I swore at them and shooed them out of the room. Whoops, not a very yogic dream, but funny in retrospect!

Do you remember your dreams? My guess is that your dreams are as weird and wonderful as mine. I'm kind of hoping they are! Keeping a dream diary is excellent writing practice. With a dream diary your challenge is to capture the mystery of your dream and get it down on paper.

Each morning when I awake, if a dream is still fresh in my mind, I jot down a few key words that sum the dream up. Then I'll go and do my early morning yoga practice. Often, whilst I'm in a yoga pose, or lying on my mat relaxing, more fragments of the dream float up into my conscious mind. Later, usually after I've had some breakfast, I'll write up the dream in my dream diary. At the top of the page, I put the date, and sometimes even the phase of the moon.

Sometimes, during meditation, when I'm in a dreamlike state, crystal clear images will float into my mind. And, if they seem meaningful, then later, I'll record them in my dream diary too.

I've got a friend who has a dream app on her phone. She uses the app to interpret her dreams. So, if, for example, she dreams about a white horse, the app will tell her the significance and meaning of the symbol. That sort of dream interpretation wouldn't work for me.

Dreams are such a personal thing, and the symbolism is so personal too. So, for example, if my friend and I both dream about a horse, the significance of the dream would be unique to each of us. I feel that the best person to interpret my dreams is me. However, it's such a personal thing, and for some people using a dream app helps them to wring out the meaning of the dream.

Students on my online yoga writers’ course https://yoga-through-the-year-with-jilly-shipway.teachable.com/p/the-yoga-writers-handbook are encouraged to keep a dream diary. It’s good writing practice and a great way of tapping into the treasure trove of the subconscious mind.

My students have reported many benefits of keeping a dream diary, one student summed it up beautifully saying, “I think dreams, especially the ones that reappear, are fascinating tools to discover our longings, past and future, and tap into the soul that is beyond form and identity.” Another student said, “I find a dream journal is a great way to reveal insights into our past experiences, anxieties and fears, and hopes for the future.”

Have you ever kept a dream diary? Or do you use a dream app and find it helpful? Do you find doing yoga helps you to remember your dreams? The beauty of our yoga practice is that at times, especially during relaxation, we slip into a peaceful state that is somewhere between sleeping and waking, it is here that symbols and memories of dreams can rise up from the deep pool of the subconscious mind and into our consciousness awareness. This is not something that can be forced, it’s a gift, and it arises when we are in the state of grace we call yoga.