Dream a Little Dream

          Times are tough these days.  So many of us now find ourselves immersed in troubles we never saw coming just a short time ago.  Money is tight everywhere.  People are losing jobs or have had their work hours and/or pay cut back, while the cost of living keeps going up.  If you’re a senior, your Medicare benefits are under threat from Congress.  Taxes are bludgeoning almost everyone. 

            It is easy to get discouraged, even to get downright depressed and miserable.  I know I do at times.  I’ve seen my financial resources dwindle down to the `barely surviving’ level, and have had to learn to go without so many things.  For sure, I am not alone.  Also, for sure, there are many people out there who have lost all their financial resources, including their homes.  Suffering like that is hard to handle.  So I have to be grateful for the little income I do have given what many others are going through. 

            “Down” is so easy to fall into during tough times.  It’s easy to slip into that down, depressed state when the bills come in with their added-on penalties for non-payment or late payment.  Or when the creditors start calling, or when you don’t have the money to even put gas in the car or buy groceries. 

            But you have to ask yourself, what good does feeling “down” do?  It isn’t going to solve the problem.  I know and well understand how it is the logical consequence of hardship.  I go through it often myself.  However, in brighter moments, I realize that those down moods drain my energy, both mentally and physically, and block any creativity or originality.  At a time when you really need to come up with a new idea … something imaginative, creative, original … you can’t because all that good energy has been drained away.

            So, yes, feeling down and depressed may be natural; however, staying there, though, is not a good idea.  Permitting that state of mind to overpower you and hang around for the long-term becomes self-sabotaging. 

            Back in the 1980s, there was a popular saying that one used to hear quite often, which goes like this:  when the going gets tough, the tough get going.  That attitude still holds true; it will always hold true.  Set aside a prescribed period of time in which to wallow in your misery if you must; but then stop at some point, shake it off and say, `enough is enough.’  Now it’s time to grab trouble by the throat and take charge!

            A good way to take charge is to simply decide that you will no longer let fear, worry, and depression control you.  Instead, you assert that you are in charge of what goes on in your mind.  You make the choice to dream about whatever makes you happiest.  Can you imagine yourself on a Mediterranean cruise?  Get busy and start dreaming about it, filling the dream in with loads of attractive details that excite and stimulate.  What if you had some very large sum of money?  Can you picture that?  What would your life be like?  How would you live and enjoy all that money? 

            Never mind that it’s not going to happen.  How do you know?  Life is invariably full of surprises.  Don’t say it’s not going to happen.  Instead say just the opposite.  Say you know it’s going to happen; you can feel it.  If you can keep on entertaining your dream, get emotionally involved with it, feel what it would be like living in that place or in that circumstance, you might have a good chance of actually having it all come true.  All things are seen first in the mind’s eye before they become reality.

            Good ideas for solving problems can only come when the mind is relaxed and at play.  But if you are stressed out with fear, worry, and anxiety, then good ideas cannot penetrate those blocks.  Fear, worry and anxiety have a paralyzing effect on the mind.  They overpower our thoughts and emotions so that there is no available room for anything creative, imaginative, or original. 

            We've all been taught that we have to be realistic.  We cannot survive on our dreams.  We have to stay earthbound and be practical.  All that is fine ... as far as it goes.  But let me ask you: what is reality?  'Reality' is a very subjective term.  Your perception of 'reality' and mine are likely not the same.

            Yes, I know:  the rent or mortgage has to be paid, as well as the utilities; we need to eat and sleep under a roof; and we need to take care of our children, our relationships, our health, and a myriad other responsibilities.  All these things demand attention and often lots of money.  For sure, I am not advocating that we neglect these realities.  But I do want to draw your attention to another reality, and that is the reality of dreams. 

            Where would the world be without its dreamers?  We all likely would still be clubbing each other over the head and living in caves.  Dreaming is important.  Do not confuse dreaming with fantasy.  The difference is that dreams can come true, whereas fantasies rarely can or do.  The thing about a fantasy is that it is more fun left unrealized, but a dream always contains the hope of realization.  And with the hope comes possibility.

            So dreaming is not a bad thing.  It is certainly much better than wallowing in fear and depression.  I am sure anyone reading this does not want to see their worst fears come true.  If so, then do not give all that priceless attention and fervent emotion over to fear and depression.  Without realizing it, you are inviting more of the same. 

            Have you ever noticed that when one trouble hits, others soon seem to follow, and you quickly find yourself with a quite a few burdens weighing down on you?  Misery invites in more of its own kind.

           Give yourself permission to indulge your dreams, especially during tough times.  What have you got to lose?  Sitting around and concentrating on the problem and its concommitant misery will never solve it.  The solution is never in the problem anyhow.

            I recall a wonderful line from a song called “Happy Talk,” which is from the Broadway stage play, South Pacific.  This was a famous musical play back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and was later made into a successful Hollywood film.  The line goes like this:  “If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?”

            So true!

Sandra L. Lerner is the author of Connecting with Your Guardian Angel for Comfort, Protection and Guidance.

See http://www. Connectingwithyourguardianangel.com