If You Can Dream It - You Can Become It!
The Convergence of Dreams and Reality
My fascination with the realm of dreams has been both a lifelong personal exploration, and the core of my professional life as a dream expert and the visionary behind Wakefully: AI Dream Decoder™ app. Beyond the meaning and significance of dreams, my focus has shifted to the ways in which actively engaging with our dreams can positively impact our mental health and wellbeing.
In the past year, I’ve developed a daily meditation practice, following the teachings and guidance of Dr. Joe Dispenza. And during his weeklong meditation event, I realized that dreams –those vivid narratives that are told by and unfold in our subconscious– hold more than just the potential for insight. They can be the seeds from which our reality can be consciously, intentionally, and mindfully created –in other words, we can use our (night) dreams to manifest our (life) dreams.
The Transformative Power of Meditation
As humans, we inherently resist change, often viewing our lives through a lens of lack and separation. We’re easily trapped in thinking we are separated from what we want, or that it would take an external thing for us to be happy or fulfilled. That perfect home, dream job, or a loving partner can all feel constantly out of reach.
This mindset convinces us that achieving our dreams will take time and effort, a constant cycle of wishing, hoping, and forcing things to happen. We repeat the cycle, and what do we end up with? More wishing, more hoping, and more forcing—essentially, we reproduce the experience of lack and separation, because wishing signals to our brain that we don’t have the thing we wish for.
Here’s a radical idea: What if we shifted this narrative? What if we could embrace the feelings of our future successes and joys before they've even happened? According to Dr. Joe and many experts in the field, everything you want already exists somewhere out there, in the quantum realm. It is the realm in which all possibilities of you exist simultaneously and omnipresent-ly.
In this space beyond time-and-space, I am not defined by my physicality, my relational, or material possessions. Instead, I enter as "no-body" and "no-one," I dis-invest myself from everything material. From every person, place, or thing known to me. Because everything known in our world carries an emotional charge, and I want to enter the field as pure thought, as consciousness or energy. Here, in the unified space of nothingness, I am free to synchronize my energy (thought, consciousness) to the energy of, say abundance, or love, or worthiness. Here, in the precious present moment, I can intentionally select any possibility of the many “Me’s” that exist in the quantum realm. Abundant Me, Joyful Me, In Love with Life Me.
“When you’re truly focused on an intention for some future outcome, if you can make inner thought more real than the outer environment during the process, the brain won’t know the difference between the two. Then your body, as the unconscious mind, will begin to experience the new future event in the present moment. You’ll signal new genes, in new ways, to prepare for this imagined future event.”
— Joe Dispenza
According to the principles I’ve learned from Dr. Joe: Instead of waiting for that promotion to feel successful, or for the perfect partner to feel loved, we can learn to generate these emotions in the present moment, as if they're already our manifested reality. This shifts you from a passive cause-and-effect stance to actively causing an effect. You start living your future reality in the present, and your brain—this incredible, intelligent vessel—begins to believe it. You're not just imagining being more abundant, joyful, or loved; you're encoding these feelings into your very cells. It's a practice of gradually becoming the person living your “dream life”.
The Magic of Dream Work
What does this have to do with dreaming? Can you even direct your dreams towards something you'd like to manifest? With dream incubation, an ancient practice with a modern twist, the answer is, yes! The acclaimed dream researcher, Deirdre Barrett, suggests you formulate your intention as a question or request for your dreams to respond to –be it a complex personal problem, a meaningful inner debate, or even a need for inspiration. With another dreaming technique called Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT), you can rewrite the ending to troubling dreams or nightmares, ultimately enabling you to manage the underlying anxieties they represent. Every night, just before you drift asleep, you repeat your dream incubation phrase or read your revised dream script a few times. Here’s the thing, though –You’ve got to say it like you mean it!
This isn't mere wishful thinking. You are priming your mind, actively imagining the outcome you desire and feeling the feelings you would feel when your question is answered, problem is resolved, or dream is changed. According to clinical studies, doing this short exercise at bedtime for 3 nights, has a 90% chance of producing a dream with insight about or related to the topic you’ve set to resolve. And a 60% chance your dreams will bring you a real solution!
Putting It All Together: Active Dreaming, Creating, Manifesting
With this new path of integrating my dreaming and meditation practices, I set out to shift an old, limiting mindset symbolized in a recurring dream that’s haunted me for years.
In this recurring dream, I kept experiencing situations in which I was trapped back with “He Who Shall Not Be Named” (yes, an ex). I’d wake up feeling powerless and ashamed of my dependency on someone who has abused my trust, so I worked to “flip the script” on this dream, literally rehearsing it with deep feeling and intention nightly. In my rewritten dream script, I would find myself back in the menace’s home, but in my version I’m no longer a victim. I’d envision myself back at the scene of the crime, strutting across his home, so illuminated from within, with empowerment and a deep sense of liberation, and I’d laugh at how his usual dismissive gaze turns into open-mouthed astonishment. I’d play in my mind the tape of me, as this epic narrative’s superhuman heading straight towards the window and, without as much as a look-back, I’d see myself boldly taking off and flying into my incredible future: Safe, liberated, loving and loved.
It might be hard to believe, but my dream transformed overnight! The next day, I took it a step further, incorporating the image of the light-filled window into my morning meditation. By the third night, my dream adopted this new premise, and after that, the recurring dream was gone, never to return.
Be the Architect of Your Dream Life
What I’ve learned on this journey is that we have immense power over our future—more than we often realize. I believe that, by combining dream therapy with mindfulness techniques, we can truly become architects of our reality, crafting our lives with intention and purpose day in and night out.
This isn't just theory; it's a lived experience, a method that has transformed not just how I dream, but how I live. So, I invite you to try this blend of ancient wisdom and modern science. Dream boldly, meditate deeply, and watch as the life you've always desired begins to unfold before you. Remember, if you can dream it—with intention, focus, and a bit of mindful magic–you can and will become it!