"This is what dreams are made of "

 

 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.