Night by night, we dream to process our experiences and try to make sense of our world. We update our individual mindsets in a bid to resolve conflicts and find solutions to problems. Sometimes we succeed, waking up with a fresh perspective, a better understanding of our situation, or a brilliant creative idea.
But being human, we tend to resist change. We tend to consolidate a mindset built from our younger years, composed of our foundational beliefs about who we are and how we relate to the world. We cling to unconscious patterns and beliefs that made sense for us in our younger years, but limit or sabotage us in our life today.
You might be chuckling to yourself, thinking, “My dreams look nothing like my life, today or in my younger years!” Or you might be thinking, “All I have is nightmares, and I can’t see how they’re helping me. I can’t even get a good night’s sleep.”
On the surface, our weird and surreal dreams can seem totally unconnected to life, but when you know how to explore a dream you see past the bizarre. Patterns jump out, logic emerges from the chaos, and you get to identify your mindset. You see those patterns and beliefs, and you see how they are affecting your life and work today.
That mindset can be changed, if you wish, in surprising ways: a mix of new conscious awareness of your conditioning, and applying techniques designed to reprogram your mindset using the raw material of your dreams.
I have been helping people explore their dreams for over three decades, which is why people’s dreams reveal themselves quickly and accurately to me: I see the patterns, the insights, what can be done to create positive change.
In a corporate setting – or in the world of work – engaging conversations about dreams opens your team members to experience the kinds of shifts that make a difference to their wellbeing and performance.
Everyone dreams, and everyone is curious about what their dreams mean. I always find that the moment someone puts up their hand to ask about a dream, a pin drops, ears are cocked, and within moments almost everyone is waving a hand, eager to ask about their dream.
The Dream Salon is an audience-driven experience where participants voluntarily share dreams and reflections which become starting points for live, facilitated exploration of creativity, stress, problem-solving, emotional patterns, communication, and the pressures people carry that affect their professional roles.
Because the audience’s dreams drive the conversation, no two sessions are ever the same.
At a recent event, a participant shared a recurring dream about taking an elevator up to the third floor. The elevator would go up but the doors to the third floor would never open, leaving him stuck. We explored his dream and gently identified where he was feeling stuck at work, and why, and how we could encourage his mindset to be more open to an opportunity. Three other participants were eager to share: it turned out they had elevator dreams too, but each was quite different. They were able to appreciate the individuality of dreams, and the group were excited to see four different perspectives gained from exploring a similar theme.
What makes the experience particularly powerful in corporate settings is that it creates authentic participation and connection without forced networking or artificial exercises. Even audience members who don’t share a dream become meaningfully engaged as they recognise common human experiences reflected in the discussion.
It suits leadership retreats and executive offsites, conferences and conventions, innovation days, ongoing wellbeing programs, culture initiatives, and media or public forums, and it works just as well for a small group as it does for a large keynote audience. Along the way, we usually touch on creativity and problem-solving, stress and burnout, communication, and the way people’s unconscious patterns show up at work.
What people tend to leave with:
You might like to book me for confidential consultations following The Dream Salon at your event or bring me on as an ongoing consultant in person at your offices, or by Zoom:
I’d love to hear about your audience, your event goals, the kind of experience you want people to leave with, and/or your interest in having me on board as an ongoing consultant. Get in touch and I’ll come back to you within 48 hours and usually sooner:
Jane Teresa Anderson at info@janeteresa.com
