Dreaming Dreams: Why to let kids dare to dream.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. -Edgar Allan Poe


          I believe in dreams; dreams in all its forms.  I think dreams are there to teach us something; we just need to be open to them, and know how to interpret what they are saying.  Now I don't mean all that mumbo jumbo the spider walking across my face means that I feel detached from my feminine power and not in touch with the real me interpretation stuff.  Bleh...wiping off monitor.  Maybe interpreting a dream means;  A) A spider was walking across your face; B) You saw a spider earlier in the day and your brain is processing what you saw in your dreams. C)  A piece of hair fell across your face while you were sleeping making you subconsciously think it was some kind of an insect crawling across your face; i.e.: that spider you saw earlier in the day.  I think, that as humans, we have a tendency to over think.  Thinking is the pro and con of being the most intelligent creature in the animal world; so I think we subconsciously feel a need to show off to the other animals a lot.  I like to imagine those happy spiders spinning their webs around my garden laughing at us,"look at that silly animal who is incapable of just enjoying this beautiful garden.  Instead she sits and frets over how she looks to others, or is she really being respected as a female."  More likely though, they don't even think that; they just go about their happy thoughtless days just doing what needs to be done.  Who says we're Intelligent?  Being intelligent implies that we are quick to understand something.  Doesn't spending too much time contemplating, thinking, worrying, mulling over something, like a dream, negate intelligence?  Or does paying attention to our dreams make us more intelligent?
First some definition's:  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dreams?s=t
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vision?s=t
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/daydreams?s=t
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/reverie?s=t
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intelligence
          When I was little I, like many of us as children, had nightmares.  My father explained to me that dreams were just our brains way of sorting through things we had seen during the day, of things that had happened to us.  The brain, in our sleep doesn't really organize these thoughts, it just throws them together randomly, basically throwing them into a big pot where our brain stirs it all up.  The trick is to figure out what we saw and relate it to the reality of our life.   I believe this. I am a realistic person for the most part, unless we are talking about dragons, fairy's or zombies then forget it.  I believe in understanding how our mind and body work.  Understanding this helps me to understand why stuff happens the way it does.  With that in mind knowing what a wondrous thing our brain is, is beneficial to understanding who we are as individuals.  http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/sleep/dreams/reality-dreams.htm
Found this article, which is interesting and a little humorous.  http://www.geekosystem.com/understanding-sleep/  
We all know we sleep to recharge ourselves physically and more importantly mentally and emotionally.  This article states:
 Turns out, when we sleep, our brain takes that time to clean out the build-up of brain junk we accumulate during our waking hours. Sleep is pretty much necessary for our body’s mental street-cleaners to come out and do their work.
Hence dreams.   When we are experiencing challenging times in our lives our brains will either dream a lot to sort out everything OR, not dream at all.  I remember being told years ago by a psychologist that I needed to be getting more sleep.  I thought well duh, I'm tired, I know that's part of my issue right now for not being able to deal with all the challenges that I was going through.  But this is what was explained and I can share from experience that it is true.  In crisis's our fight, or flight button gets pushed.  If we are dealing with ALOT, and I mean a lot, we enter survival mode which very often causes us to loose sleep.  We consciously, or unconsciously, feel we need to be awake, at attention all the time in order to be prepared for what might come next.  Hence loss of sleep.  The less sleep we get the less we are able to deal with what we are going through.  So we don't dream.  Our brain starts having a hard time processing what is coming in.  Now in  a perfect world we hope to be surrounded by loved ones who will help us pick up the slack, and love, and support us so that we can sleep and dream.  Unfortunately many many people do not have this much needed support system.  So we loose sleep and our ability to cope diminishes.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/what-are-dreams.htm
          You would think that when our head hits our pillow during times of crises that we would pass out from exhaustion, but the opposite is usually true.  If it weren't there would be no need for sleep aids.  (Although I do believe that sleep aids are one of the most unrecognized abused over the counter drugs we have, but that's another story.)  If we're not sleeping we are not dreaming.  AND during times of crises, trauma, etc. the brain needs to dream. 
          There was only one time that I took sleep aids in my life.  And it was sort of enforced upon me.  I was told that I had to sleep.  I don't like to take meds really.  I want to know that if I need to take some kind of medication to, say, fight of zombie bites, that it will work; unlike so many other people out there who take so many drugs that when the zombie apocalypse hits they will be a zombie because their immune system no longer responds to medications..at all...ever.   Sorry zombies get me all worked up.  Any who, thanks to sleep aids I was able to sleep and there for dream.  Once my brain was able to start dreaming, and getting the stuff sorted out, I healed, and was able to cope. 
