We all know what it is like to have stressful dreams. Nightmares cause powerful hormones such as adrenaline and norepinephrine to be released into our bloodstreams, causing our heartrate to increase, our pupils to dialate, blood to flow from our internal organs to our muscules, to prepare us to fight or flee. These changes starve our organs of the nutrients they need while heightening anxiety. Whether we remember our dreams or not, such stressful responses affect both our waking mood and our health. If we want to wake up in a good mood, if we want to keep stressful dreams from negatively affecting our physical health, we need to reduce the destructive stress in our dreams as much as we possibly can. It is, of course, both impossible and unwise to attempt to live stress free. Gravity is a necessary stressor, as are the responsibilities that we choose to take on. Exercise puts our bodies under stress, as does our work and the effort involved in learning any new subject in school. Love, as we all know, is stressful. So is sex and taking vacations, but most of us hardly want to live without these pleasures! Happiness comes from embracing "eustress" (good stress) in balanced varieties and amounts while learning to recognize and avoid distress.

Each one of our stressors will fall into one or another of six categories.
These are:

1. Spiritual
2. Mental
3. Emotional
4. Physical
5. Relationship
6. Financial

Here are examples of Distress and Eustress for each of these six categories:

Spiritual

Using your dreams to move you from a sense of separation from God to a sense of oneness with God.

You will be surprised to find that any number of your dream group members already have achieved what you seek: Oneness with God. As you identify with them, you awaken this potential within your waking consciousness, bringing it closer to a manifested reality in your life. Your internal Sangha will also supply you with suggestions about how to improve the quality of your meditation.

As you listen to your dream group members and apply their consensus recommendations in your waking life, you will reduce conflict within yourself. As you do, internal static that keeps you from being aware of your oneness with God will diminish.

Using your dreams to move toward a strong sense of life purpose and direction.

You will also find that at least some members of your internal Dream Sangha will have a strong sense of life purpose and direction. As you identify with them, you will consciously take on a clearer sense of life purpose and direction.

Using your dreams to move from a fear of death to deep trust in a transcendent order.

You will also discover that while you may fear death, your dream group members seldom do. This is because they know that they can't die. As non-physical beings, they can only transform from one personification of your being to another - they can't not exist because they lack independent existence in the first place! As a result, they have an innate trust in a transcendent order that encompasses the challenges of the moment. As you identify with them, you will internalize this trust, which will make death irrelevant.

Using your dreams to move from inner chaos to inner peace.

Your dream groups will become less chaotic as you listen to them and apply their consensus recommendations in your waking life. You will find that you create fewer antithetical and nightmare sociograms and more synthesis sociograms, although a balance of antithetical, thesis, and synthesis sociograms are manifestations of a normal evolutionary process. (If this is Greek to you, see the section on How To Make Sense of a Dream Sociogram) You will find that with the reduction of internal conflict among your dream group members that you experience deepening inner peace, which you will begin to insist upon sustaining in your life. You will seek it out through meditation and by preferring to associate with people who also seek inner peace.

Mental

Using your dreams to move from criticism to positive thoughts about yourself and others.

Many books have been written about eliminating the critical "parent" voices inside our heads that condemn, shame, and blame us hopefully leaving us with the nurturing and supportive messages of our childhood. Whole schools of therapy, such as cognitive therapy or transactional analysis, have grown up to exorcise these demons of our youth. Still, we stay stuck. Part of the problem is that we have trouble believing anything that contradicts these voices. Telling yourself, "I am a successful, happy person" when you honestly feel like a gargoyle is going to feel phony and extremely uncomfortable. And if someone tells you that you're really a nice person, you may simply dismiss them as kissing up to you: ("If you REALLY knew me, you wouldn't say that!") This is a fundamental problem that therapists see over and over, and it is often difficult to treat. We humans are sometimes stubborn in our persistence in believing that we are unworthy or fated for failure.

In Dream Yoga, you don't try to convince yourself that you really are better than you think you are. You simply identify with more confident, accepting and loving parts of yourself as they come up in your dreams. You explore ways you can "become" them in circumstances in your waking life in which you usually criticize yourself. In a remarkable change that feels both natural and comfortable, you will find that your self-talk "magically" changes from critical to positive.

