Being Point

Month: July 2010

  • Always Have At Least These Three Things To Look Forward To

    Nighttime dreaming sometimes involves events in the future. These dreams can be frightening or delightful – or simply confusing. Daydreaming, on the other hand, is often anticipating wonderful things in the future or dreaming about the past as if it’s the now.

    There’s a very powerful argument to be made for living into and dreaming about things that you’re looking forward to as a means of increasing their likelihood of happening.

    I frequently recommend to clients to have at least three things to dream about: (1) a vacation or a trip, (2) time with someone(s) you love and who love you, (3) the attainment of a new skill or level of understanding or mastery of a particular subject matter.

    What do you daydream about? Are your daydreams sometimes precursors of things to come? Can you see how actively creating your daydreams can be beneficial? How much do you think your daydreams can actually influence your future?

  • “Dreams Are Today’s Answers To Tomorrow’s Questions” – Edgar Cayce

    Many people pay close attention to their dreams when they concern issues of significance to the dreamer. Often, we humans will at least pause more carefully before moving forward with something if we have had a disquieting dream about the subject matter.

    Have you ever changed your mind about something because of something you dreamt? If so, did you consider your change a rational act or something superstitious? Do you have any evidence that your decision to change something based on a dream was the best decision?

    “Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions” writes Edgar Cayce who, as an author and seer, encouraged people to study their dreams.

    What were you taught about dreams when you were growing up? Were you encouraged to remember and document your dreams, or were dreams dismissed as irrelevant? What would you or have you taught your children about dreaming?

  • Lucid Dreaming Is Dreaming While You Know You Are Dreaming

    Lucid dreaming is dreaming while you know you are dreaming. Dr. Stephen LaBerge teaches Lucid Dreaming – a technique that almost anyone can learn – and says:

    “Possibly, all you will need to do to increase your dream recall is to remind yourself as you are falling asleep that you wish to awaken fully from your dreams and remember them. This works in a similar manner to remembering to awaken at a certain time in the morning.”

    Do you remember your dreams? Have you ever kept a dream journal? How susceptible to dream recall are you? Do you remember details? Have you ever used dreams in therapy and / or to seek to understand your waking life more fully?

  • “I Have Conquered My Nightmares Because Of My Dreams” – Jonas Salk

    Jonas Salk, the scientist who discovered and developed the polio vaccine, said:

    “I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams.”

    If you’re like me, it’s not so much nightmares as it is recurring dreams of working things out in the dream state that don’t appear to be worked out in the waking state.

    How much attention do you pay to your dreams? Are there nightmares – or are there dreams that you want to be different?

    Do you think that your dreams are sending you information of processing on a deeper level that you can find useful on the level of what we perceive to be “reality”?

    What do you think Salk meant when he attributed his success at achieving his dreams to his having encountered his nightmares?

    Have you been able to use nightmares to the same effect? Are nightmares “teachable moments”?

  • Dreaming And The New Film “Inception”

    Over the weekend, I saw the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie, “Inception” on the IMAX screen. The general topic of the film is dreams – explored in a high-tech, lavish way.

    The movie itself is like dreaming: often feeling incomplete, jerky, intriguing and troubling at the same time. Sometimes brilliantly confusing.

    Dreams are a universal part of the human experience, yet there seems to be wide variation about how each of us relate to our dreams. Most of us remember that we dream, but some vague recollection is most often as far as we go.

    Are you curious about your dreams? Do you remember them? If you remember them, how much significance do you place in your dreams?

    Would you like to know more about dreaming and how to access the information and meaning in dreams?

    Is dreaming for you more of an unexplored curiosity than a source of insights and ideas for how to live a more fulfilling “conscious life”?

  • Does Less Ambition Make You Happier – But Also Less Useful?

    Ambition, as we have seen this week, can be a mixed blessing. Edison said poignantly, “If I had not had so much ambition and not tried so many things, I probably would have been happier, but less useful.”

    Is that the tradeoff: Give up happiness for being useful? Do you think Edison’s ambition was for being useful or for fame, fortune, accomplishment itself, or for the challenge of inventing things to solve problems?

    Is your ambition useful or counter-productive? Has ambition ever gotten in the way of your happiness? Again, don’t limit your thinking about ambition to power, money or the like.

    As with all things, ask yourself the question: “How does this quality (of ambition) both serve and mis-serve me? The winning approach is balancing out those answers to something that works well for you.

  • Exploring The Ambition To Be Famous

    Those of us who live in Los Angeles are constantly aware of the city’s draw for those seeking fame. People come from all over the world to develop careers in show business. Their sheer ambition of wanting to become famous is often raw and sometimes scary.

    What has been your relationship to fame? Is it something you have ever wanted? Do you understand it? Do you respect it, despise it, pity it, or scratch your head over it?

    If there were an equivalent in your life to ambition for fame, what would it be? Do you desire to be known and held up on a pedestal by anyone – even one person or a small group of people?

    What happens to people who achieve fame? Do you find their ambition worth their effort? In a culture that holds celebrities up as demi-gods, what are your points of view about a desire – an ambition – to be famous?

  • Are There Valid Ambitions Unrelated To Power And Money?

    Ambition is most often thought of in terms of money and power. Yet, the word itself can accurately be used to refer to all kinds of human goals.

    Suppose, for example, that you wanted to pursue a calling of being of service to impoverished people. You are passionate about helping and making a difference. You want to help a lot of people, and you desire to have your work produce meaningful positive change in their lives.

    Would you consider that mindset ambitious? Does it fit to think of oneself as ambitious in serving others, or in protecting the environment, or in making the world a better place?

    What are your ambitions that are unrelated to power and money? Are you an ambitious spouse, life partner, parent, family member, volunteer or friend?

    What kind of thought do you give to the level of ambition you bring to being a friend, partner, etc.? Would you like to be more ambitious in these areas? Would you like to be less ambitious for money and power? Does ambition serve you or mis-serve you?

  • Ambition As Focused On Quality

    What do you think you can accomplish this year in your business or career? How ambitious are your plans? In this time of economic challenges, what kinds of goals have you set for yourself?

    Let’s begin this week by channeling your ambition toward offering the best product or service that you can possibly offer. What kind of difference might it make to put your ambition on quality at least equal to a focus on dollars?

    What are some immediate changes that you could make that would support this kind of ambition? How ambitious are you willing to be to improve quality? Does this kind of ambition feel useful to you?

  • What Could You Learn That Could Transform Your World?

    What could you learn that would transform your life experience? Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

    You may be out of a formal educational structure, but learning continues to be the best way to create positive change.

    As our world grows ever more quickly to connect more of us to each other – AND as more knowledge becomes available on the web – both the opportunities and the requirements for learning will also grow.

    What learning do you have planned for the balance of 2010 that could transform your personal and / or professional lives? How can you create a learning plan for yourself that predicts that you will successfully engage positive change?