Are dreams tinting your waking life?

[Owledge]

I notice that when I wake up after a dream, remembering it, that dream influences my spirit for the day. If I had an unpleasant dream (like dreaming about daily chores and such - horrifingly dull!) the whole day feels like crap, while when I had a pleasant dream, it can have as powerful an effect on my spirit as if it actually happened.

My theory is that it's because there isn't enough happening in my waking life to dilute those effects, combined with being relatively sensitive.

[BaguaKicksAss]

But your "waking" life, is also a dream . What do you do to change your mood, energy and focus when someone off-centers you during the day? You can do the same sorts of things...

[Owledge]

But your "waking" life, is also a dream . What do you do to change your mood, energy and focus when someone off-centers you during the day? You can do the same sorts of things...

There is nothing to apply any technique to. It's just the feeling that lingers.

I'm tempted to not try and avoid unpleasant feelings though, because that could be a form of repression. After all, I wouldn't try to avoid pleasant feelings from unsubstantial things either.

Just curious about other people's experience.

[eye_of_the_storm]

it isn't repression it is transformation

[Silent Answers]

I read somewhere that dreams are the mind's way of fine tuning experiences from the waking world, to increase efficiency, especially nightmares.

 

They reasoned that we face our fears in our dreams to either get us used to a situation or improve our response to it.

 

For example many people, including myself, have had dreams about being attacked/chased by wolves on snowy terrain. The researcher linked dreams like this to experiences that our ancestors have passed down from a time where humans had to confront wolves and protect themselves against such. The dream presents the problem and allows us to improve our response in that situation. Or so the study said.

 

Maybe your dream was supposed to have an impact on you that will improve something in your life.

[idiot_stimpy]

I have found that when I repress/deny something it can make its way into a dream.

[Owledge]

I read somewhere that dreams are the mind's way of fine tuning experiences from the waking world, to increase efficiency, especially nightmares.

 

They reasoned that we face our fears in our dreams to either get us used to a situation or improve our response to it.

 

For example many people, including myself, have had dreams about being attacked/chased by wolves on snowy terrain. The researcher linked dreams like this to experiences that our ancestors have passed down from a time where humans had to confront wolves and protect themselves against such. The dream presents the problem and allows us to improve our response in that situation. Or so the study said.

 

Maybe your dream was supposed to have an impact on you that will improve something in your life.

My dreams are of all different kinds, and sometimes it fits the interpretations of dream analysis and its symbolizms, basically expressing what is reality for me.

And sometimes just things whose origin I can identify easily as from waking life before. But also what idiot_stimpy said: Sometimes when I push something away and don't properly process it, it can occur in my dreams.

Sometimes I perform admirably in a dream, like an adventure or fear-related task, but it doesn't have any noticeable effect on my waking life, except sometimes the mentioned emotional residue.

Edited November 26, 2014 by Owledge

[silent thunder]

In memory, all experiences settle into an equilibrium for me. Some are remembered consciously and mundanely, most not, they just fade. Some are so vivid, exacting in detail and intense that I expect they will remain vivid as long as I have magnetism of mind. Of those that are remembered, they all have an equality of value.

 

With a strong memory recalled vividly and in detail, it doesn't matter if it took place in the dream state or waking, nor if it took place 41 years ago, (I'm 45 currently) or yesterday. It also isn't that important to me if it took place in the 'real' world, or the dream state. If it impacts my consciousness, it has value in memory for me. The way I respond when lucid in dreams is the same mechanism I respond to stimuli in the waking state. When in the dream state, the experience is as real as anything I've ever experienced 'out here'. It is only when I wake up that I was conditioned to disregard the dream stimuli as not valuable, because 'it wasn't real'.

 

To that I must loudly proclaim BULLSHIT. Not out of any malice, just that this is sincerely not the case for me. Stimuli are stimuli.

This started at a very young age (four) and as I've grown, has instilled in me a deep, steadily growing and unshakable sense that one day, I will become lucid in the waking state, the same way I do in the dream state, nightly.

 

If an experience has the resonant impact on my consciousness of being stored and recalled in detail as memory, then it stands more or less on equal footing in my memory with all other experiences of a similar intensity and impact. It matters not to me much any more what the 'source' of that experiential memory is... waking or dreaming. What matters to me is what is revealed in the experience about my consciousness and my true nature.

 

Both the real and the dream serve to illuminate my nature by my reaction to the conditions present to my awareness.

 

In short, dreams and waking state to me, are on equal footing as I experience them as memory.

[Owledge]

You really like to hear yourself talk, don't you? ;-)

It was very difficult to read because it's very repetitive and seems extremely self-centered to me.

Maybe it's just me and you simply enjoy playing a role. :-)

I guess my question invited this.

But between the lines, I'm looking for input that helps me to figure things out, and I'm relatively practical-minded when it comes to problem-solving. (I can be a philosopher in less personally affecting matters.)

 

I hope this didn't come off as rude, but your post is really surprisingly tough for me to put to use.

Edited November 26, 2014 by Owledge

[silent thunder]

I don't take your comments as rude, it's simply you sharing your response.

 

I'm sharing insight based on experiential memory, that was elicited by the OP and seems relevant to me.

 

I experience the line between dreaming state and waking state to be very tenebrous and both 'types' of experiences to be equal in effect on awareness by the mode of memory.

 

That's a basic summary of the previous post.

 

As it directly relates to your OP question, in terms of one flavoring the other. In my experience, both have immense impact and affect on the other, consciously and unconsciously.

 

edit to add: two extremities of one expression?

Edited November 26, 2014 by silent thunder