Using your dreams to move from internal confusion to decisive choosing.

Filling out a sociomatrix is a process of making choices. The act of again and again stating preferences clarifies and brings to the surface what you think and what you feel. We can only change what we are aware of. Most of our choices are made out of our awareness by other parts of ourselves, other roles, by subidentities. As you become more aware of your preferences through dream group member identification, you will automatically make clearer, more decisive choices in your life. You start to see how you routinely make contradictory choices, like eating salads when out for lunch with friends and eating chips, burgers and fries at home, or being friendly to a co-worker while cutting them down behind their back. Internal confusion about life direction fades away with reduction of these rather mundane internal conflicts.

Using your dreams to promote self-discipline and responsibility.

Life isn't supposed to be hard! You aren't supposed to have to use will power, self-discipline, and hard work to "make" yourself happy. Changes of habit, application of action plans, new year's resolutions are generally difficult and unrealistic. They are common sources of guilt, disappointment, and despair. When you experience solid inner support for the life you are living, you will not have to force yourself to get out of bed in the morning or to do what you need to do today. Happiness and peace of mind are normal states of mind that we are supposed to naturally experience. You will follow through on your commitments when they are authentic expressions of your most sacred inner potentials. The more that we are attuned to an inner harmony, through listening to more and more of our dream group members, the more naturally and easily changes of habit become. Procrastination and broken commitments become less and less common. This is a marvelous transformation, one that is almost unfathomable to many people, but yet very real.

Using your dreams to cultivate patience with yourself and others.

Edgar Cayce said in his readings that we live in a three dimensional universe of space, time, and patience, which he equated with the physical, mental and spiritual realms respectively. Most of us experience impatience as a feeling of frustration accompanied by critical or uncomfortable thoughts. As you meet and identify with dream group members that are more patient than you are, you will understand and experience a deeper, highly satisfying type of patience. Inanimate dream objects, such as rocks or the sky or trees are often sources of this experience of deep patience for many people. As you identify with more patient aspects of yourself again and again you will integrate that characteristic slowly, subtly, naturally into your identity.

Emotional

Using your dreams to replace depression and grief with happiness and joy.

In any particular dream group, some dream group members will be happier than others. The object is to identify with, listen to, and respect the needs of both depressed and happier dream group members. Work to address the needs of all and follow the recommendations of all, not showing preference for one above the other in the preference collection process. This neutralizes the conflicts repression causes. However, during waking application find times to identify with those dream group members who are least depressed and most happy. Identification with upbeat and positive perspectives can work to buoy your mood.

The treatment of genetically-based (endogenous) depression requires taking substances that offer physiological support, such as homeopathic remedies, herbs, and psychotropic medications. You can work with dream group members until you are blue in the face and you probably won't make a dent in the neurotransmitter imbalances that are associated with depression, anxiety, and addiction. Environmentally-induced (exogenous) depression is often improved with such intervention as well, as are many forms of anxiety. What should be tried first are non-invasive, natural approaches. An excellent and over-the-counter source of amino acid neurotransmitter precursors is called Restores+. We are extremely impressed with this product and take it ourselves. It is highly recommended. For more information, send an email requesting information on Restores+ to restores@dreamyoga.com or go to www.restoresplus.com and enter sponsor id# 4318482.

Using your dreams to enhance forgiveness, love, and compassion.

Anger, resentment, and guilt may manifest in dream groups as aggressive acts or as characters who are destructive, such as a fire burning down a house. Such themes reinforce dysfunctional waking feelings. Dreaming such themes increases the liklihood that we will feel angry or resentful in our waking life. Generally, when you listen to what these characters have to say you will find that they have unmet needs which are being ignored by you. As you attempt to accomodate these needs in your waking life, both waking and dream group anger diminishes and more dream group members are found which act with love, compassion and whom are forgiving. This means that more parts of yourself are fogiving and loving while fewer are angry and resentful.

Using your dreams to increase self acceptance.

