“Twenty times a day for two weeks!” is the startled response I usually hear when I describe the procedure for a dream alchemy visualisation to a first-time client.
“Yes, then twice a day for another four weeks,” I add, “just first thing in the morning and last thing at night.”
(Dream alchemy practices are simple exercises, such as visualisations, based on symbols from your dream. Your dream symbols come from your unconscious mind, so these carefully designed practices work by communicating directly with your unconscious mind to transform limiting beliefs. When you do dream alchemy, waking life magic happens. Read more about what dream alchemy is and how it works in my book, The Dream Handbook.)
But, twenty times a day?
In reality, the visualizations I design take only 1-2 minutes to do, and you can choose to do them in batches if you wish.
Once you’ve done your visualization a handful of times, you find that you can speed them up while also amping up the required emotions.
They also make you feel good – really good – so you’ll find you’re keen to do them.
But, still, twenty times a day?
Yesterday Fran emailed me with a great question that prompted me to write today’s blog:
“How many dream alchemy practices should you be doing?
I’m thinking if one full alchemy exercise takes six weeks, do you wait for that one to finish before starting another?
If you had to do an alchemy for each dream, surely there wouldn’t be enough time in the day?”
Of course, Fran is right. Imagine remembering five dreams a night, every night, and trying to do a dream alchemy visualisation for all of them!
So what’s the solution?
There are many different kinds of dream alchemy: visualization, affirmation, artwork, writing, poetry, dialogue, bodywork/physical, and ‘give back the belief’. Repetition is only required for visualisations and affirmations. (The designated number of reps is a result of my research and practical work with clients over the years, and I sometimes set different reps for different situations, including stepping visualisations down to ten reps for the second week.)
Visualisation and affirmation are the most powerful of the dream alchemy practices, so I usually set these for either recurring dream themes (that reflect recurring waking life issues that need to be resolved) or for extremely significant dreams.
So here’s my advice
* Apply a dream alchemy visualisation or affirmation for (i) a recurring dream theme or (ii) an extremely significant dream.
* Begin a new visualisation or affirmation, if you wish, once you have completed the first two weeks of the current one. (You will then be doing the first two weeks of your new alchemy while you are in the twice-a-day phase of the old one.)
* Watch your other dreams closely for signs that the alchemy is working.
* For other dreams that you’d like to alchemise during this period, choose from the once-only list: artwork, writing, poetry, dialogue, bodywork/physical, and ‘give back the belief’.
* Keep a little book, separate from your dream journal, as your dream alchemy journal. Record your practices on the right hand pages, and use the left hand pages to note insights and waking life results.
That’s it in a nutshell. I could write a whole book on this. Oh, that’s right, I’ve already done that: The Dream Handbook (pub Hachette).
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