You'd probably think someone was crazy if they told you "I’m miserable at work, but it really doesn't matter since I'm very happy in my personal life." This doesn't make sense because work-life consumes a great deal of time and that unhappiness should be addressed. But if someone said to you "I have no idea how I spend the two hours a night in my dreams" it would not set off any alarms.

Here is an example that I believe shows why you need to treat your dream life as separate-but-equal to your waking life.

Suppose a woman is unhappy in her work situation. She feels incompetent and lives in chronic fear of being fired. Her boss makes his displeasure abundantly clear. Add to the mix, her dreams are usually stressful, filled with the worries of her daily life. In one dream, she fearfully enters a lion's den and is about to be torn to pieces by a roaring lion. It's a terrifying dream.

If we are interpreting the dream, we can compare the lion's den to the work place. Her angry boss has become the roaring predator. Used in this way, the dream can help the woman understand her waking situation and the toll her job is taking on her life.

But consider the dream from the perspective of her Dream-self. That Self might well say, “Here I am about to be mauled to death, and you ignore my plight entirely and can only think about how unhappy you are sitting at your desk. You think you're stressed, I am about to be eaten alive. Stop whining about your job and get me out of here!”

Unaware of the symbolic nature of these lions, the Dream-self naturally prioritizes her own problems over those of the Awake-self.

On what scale would the harsh glance of a boss be of greater concern than the threat of death?

I think most dream work misses a key point. It fails to consider the needs of the Dream-self, and only focuses on how the dream can aid the Awake-self.

Think About Your Own Dream Life

Take a look and see what kind of dream life you are actually living. Are you generally happy, or are you more often stressed out? (Hint: research shows that most people live fairly stressful dream lives).

We can lose sight of the fact that we live our dreams. Just because dreams are chaotic, hard to comprehend and seem difficult to change, doesn't alter the simple question: "Are you enjoying your dream life?"

Get a Dream Life

When people actually examine dreams in detail, many people discover they are living a pretty dreary and dismal dream life, often unhappy and threatened. When you use Dream RePlay techniques, you start to get a better dream life. Getting a dream life may not be obvious, but its easy and it's fun. Your Dream-self will thank you many times over.

Over this week, think of your dream life as part of your life -- a part you can change. Next week we'll discuss the key factor that makes this easy to do.

FEEDBACK

Several people mentioned to me that they thought Dream of the Week was too long for an email. This column is somewhat shorter. -- Does the shorter version still seem clear? Do you prefer this to the longer columns? If you have an opinion, please let me know. Email: davidj@dreamreplay.com.

On Monday, October 2nd and Tuesday, October 3rd I will again be holding more 1-hour dream groups on a telephone conference call. These are currently free and are experimental as I learn how to handle the challenge of a group without being able to see anyone.

Whether you live far away or close by, a phone group allows you to get a sense of dream work in a very convenient way. With this new work, I hope to communicate the pleasure and the excitement of dream work to many people.

• Day: Monday October 2nd
• Time: 5pm-6pm Pacific Daylight
• Dial-in Number: 620-782-2200 (Kansas)
• Access Code: 707172#

And

• Day: Tuesday October 3rd
• Time: 7pm-8pm Pacific Daylight Time
• Dial-in Number: 620-782-2200 (Kansas)
• Access Code: 707172#

Please note that times are slightly different from last week.