Big dreams still come when we are at the top of our game, but sometimes the most influential ones come to us on the way up. If you read closely the profiles of those at the top, chances are you will find the moment when everything changed for them — and chances are that moment [...]

Kathryn Taylor discusses art, creativity, and her new book Dreaming While I’m Awake. [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Standard Podcast [ 57:39 ] Download (802)

Over the past two decades a design revolution has been transforming town plazas, hospital courtyards, public parks, schoolyards and churches all across the country. Equal parts public art, spiritual heritage and stress reliever, the ancient patterns of the labyrinth are making a comeback in public places, and may be starting a whole new pattern of [...]

That dreams have been influential in many pivotal episodes in history is accepted as fact in some circles; in other circles it is considered nonsense. Yet for anyone bothering to dig into the archives, it becomes indisputable that many important figures over time and across disciplines have been guided by their nighttime dreams—and have changed [...]

In the beginning of any relationship there are habits to adjust to, personality quirks to discover, and systems to be worked out. One of you may prefer to share the covers at night, for instance, while the other may want them all to himself. It is important to talk about these sorts of things, because [...]

Some friends and I started a dream group on a lark one summer. 16 years later, we are still meeting every week to discuss our dreams. Somewhere along the way we stopped thinking of dreams as our mind’s idle chatter, and began to be deeply affected by what we found in these nighttime visions. None [...]

I have been interviewed on three different radio shows recently, talking about dreams, spirituality, psychology and especially my new book, What To Do When Dreams Go Bad: A Practical Guide to Nightmares. Here is a rundown on each appearance, with links to the podcasts (audio files) for each. Back in October I was interviewed by [...]

Normally when we have a scary or troubling dream we try to push it out of our minds as quickly as possible. There it stays, for months and sometimes years, gathering dust in a corner of our psyche. Whenever we happen by chance to think of it again, it feels just as strange and unnerving [...]

I pay particular attention to the dreams I have when I am away from home. Particularly on overseas or extended journeys, it seems to me that our dreams take on a different character. As our lives are unmoored from habit and routine, our dreams are likewise free to roam, and often show us startling pictures [...]

Everyone has anxiety dreams. Even fabulous cable and radio show hosts like Rachel Maddow have their share of dreams where things go wrong in major ways. I just came across this video from Maddow’s recent appearance at a Mother Jones fundraiser in San Francisco where she gives a great description of her recent anxiety dream.

  Midway through a sound sleep you suddenly wake up, heart pounding and head filled with horrible nightmare images. Instantly wide awake, you replay the bad dream over and over, wondering what it means and why it had to happen to you. While everyone else is asleep, rest eludes you as a thousand fears ricochet [...]

I think everyone who practices yoga should also work with their dreams. As spiritual practices go, the two are very complimentary — one emphasizes body and breath, while the other emphasizes psyche and emotions. And something that is not widely talked about in spiritual circles is that cross-training in more than one discipline really does [...]

Winter is a natural time to have big dreams. As the old year winds down and we make plans for the new one soon to begin, our dreams also go through a process of introspection. On these long winter nights, we dream about all that we have been through in the past year and what [...]

Most people know when their dreams hand them a big helping of insight to chew on. A 32 year-old woman has a recurring dream of being lost and hungry at summer camp. A 54 year-old man dreams that he rides into work on a white horse, but nobody sees him because they’re all watching movies. [...]

This was a great election cycle for dreamworkers. For the first time that I am aware of, dreams were part of the public conversation about who each of the candidates were and what they stood for. Sheila Heti from Toronto set up blogs for people to share their dreams about the candidates, and contributions came [...]

Everyone dreams, whether we remember them or not. Many of us do remember our dreams, and think about them until they slowly fade away like a radio signal as we drive out of range. Sometimes a vivid dream comes like a bolt of lightning, and we reverberate from the shock of it for days, weeks, [...]

Are you or your employees feeling anxious about jobs, savings, debt, homes? How could you not be, given all the uncertainty in this country today? I have seen an increasing number of people who are having trouble sleeping because of all the stress, yet are uncomfortable taking prescribed sleep aids because those pharmaceuticals make them [...]

Last week, Slate writer David Plotz offered to collect people’s dreams about Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin. Today, Plotz and co-writer Abby Callard published 20 of the 500 dreams they collected. These are very interesting to read, particularly in light of Sheila Heti’s earlier collections of dreams about McCain, Clinton, and Obama. What do these [...]

Though my consulting practice is based on helping people get the most out of their dreams, I frequently encounter people who suffer from sleep disturbances. Conditions such as insomnia, sleep apnea, night terrors, and restless leg syndrome are surprisingly widespread, and prevent many people from getting the restorative sleep they need to operate at full [...]

One of the great things about being a professional dream consultant is getting to know some of the fascinating, talented people working in the field of dreams. Among these is Kelly Bulkeley, whose books I recommend to clients all the time. His new book, American Dreamers, is an excellent exploration of how our deeply held [...]