Dream Work
Throughout my day I ask myself “Am I dreaming right now?” and then I take a moment to assess whether I’m awake or asleep. Doing this frequently and regularly has meant that I inevitably ask myself this question in my sleep. When I’m dreaming and, out of habit, ask “Am I dreaming right now?” the answer is sometimes “Yes,” and then I’m able to actively participate in my dreams with the awareness that I’m dreaming.
This awareness is also known as lucid dreaming.
When I lucid dream I’m able to make choices and live through my imagination with unlimited possibility. When talking about this with people I often get asked if I choose to meet certain celebrities, fly, or talk to animals… things like that. While I do engage with this sort of intentionality my dream work is less about doing whatever I want and more about my personal growth.
Asking “Am I dreaming?” while I’m awake helped me cultivate an ability to lucid dream, which in turn helped me to embody my limitless imagination while dreaming, which ultimately allowed me to ask myself “Am I really living?”
In my dreams I’m able to let go of self-limiting narratives, grudges, and trauma, and experience ease, kindness, and uncomplicated love. It seems like I’m practicing being my higher self in my dreams, and it feels easier than in real life. It feels so real to live comfortably and effortlessly in my dreams that my body and my mind get a concrete reference point for what it’s like to feel that ease and over time I’ve been able to drop into that feeling while awake.
I’m learning how to live life as though it’s a dream that I get to make choices in.
Dream journaling is an incredibly effective way to engage with dreamwork. Writing down what I remember as soon as I wake up is an essential part of my dream practice.
I experienced a period of intense dreams about my grandma, who has passed on. I was missing her and often woke up crying from these dreams. Around this time I wanted to make a quilt, and chose to make a yellow one. Her favorite color, each stitch made me feel closer to her. While making this quilt I was able to meditate on my relationship with her and examine my relationship with impermanence and death.
I was lucky to be featured in Uppercase Magazine and interviewed about my dream practices.
A quilted, tufted, dream journal I made.
A screenshot from the workshop I taught on the Quilty Nook about how to sew your own Dream Home.
This is my dream home. I’ll write something on a piece of paper - it might be a question I’d like an answer to, something I want clarity about, or something I want to see happen in my dreams - and lift up the roof to put the paper inside. This is one way that I try to intentionally create an outcome in my dreams.
This is a quilt I saw in a dream, which I replicated as best as I could. The most vivid part of my dream was staring in awe at the contrast between the blue binding and the pale green. I was able to match these colors perfectly. The design of this quilt is incredibly simple, but the "matchstick" quilting is an advanced technique that provides a beautiful texture to the quilt. I often dream about quilts but they are usually too complicated for me to remember precisely This is the only quilt I've been able to remember accurately.
I sleep under many quilts each night as a way to be close to the people who made them. I like to believe they protect me while I sleep. Shown here: A pink quilt my grandma made for me. A blue quilt I made for my partner. And on top is the baby quilt my mom made for me that she finished for my 36th birthday, and which both of my grandmothers worked on.
I’ve started tracing some of the entries from my dream journals and then sewing the words. Eventually I will make a quilt from these dream journal entries.
I had a dream that I drove onto a ferry to cross some body of unknown water. On the ferry was a large crane-like machine, with a magically long arm, that picked me up in my car and propelled me forward with so much force that the world around me blurred, like warp speed in Star Trek. When I was set down, the ferry ride was over, and I remember thinking "I didn't know that's how ferries work." But, I was dropped off where I had started, and hadn't crossed any water at all. I didn't seem to mind. I like to imagine this dream, but zoomed out: a ferry in the middle of some water, with a crane on it that's spinning a car like a carnival ride. I made this piece the morning after I had this dream.
I think beds are under-appreciated, sacred places in our homes. We spend a lot of our lives in beds and experience many different types of intensities in them. I made a blanket and two pillows for this miniature bed as a small homage to how special beds are.
I made this little quilt so I could carry it with me in my pocket, bringing it out when I’m asking myself if I’m dreaming throughout my day. Having a tactile aid helps me to situate myself in the ‘awake’ realm. (Tap the right arrow to see more.)
Front
Back
Front of my pillow
Back of my pillow, which has a pocket for the little dream quilt to settle into while I sleep.