          Something else I learned to do during this time was keep a journal next to my bed and, as soon as I woke up, write down anything that I dreamed of, that I found important, worth remembering, or just needed to get off my mind.  The brain is for thinking, a pencils and paper is for remembering.  If you want to free your brain up to think, to get something off your mind, then write it down; simple as that.  By writing down my dreams I could either, make the decision to come back to it later and figure out what it meant or, just know that I took it off my brain and leave it be, which is what I did most of the time.
          I do believe dreams are there to teach us something.  Whether by paying attention to them OR just letting them run their course and then letting them go.  I feel that dreams are a form of meditation.  When we sleep we dream, we very often wake up knowing we dreamt, but usually not remembering everything that we dreamed about.  In meditation you remember.  AND if you meditate the chances of having bad dreams diminishes leaving your brain to dream about more important, pleasant  things, like Johnny Depp, or Thor, or Loki, or...well you get it.
          By choosing to not pay attention to a dream we free ourselves of attachments and suffering.  For instance, I may dream of my sons being in danger and me trying to protect them but failing.  Well they are adults, they can care for and protect themselves.  The healthy choice here is to detach from that fear and not dwell upon it.  OR seriously, who cares about that psychedelic dinosaur rampaging through the kitchen and eating all the ice cream?  Ice cream still there in the morning?  Then who cares.  Ice cream not there?  Then the purple dino was probably one of the kids.
          Daydreaming is how we imagine and create.  It is a form of distraction, and detachment from difficult situation, or a boring lecturer. Daydreaming helps us to adapt.  It defines us as individuals.  I think that when we look at a child who is day dreaming as not paying attention we are giving a child a negative label, perhaps causing the child to stop dreaming.  Isn't it our dreams that help us set goals?  Aren't dreams part of what encourages, and support, us in the present, and future?  I submit to you; if you see a child who is day dreaming ask them what they were imagining, what did they see.  Don't ask them what they were thinking....you'll get an I don't know.  By asking a child what they were dreaming about you give respect and, validation, to  their dreams.  You can use this as a teachable moment, and I bet that kid pays attention to you in the future.  Show them how their dreams can relate to all aspects of life not just the one they are dreaming about.  AND don't discredit their dreams.  Remember how it felt when you were a kid and some one didn't listen to your dreams?  Do you really want to pay that feeling forward?
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201301/why-and-how-you-daydream
           Visions aren't given enough credit either I think.  Visions are actually our brains seeing what are eyes are not.  If we are smart, observant, open minded beings then isn't it logical to assume that your brain is capable of visualizing a possible outcome?  I have from time to time had visions of some one I love getting in a car accident.  I actually can see it playing out, almost like a short film.  My hubby use to think I was nuts, and poo poo'd this, until it came true a couple of times.  Now I could sit here and say that I am psychic, or blessed by God , or Buddha, etc.., etc., blah, blah.  But in reality I understand that one of my strengths/gifts is being observant.  It is what has made me a good social worker.  I feel confident when I enter an environment and sense something is not right.   I know that my eyes will register things before my brain does and I trust this.  So I just take my time, listening, and watching, until my brain goes ah ha!  Sometimes this comes in the form of a vision.  Once again not magical, mystical, spiritual explanations.  Just my brain saying, "HELLO!!  Look what the end result to what your not seeing could be. Warn someone will you!"
          So the car accident thing?  That's my brain acknowledging the fact that I am in denial about someone I love driving a little recklessly.  So I will bring it to their attention.  Our brains are not always these logical thinking muscles.  They have a creative side.  So when logic doesn't come into play they will create possible out comes.  This is called critical thinking, problem solving.  Which is why it is so important to nurture creativity in your kids and allow them to dream!  If your kid is sharing something with you that suggests that they are having visions I suggest asking them why they are seeing what they are seeing.  Intuition needs to be nurtured.  Kids need to be taught to trust what they envision even when they are not sure they trust what their eyes are seeing.   Visions are the ability to problem solve a situation out, this is a gift, and a strength.
          Another aspect of visions is the idea of Laws of Attraction; what you put out into the universe you get back.  If someone is having positive visions that is a good thing!  If someone is having negative visions it is worth asking why?
 http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-blame-game/201205/throw-away-your-vision-board-0
          I also believe that, for the reasons previously mentioned, that dreaming shows intellect.  It shows our brains capacity for thinking outside the box, for taking random images, and events, and putting them together creatively.  Honestly not everyone can do this so if your kid can don't dismiss it or squash it; nurture that thing! 
