When you’re faced with a tough dilemma, it’s easy to go back and forth, hemming and hawing, perplexed.
Both sides of the issue can make sense. Both sides look pretty good—or are equally repellent.
Positives and negatives? Well, they weigh out almost the same.
You can see the sense of both options (or, in some cases, more than three options).
Everybody likes to be able to be decisive. Time spent on deliberation can seem wasted.
Yet you want to make the best decision. Who doesn’t want to be right?
You can try to rank the importance of whatever virtue each option supports. That can help. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the virtues are roughly equal.
Then there’s everything you don’t know to consider…
Dreams can be a tow truck when you’re stuck
You’re stuck.
Remember dreaming and dream analysis can be that tow truck for you when you’re stuck and confused. Dreams and dream interpretation can tow you out of a dilemma of confusion and indecisiveness.
Indecision
When I’m trying for a guided dream for a missing insight into my quandary, I’ll summarize my concern in a single sentence; at most two sentences. This is essential. If you’re confused, your answer will be confused.
If you have to, you can break your problems down into a series of questions to ask over a few nights or sleep sessions.
If you do that, it works best as an evolving conversation.
For example:
Should I try to get a new job?
(The answer seems to be “yes.”)
Should I look for a job here in Big City, U.S.A? Or should I move?
(The answer seems to be to move.)
If I move, should I sell this house or rent?
And so on…
You have to be clear as to what the problem is. The writing helps to sort out the various strands of the decision that needs to be made. Could you work this math problem: 2 to 8, but probably 6 + negative 4 or 5?
If you work on that problem, the answer will be as confusing as the way the problem was written.
To make a good decision, you’ve got to be clear as to what the question is. Simplify, simplify, simplify.
So 6 + -4 = 2 is easier to understand than whatever you might get from the question that gives a range of numbers.
When you wake up…
So you’ve simplified your dilemma down to one sentence. You’ve prayed about it (drawing close to God helps). You’ve slept. You’ve dreamed and you’ve written down what your dream was. Now you’ve analyzed it using the three-step process.
Consider your dilemma in light of the dream. Does the dream bring to light any issues you haven’t thought of? Does it provide a perspective from “on high” or from “years in the future?”
Does the dream relate to another issue? Could that issue be seen as more important? Or that a decision doesn’t have to be made now?
Your subconscious is sort of like that friend who doesn’t say much. He hangs in the back keeping his eyes open and making observations. Yet that friend isn’t disengaged. He’s keeping his eyes open.
When you have two pretty good options…
Sometimes you want to be told what to do. Making decisions is hard and you’d like to avoid the responsibility for it.
There’s also something called decision fatigue where you get tired of weighing the consequences of choices.
If you’ve weighed your options out on paper, if you’ve prayed about it, if you’ve incubated a dream where both choices seem to be good, just go for it, choose one. Chances are, you’ll be okay either way, or both options leave you with similar results.
It’s nice when choices get made for you, but it doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, with a little time, options sort themselves out as you get a little more information.
The main thing is that you practice due diligence. Do your best.
Dream Analysis For Decision Making
1. Phrase the question.
2. Pray about it.
3. Tell yourself to remember your dreams.
4. Wear a memory device. Set up something to write on or your phone to record you speaking about your dream.
5. Go to sleep.
6. When you wake up during the night or in the morning, write a few notes down about your dream. Either that, or speak into your recorder about your dream.
7. Write your dream down again in your dream journal using the SOM Format.
8. When you feel like you understand what your dream means, relate it to the immediate question at hand.
James Cobb RN, MSN advocates for making full use of the subconscious through sleep. He promotes people having a positive relationship with faith.
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