The one New Year’s resolution I made for 2010 is to relax more. Everything has to take its own time this year, without me trying to force anything to fruition before I truly have the energy for it.

Making dream resolutions is not like this. Dream resolutions are not about what we want to do more of or less of during the day, they are about what we want to have happen in our dreams in the year to come. Right around New Year’s I take a couple days and read through my dream journals from the past year. I single out the things I did in my dreams that I am proud of, and things that I would have liked to do differently. Read on…

Most people are curious when they learn that I am a dream consultant. Many launch into telling me a recent dream, some ask questions about the meaning of dream symbols, and only a few have been dismissive. But the reaction that always puzzles me is when people seem afraid or worried about dreams.

Why do some people fear their dreams? I believe it is due to faulty notions of what dreams come to tell us. Here are four common fears: Read on…

Just like dressing for success puts our best foot forward, dreaming for success can help us achieve our biggest goals this year.

Last year I shared 10 great tips for having big winter dreams. But more important than having big dreams is knowing how to work with all the dreams we have. Here’s how to make every dream count, no matter how small.

1. Remember your dreams and write them down. Even if you only remember a word or name, color or feeling, write it down. Dream recall increases the more we practice it.
2. Go for what makes you happy in dreams. Some traditions insist that to be happy in waking life you must pursue pleasure in your dreams. Being successful in 2010 means being bold, so start by doing what you want in dreams even if it’s something you would never do in waking life. It’s just a dream–go for it!
3. Don’t run from conflict in your dreams. This may take some practice, but you’ve got all year, right? If there’s a dragon chasing you at night, coach yourself to turn and face it. Likewise with intruders, thieves, and other scoundrels. You will soon find it easier to overcome obstacles of all kinds during the day. Seriously, it works!
4. Keep tabs on your health. If you are sick or injured in a dream, don’t freak out, but do heed the warning. Dreams usually work on the symbolic level, but sometimes they have direct, concrete advice for us. Always check out a health concern in a dream, it could be the best move you ever make.
5. Pay attention when things go bad. Notice what happens just before a good dream starts becoming an anxiety-ridden nightmare. Do you hesitate out of fear? Is there a misunderstanding that sets things off the rails? Are you listening to someone with the wrong information? Figure out what the glitch is, and start overcoming it in waking life.
6. Look for dream allies and treat them well. Dreams are full of unforeseen turns of fortune, if we know what to look for. Just as in fairy tales, if someone offers you something in a dream be gracious and thank them. It may look strange, but looks can be deceiving, and we never want to turn down what could be a golden opportunity.
7. Always go for the highest good. If you have a choice of two actions to take in a dream, and one of them benefits you alone whereas the other benefits you and several others, take the second choice. Start now to shift those self-centered patterns in the dream world, and you may find that others are more willing to help you achieve your goals on waking as well.

We all have to sleep and dream, no matter how desperate, ambitious, or energetic we are. The good news is, our dreaming minds are perfectly capable of helping us with our waking goals–when we act in accordance with our values and stick with it in spite of the setbacks that inevitably occur. In a year where money is scarce and every advantage counts, who can afford to discount their dreams?

This article was originally published in the Huffington Post.

Dreams have been a reliable source of healing, divine contact, and prophecy throughout the world’s religions. Recently, I have had the opportunity to create a class for seminary students on using dreams in spiritual direction. I am pretty excited about teaching this semester, and have pulled together tons of great material for it. Here is the class description from Cherry Hill, a Pagan Seminary:

Dreams have played an important role in Pagan traditions historically, as a reliable means of direct communication with the Gods, ancestors, and nature spirits, for healing, prophecy, and intercession. Our use of dreams today is heavily influenced by Jung and other modern thinkers, as well as traditional and shamanic ideas about dreams. This course highlights some of the ways human cultures have viewed and interpreted their dreams, and used them in a ritual or sacred context. The class treats dreams as a modern source of divination and spiritual direction. Using written sources, their own dream material, and an interactive class dream group, students will develop a framework for using dreams in spiritual mentoring, and identify approaches to dreams that make the most sense for contemporary Pagan ministry. Students will be expected to participate in regular discussion forums, as well as submit periodic reflective writing. Read on…

Back by popular demand, I am offering my 3-for-the-price-of-2 Holiday Special again this year. You get three hours of in-person or phone consultation hours with me, all for the price of two regular sessions!

There are several ways you can use this value: Use all three yourself, or buy two sessions for yourself and give the third to a friend. You can also combine two of the hours and invite another person to share a longer session of dreamwork. I can even work out special group rates based on the holiday discount.

This offer is good through New Year’s Eve 2009, so act now! Gift certificates are available, and make a great gift along with a copy of What To Do When Dreams Go Bad: A Practical Guide to Nightmares. Happy Holidays!

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 came in a dream. In The New Yorker last month, director James Cameron tells about being sick and broke, staying in a tiny flat at a time of struggle early in his career.

One night, he said, he dreamed of “a chrome skeleton emerging out of a fire.” Then he sketched the figure cut in half and crawling after a woman. He said, “I thought, That was cool. I’ve never seen that in a movie before.”

Unlike most of us, who might have a startling dream image and never do anything with it, Cameron enlisted a couple friends to help him create a movie script based on that image of a metallic death-figure rising like a phoenix from the flames. The result, three years later, was The Terminator, a movie that changed the game not just for James Cameron, but for Hollywood storytelling itself. Read on…