Find yourself waking up angry because of a dream?
Don’t let it go! Don’t forget it. Go on, write it down!
We might do something only because it makes sense to do it.
We brush our teeth, for example, because we want to avoid cavities.
It makes sense to avoid cavities. They’re painful and pain is unpleasant—especially dental pain.
But that’s not the only reason we brush our teeth. Far from it.
We brush our teeth because having them hurt and break on us sucks. Dental bills, furthermore, are too high when there are so many other things that are more fun and interesting to spend money on.
Then there’s the fact that yellow, blackened teeth are ugly.
Bills. Being ugly. Pain—all that gets you angry. Emotional.
Emotion is just as or even a greater driver as logic
When a dream makes you emotional–mad, sad, or whatever–that’s not the time you want to retreat from understanding it or asking questions.
Chances are, it’s important to move ahead with trying to understand it.
That’s unpleasant.
It’s likely one of the reasons dream analysis and journaling aren’t more popular than they are.
That doesn’t make dream analysis and journaling ineffective—rather, it’s only effective for the unflinching who can face their fears, anger, or whatever is, on the surface at least, unpleasant.
It’s unpleasant being angry—yes, I know I’m putting that mildly. It’s natural to want to shut down that kind of emotion. Of course, you want to put the feeling on the back burner.
But, remember this: facing the fear, the anger—the unpleasantness—is most likely essential to rooting it out of your life.
Depending on what the thing is, the problem might solve itself. Yet, if you’re being honest with yourself, you can’t count on that happening.
Not everything is under your control
Even if the situation isn’t under your control you’re better off if you can recognize it. Read the post on Stoicism. If you can recognize the situation for what it is, you may be able to do something about it. If it truly is out of your control, there’s nothing to be gained by anger or worry.
Recognizing the difference is a big part of you using sleep, the hidden one-third of your life, to live the other two-thirds better.
Also on the blog:
James Cobb, RN, MSN is an emergency nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System, a top sleep blog.
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