A while ago I started following
Jim Kwik's program to increase brain power, the one that came free with the
purchase of the book “Limitless”. Why? Because I sorely need to improve my
brain power. My ability to recall and recollect has become highly decrypt.
People usually envy others for their
looks, riches, fortunes etc. I envy those who have strong memories. A weak memory is by no means my only lost
treasure. There are other functions of my brain not working at optimum level
and this renders me incapable of doing a lot of stuff which I would love to do otherwise.
For example, I love to write, but where other people have periods of
inactivity or “writer’s block” in the middle of their creative streaks, I have occasional
creative streaks spread sporadically in the middle of a perpetual writer’s
block (especially when I am writing Urdu). The fact the I cannot remember most of the stuff only adds to the
discomfort and mental agony.
One of the techniques that Jim advocates for improving brain power is to try and remember one’s dreams. The idea behind
it is that some of the most interesting and intriguing solutions to
problems have been revealed to people in their dreams.
Agreed.
Occasionally, when I am stuck
somewhere in the middle of my writing, a connecting line or a crucial missing paragraph comes
to me in my dream proving that the conscious and the subconscious minds are
linked, which of course they are.
But I have another problem.
I dream a lot, sometimes several times in the same night but I usually don’t remember my dreams once I wake up.
According to Jim, the brain has
four states. Alpha, Beta, Theta and Delta
Delta Stage:
Deep sleep phase, where we dream.
Theta Stage:
Relaxed stage above Delta, probably when we are just waking up, half
asleep, half-awake stage. That is where we can recall the dreams from Delta
stage.
Alpha Stage: Meditation stage, great stage to learn.
Beta Stage: Totally awake stage.
The dreams are most recollect-able
in Theta stage. The more one wakes up, the more one is likely to forget what one
has dreamt about. The recollection part might be different for different people
but that is how it works for me.
Following Jim's advice about
capturing my dreams, I got myself a diary, slept with it right next to my bed
so that I could pen my dreams down as soon as I wake up but by the time I did
wake up enough to be able to write anything, the dream was long gone. Then someone
in the “Limitless” Facebook group suggested keeping a recording device close by
(like a voice recorder on phone) and to record the dream without opening my
eyes and fully waking up. (so much
trouble to get hold of a fast slipping dream).
That method was somewhat successful
and I did end up capturing the essence of one whole dream in my diary. That is
when I asked myself if I really wanted to record my dreams?
My dreams are mostly complex, weird and often depressing. I seldom have dreams that leave me
refreshed or happy. On the plus side I know that I am dreaming. Even when I am
having a particularly disturbing dream, I console myself by saying, sometimes
in the middle of the dream itself, that it is only a dream and I would forget
it all once I wake up. And that is the best part about it, that I do forget
it all once I wake up.
So then why would I want to
recall and remember something which clearly disturbs me?
This led me to reflect upon
another aspect of my personality. I have a “happy go lucky” kind of nature. I
tend to suppress the negatively and troubling aspects of life by not focusing
on them and not thinking about them. My daughter has a term for this. She calls
it "Repression "
I repress my negative emotions. They
get inserted in some crevice of my mind. But once I fall asleep and my conscious
self is taken over by my subconscious one, all those repressed emotions, frustrations
and depressions that I do not let my self experience while awake, get
liberated and reveal themselves to me through my dreams. This is my take on it,
which could be totally and completely wrong. Correct or incorrect that is
the conclusion that I have reached after dwelling upon the matter.
I don’t know if it is even
healthy to suppress my emotions to the point that they hijack my subconscious
mind r to reveal themselves, but that is how it prefer it.
So my sincere apologies to Jim
Kwik. I will not be capturing any of my dreams after I have awoken. If that means
having to forgo some creative idea or other, so be it.
Perhaps some day in the future, I may be ready to tackle this issue in a different way, but for now, I would rather have my waking moments, if not my sleeping ones free of tension and anxiety.