          When we teach kids to believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny, God, Buddha, Allah, Moses, dragons, fairy's, zombies, etc. we are asking them to dream of the impossible.  This is, in my opinion, preparing them for the future.  For not only the possibility's that life has to offer, but the impossibility's.  I happened upon a TV. show the other day, so sorry I cant share the channel or name of the show.  But what stuck in my brain, and the point I want to make is this.   One of the persons being interviewed shared that if we ever actually experienced a zombie apocalypse that most of us would not be able to conceive the possibility and there for die while they just stood there, and watched a zombie come get them.  Like those videos of the people standing there watching the tidal wave come in and getting swept up into the wave.  The immensity of it seems impossible. 
          If kids are taught to dream, to imagine possibility's, no matter how improbable, they are prepared for much of what life will dish out to them.  Something else that is also interesting about understanding the possibility's in what we dream.   Its when we realize that many dreams have an element of truth and accessibility to them.  Santa, while technically fictional, is based upon a Christian saint.  Dragons, historically, were great warriors to be feared.  Witches were herbalists and midwives.  Wizards, and magicians, dappled in alchemy and geology.   Bards were story tellers, and musicians.  There were really knights in shining armor saving damsels in distress because land and wealth were usually attached to the female.  You get the idea.
          I think there some validity in the symbolism of dreams; BUT I think that if we interpret all of our dreams using symbolism we are asking for trouble.  If one of our brains job to sort through the crap of our lives and take it off of our mind, or make aspects of life clearer to us, than how are we helping, or supporting the healthy productivity of our brain's job by over analyzing our dreams with symbolism?  That spider scenario?  According to  http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/s2.htm  the spider represents being an outsider, or keeping your distance from something, or a symbolic feminine power, or an over bearing mother figure in my life, or protection against a powerful force, and/or self destructive behavior.  If I kill it in my dream I am bringing bad luck to my self or, I am over coming some strong feminine temptation...like ice cream may be, or chocolate.  ;P  sigh....Any, and all, of these could be interpreted and applied, how ever you want, in a multitude of situations.  It all requires too much brain activity so in this case I would just write it down and not look at it again.
          Recently, how ever, I had a dream where I was on a futon, which felt like it was floating in the middle of an ocean, but the ocean was really a living room of some kind, not mine cause it didn't look familiar.  There were sharks swimming around trying to eat me, or parts of me, and I kept on putting my self in the middle of the futon.  Suddenly there was a dark haired man there keeping the sharks at bay and I felt safe; then I woke up. 
          Well doesn't take much to interpret this dream.   I am in transition right now, not going to school, and not working.  I am trying to decide if I want to retire from my career and just get a part time job.  I am not mom anymore.  I have had some health issues and am not functioning at 100%.  There have been many days where I feel exhausted, due to my health, and frustrated because I want to do more with my life but seem to be unable too.  The universe has me in a holding pattern for a reason; a reason that has not revealed itself to me yet.  
          That dark haired guy, I realized when my dream woke me up, is my hubby who has been super supportive and patient.  He has been protecting me, and taking care of me right now.  This realization/ interpretation brought me joy, peace, love and compassion.  This dream I thought about.  ;)  I don't care too much what the all the sharks circling my futon are, I know I'm being challenged right now.  I don't care what is in the living room, I know that room signifies my comfort zone.  I get the message.  I also get that the futon represents bed and sleep.  AND because I meditate I know it is just going to require some patience on my part to get through what I'm going through right now.   Fretting, worrying, etc. about it is not going to change it; it will only add more suffering, and honestly I'm not into suffering/drama.   Use the ideas of symbolism intelligently.
 http://phys.org/news177232375.html
          Here's the Pith of the Matter.   I do feel that we need to dream.  Intellectually and imaginatively.   Intellectually dreams help us sort out the reality of life.  Imagination helps us dream what could be possible only by dreaming.   Dreaming teaches us that we are all not the same.  Our dreams make us unique.  They drive us forward, give us hope and make us feel.  Even the night mare I had about zombies attacking my family and all of us jumping across the roof tops from one ruined building to another made me feel something.  Basically that I need to not watch zombie movies anymore...   The bottom line is that dreams are worth our attention.  So teach your kids to go out there and dream.   While they are doing this teach them how to interpret their dreams intelligently, and with imagination.   Dreaming dreams no mortal man ever dreamed before. ;D
Namaste   Peace out
Sleep is the best meditation -Dalai Lama