A lack of self acceptance is as common as it is disasterous. It is difficult not to predicate our self-worth on how much we make, how many people we help, how good we are at our work, how many people like us, or how much education we have. But all these things are not so much who we are as what we do. They represent our social roles rather than our timeless, unique essence which requires no justification and is intrinsically valuable. Self-acceptance is fundamental to success in life, to happiness and to peace of mind, and it is fundamental to Dream Yoga. It demonstrates whether or not you accept yourself and what you can do to become more self-accepting. As you accept other aspects of yourself, you not only grow in self-acceptance but also in acceptance for other people who express qualities similar to those which you have previously rejected in yourself.

Using your dreams to replace fear, anxiety, and worry with courage, confidence, and trust.

Like depression, fear is associated with neurotransmitter imbalances, particularly of GABA (Gamma Amino Buteric Acid). Making sure there is enough of this neurotransmitter by taking Restores +, or its biological equivalent, starts to reduce feelings of fear, anxiety and worry in many people in as little as two days. Whether or not you remember your dreams, scenarios that create fear, anxiety, and worry underrcut your peace of mind. When you listen to and neutralize these patterns through Dream Yoga, you will likely find a greater percentage of your dreams dealing with themes which demonstrate courage, confidence, and trust. As these qualities are amplified in your consciousness, they will begin to positively permeate many aspects of your life.

Using your dreams to replace destructive addictions with positive addictions.

Destructive addictions can include overeating or craving unhealthy foods, self-medicating with food, drugs, alcohol, nicotine, or caffein and co-dependency. Positive addictions actually boost the endorphin levels in the brain while supplying the body-mind with eustress. Examples may include regular exercise (running, yoga, dance), meditation, and service.

It is very difficult to eliminate destructive addictions until physiologically-based cravings associated with deficiencies in dopamine, and the opiods, for instance, are remedied. To learn more about how to make sure your brain is receiving the nourishment that it needs, please see www.restoresplus.com. Research has shown that such physiological support allows 70% of AA members to stay sober, while those without such brain nourishment. have a 20% maintenance of sobriety.

Most physical addictions will wither on their own when the brain receives proper nourishment and the individual regularly puts themselves in a supportive environment. The most important support group that you can belong to is your own internal dream sangha. You can go to AA, NA, OA, etc., but without physiological support and a supportive internal dream sangha your recovery will be much more difficult. In this regard, Dream Yoga provides the encouragement and ongoing internal support needed to eliminate destructive addictions while cultivating positive ones.

Physical

Using your dreams to improve your physical health.

Many researchers now believe that at least 75% of physical health problems are largely psychosomatic. Even something as concrete as tooth decay is largely due to the amount of acidity in your saliva, which is itself a reflection of how you handle stress. Typical exceptions include taking some food or medicine that upsets the status quo.

For the most part, dream group members are much more interested in your degree of self-acceptance, your goals, and how you think and feel, than they are in the health of your body. Exceptions are taking some food or medicine that upsets the status quo. Dream groups are more interested in changing your future health by improving your currently held beliefs, feelings, and behaviors. Think of it this way: an architect is much less interested in completed buildings than he is in planning them. This is generally the bias of dream group members, although at the same time they will manifest ongoing systemic imbalances, as long as there has not been a major accomodation to them. For example, dream groups are much more likely to comment on a non-drinker consuming five beers than it is on a chronic alcoholic drinking pure grain alcohol, although, the severity of the results is much greater for the latter.

Dream group members are much more interested in you accepting yourself as you are and cultivating your peace of mind than they are in supporting you in losing thirty pounds or finding the love of your life or making a million dollars. We all know plenty of people who are thin, in love, and wealthy but have no inner peace or self-acceptance. Do not expect your dream group members to share your values or your conception of health. If they did, they would be of little use to you, wouldn't they?

If you are sick and fear disability or death, you will find support from identifying with parts of yourself which are neither disabled nor fear death. It is not a matter of convincing yourself that your pain is unreal or that your fear is unfounded; you are entitiled to your perceptions. It is more a matter of broadening your perception to include those of other legitimate perspectives that are both relevant and liberating.

You can always run specific health-related questions by a dream group to see what they will say. Should I discontinue the fast I am on? Is my current approach to treatment of my condition the one you would recommend? You may discover that many of your dream group members have no opinion or little of consequence to add. Others will not care. But some of them will very definitely have opinions that are strong and well thought out. Do not take these as gospel. Simply factor them into your decision making process, formulate a course based on your best judgment, review it as a pre-sleep suggestion, and look for feedback from subsequent dream groups.

