Dreams are a wonderful stage on which to rehearse situations for waking life. You have unlimited opportunities to rehearse the same event until you have mastered it in your dreams, and there is no fear of embarrassment because you are your only audience and nobody else will ever see your rehearsal.
This technique may be used to rehearse any situation, from a simple conversation to a business presentation to a complex event with many possible outcomes. If you are unsure of which steps to take or which approach to use to handle a certain situation in your life, you can rest assured your unconscious mind will provide you with a variety of potential solutions and may even hint at which approach will produce the most beneficial outcome.
The same type of rehearsal may be used to practice other skills for waking life. Musicians have the opportunity to practice playing a musical instrument, or, by rehearsing their performance in their dreams, may overcome a fear of performing in front of a large crowd. Athletes can utilize their time spent dreaming as extra practice time to enhance their level of proficiency in a particular sport. The results of this type of practice are scientifically proven. A study published in the Journal of Sport Behaviour found that runners who practiced in their dreams reported significantly faster running times than non-dreamers.
To utilize your dreams to rehearse a situation for waking life, you'll need to employ a combination of the techniques described in articles throughout this series. To begin, you will need to follow the steps to incubate a dream in order to make certain you dream about the desired situation. Common sense dictates that if you don't dream about the situation in question, you won't be able to rehearse for it.
Don't fret about the dream incubation process. One important thing to remember is that our concerns in waking life often find their way into our dreams. If a specific problem is bothering you, chances are it will worm its way into your dreams on its own, with little dream incubation required. If you are rehearsing for a significant situation or event that has been on your mind often lately, you most likely will find it's not difficult at all to incubate a dream about that subject.
To use this technique, incubate a dream about the desired situation, making sure to include the intent to become lucid within your dream. When you find yourself in the dream setting you programmed with the dream incubation technique, the stage is set for your rehearsal. Use the techniques to control your dream environment and to create objects within your dreams to make sure all the necessary pieces of the scene are in place. If you're practicing for a sporting event, create the stadium, field, track or other setting where the even will take place. Add your teammates or competitors, and add a crowd to cheer you on. If you're rehearsing for a business presentation, create the office or conference room where the presentation will take place. Create all the tools you'll need to give a fantastic presentation.
Take the time to try different approaches and tackle the situation from many angles, paying attention to how each approach turns out. Some will obviously produce better results than others. Use the dream time to rehearse until you've refined your approach. This may take several nights of practice and you'll need to repeat the scenario until you feel comfortable taking the same steps in waking life.
Example #1
Let's take the previously mentioned business presentation as an example. Perhaps there are several presentation methods you can use -- visual aids, audio clips, printed handouts for the attendees, etc. -- and a variety of opening remarks you can use to hook your audience, but you aren't certain which methods will be successful. Maybe you're not comfortable speaking in front of a large group, or you don't feel confident that you can get your point across to the audience.
Incubate a dream scenario in which you give the presentation in one way and observe how your audience responds, how comfortable you feel, how enthusiastic you are about the topic being presented and how well you convey the information and that enthusiasm to the audience. Try your presentation again using a different approach, and a third time using yet another approach, and so on until you find one that feels comfortable and produces the desired result.
Once you've practiced giving your presentation in your dreams until you feel comfortable giving it just as well or better in waking life, incubate a dream of yourself giving a highly successful presentation to an interested and receptive crowd, with the entire audience hanging on your every word. Incorporate as many details as possible into your dream to emphasize how well the presentation went.
Example #2
To use another example, let's say you're a runner hoping to win a medal in the 100-yard run. You would begin by creating a dream scene of the track where the run will take place. Put yourself at the starting line before the race. See the other runners line up beside you. Feel the texture of the ground beneath your feet and hands as you moved into the starting position.
You would go on to imagine yourself taking off, running the race. Feel the wind rushing past you as you run. Feel the pounding of your heart, hear the sound of your breath, feel your feet hitting the ground with every step. See yourself crossing the finish line first, and hear the roar of the crowd cheering you on.
Throughout this entire dream sequence, you also experience the emotional feelings that would accompany this event -- the rush of excitement during the run, the exhilaration of pulling ahead of all the competition, the joy of winning the race.
The main focus should be on experiencing every detail to such an extent the dream feels real. You would rehearse in this manner in your dreams as often as possible in the days leading up to the race. During the actual race, all that dream practice will contribute to your success.
This same technique may be applied to any area of life to help you improve your own level of skill. The important thing is to incubate dreams of successfully performing the task or feat. The more often you dream of achieving success in your endeavor, the more likely that improvement in skill will carry over to waking life and generate success.
This post is Part 20 in the series Mastering the Art of Lucid Dreaming.
