The importance of having a dream

In our Fresh Air Fridays community this month we are inviting our members to have some fun exploring their big dream.

We ask people to take away all restrictions and let their imaginations run wild with what they would have if their fairy godmother could wave her magic wand. For some people this is easy and immediate while for others there’s resistance and it takes some time to take away the restrictions that we sometimes put on ourselves.

The other challenge people sometimes have is searching for “the thing”. We are so caught up on what we perceive as right and wrong that we worry about whether this is the right thing, or about whether there’s a bigger, better dream around the corner, or something we “should” be aiming for.

Through this theme we also notice that some people are clearly focused on one dream while for others, their desires and wants change, adjusting to new information or simply their mood. We understand that there’s a time and place to be consistent and work to a specific goal for a period of time, however this exploration of the big dream gives us the freedom to simply explore our ability to go with the flow and notice what we fancy.

So, the first gift we give is the invitation to play and have some fun with this idea and, when an idea has materialised, we invite an exploration of what they believe the dream would give them.

Someone asked me in a concerned voice the other day, “does that mean I have to give up on my big dream?” The answer to which, of course, is absolutely not! However when we see the motivation behind our dreams we can start to notice how we already have some of it in our lives already and that’s the magic of this theme.

For example, maybe the beautiful mortgage-free house is a desire for security. Or the dream of travelling is a wish for freedom. When we understand that we can look for how we already have these things in our lives and the simple things we can do to create more of it. As we notice more ways in which we have some of what we want, we tend to find new ways of creating more of it. Finding the reason behind our dreams helps to bring our dreams forward.

So why is all this important? When I work with people who are very unhappy, just getting out of bed can seem like a challenge. When life is tough it can feel like life has no point. Having a dream gives us hope, we have a reason to get out of bed and connect with the people around us.

Our invitation to you is to dream big, treat your dreams lightly and notice the ways in which your dreams are already real!