Relationships

Using your dreams to find and keep happiness in your relationships

Most of us go through life picking partners who are mirrors of our unfinished business. Sometimes we insist that our friends and bosses mirror these issues for us. If they refuse, we just kick them out of our lives. All of this can be almost as interesting as it is time consuming. The more that we look at, listen to, and accomodate our internal mirrors the less time we will have to spend dealing with our reflection in the words and moods of our associates and loved ones. We might even get to where we can actually hear the people we love instead of chronically projecting our assumptions on to them. Imagine that! Dream Yoga may appear, on the surface, to be a round about and indirect way of healing interpersonal relationships, but I can assure you that it creates a degree of intimacy that is hard to find. If you are tired of wasting time with superficial relationships that go nowhere, do Dream Yoga with your family and friends. I predict that you will discover a closeness that is almost overwhelming in its intensity. You will then find if you really want the degree of intimacy that you say you want. You will discover if you are ready to be known in your heart of hearts and whether you have the capacity to love others unconditionally, as you believe you do.

We do not, for the most part, treat others as we would want them to treat us. Instead, we try to teach them not to hurt us emotionally or financially, which is fear based and a waste of time and effort. Our basic problem is that we take everything personally. We think that when people talk to us they are talking about us, instead of about themselves. And so we get defensive and protective and make the conversation about us instead of about them. You will notice, as you interview your dream group members, that many of them refuse to play this game. What this means is that you have some internal teachers who, if you wish, can teach you to transcend your defensiveness.

People who are aggressive believe that "The best defense is a good offense." Aggression is abusive, and abuse may be mental, verbal, physical, or sexual. It may be directed at others or oneself. Passivity is a more subtle form of abuse, wrapped in the language of disregard and disrespect.

Aggression is a reaction to fear. If you are angry, and want to get beyond it, try asking yourself, "If I were afraid of something about this situation, what would it be?" As soon as you acknowledge your fear, your anger will subside. If it doesn't, it probably means you haven't gotten to your fear yet. Listen to your dream group members. They will tell you what you are afraid of, and in so doing, show you how you can undercut your aggressive defenses.

Financial

Using your dreams to build financial prosperity.

Now prepare yourself for some New Age blasphemy: Despite what those terrifically inspiring self-help dream books may tell you, your dream group members don't really care how much money you make. God doesn't care if you win the lottery. Your soul doesn't care if you drive a slick car and live in a fancy house. Most of your dream members don't care if you make a million bucks or not. It's OK if you do, but don't think that because it's important to you it must be important to the divine order. That's a little like both the allies and axis forces praying to the same God to win World War II. I have a difficult time speaking for your soul and for God, but I do believe that you will find that many of your dream group members are much more interested in cultivating your peace of mind and self acceptance than they are in how much money you make. If fact, they will often respond to your financial concerns by redirecting you to the cultivation of equanimity, of managing your stress within your present circumstances. As you begin to do so, don't be too surprised if you find financial doors "magically" opening up for you, that your "luck" improves, that you find yourself in the right place at the right time to experience abundance in your life. Because, as we have said, life is not meant to be difficult.

Your dream group members will, however, sometimes often offer opionions about what you might do to make more money: Should you go into art or electrical engineering? Should you fire that employee or give them another chance? Should you buy that lottery ticket or use your money in some other way? They may have opinions about the fastest way for you to get out of debt or about whether to buy 100 shares of IBM. They will most surely help you to clarify your reasons for wanting money and will comment on what you do with it if you want them to. But even if Donald Trump, and Bill Gates both appear in your dream and give you solemn, adamant advice about what you should do, advice that you happen to agree with, still be very cautious. The final decision rests with you.

When you ask for financial advice in the form of a pre-sleep suggestion, be prepared not only for dreams that comment on your relationship with money but also for waking events that answer your need. Someone with helpful advice may unexpectedly come into your life; you may end up hearing about an opportunity that seems "just right." You may get a hunch about making a shift in your financial strategy. Dreams are meant to remain, at least for the most part, behind the scenes and out of sight. You can maximize their positive influence in your waking life if you desire, by developing a respectful dialogue. You will find surprises at every turn as you come to really know yourself and to love all others as yourself.