I’m the hero of my dreams.
I’m talking about anxiety dreams, the ones we all have and talk about in the waking world. You know the ones…
The naked-in-public dream: I beat that one by giving up the search for clothes and just being naked. Fuck it. I even started to whistle.
The skunk dream: Instead of standing there in fear, I just walked away. Let them spray me. (They didn’t.)
The giant snake dream: You won’t believe this one. I bent down, picked up the snake – a boa constrictor – and hugged it. He was warm and he disappeared. (More on this later.)
The bullies-from-my-childhood dream: Ah, the muscle shirt, mustachioed teens who waited for me after detention. I stood up to them. I walked up to them. I let my anger out. I didn’t back down. They did. (I really was ready to beat their asses. And I knew I could. It was my dream.)
The lost-snowboard-dream (you folks have this one?): I get to the mountain and realize I forget my snowboard. It’s sort of like the late-for-class dream or the “forgot-I-had-a-class dream… which I had last night.
You know the one, where you can’t find your books or don’t know your schedule or you keep dropping things out of your backpack or you can’t remember if you took that class…
Well, last night, I beat that one too.
It started off terribly. I was wearing 2 backpacks and I had all this crap to put in them and the stuff was scattered across a football field and things were wet and they didn’t fit and no one knew where I was supposed to be and there were so many doors and the app for my class schedule didn’t work.
I have this mantra in real life: “Just chill and go to it.” It helps me get started on big projects that scare me.
I brought my mantra into the dream world. I said it out loud out there on the football field and things immediately changed. the sun came out, my stuff was dry, the crowd noise disappeared, my belongings fit, I found things I’d been missing for years.
It all became possible after I accepted the reality that the price of gathering my things was being late for class. Whatever. I decided I would take the punishment to have my things.
The bell rang, I walked into the crowded hallway, and then into the crowded classroom, big smile on my face, relaxed shoulders.
And I woke up.
Big smile on my face, relaxed shoulders.
It’s amazing how good you feel when you conquer a dream, proof that visualizing, in all it’s ridiculousness, actually works.
Here’s the best part:
After beating your anxiety dreams, they never come back.
I’ve never been naked or attacked again, and now, after last night’s great victory, I’m free from being late and lost.
Why am I sharing all of this?
If you’re struggling with something (as we all are), go deeper into it – picture it in your mind, the painful, unwanted details – awake or asleep, walk right into it, and do what your best self would do.
Be the hero of your dreams and you’ll solve your problems in the real world.