Most of my recurring nightmares have ceased since I tried this thought exercise 5 months ago. Instead of having bizarre, hallucinatory bad dreams, I now have mostly mundane dreams where I’m having perfectly normal conversations with acquaintances who are in my life today.
We talk about things I see when walking the dogs. We talk about our plans for holidays. We talk about the weather, traffic, shopping and family. Quite often now, I’ll be working out or walking the dogs when I recall having a conversation with someone and it takes me a few minutes to realize that conversation was only in my dreams.
Occasionally I’ll dream about conversations with my deceased wife. Lately, those have all been good conversations about normal things like what to orderer dinner or the dogs or what to watch on Netflix. I love having those dreams because in them, she is alive and we’re together.
On rarer occasions, I’ll dream about Snickers, Ziggy or Shorty, my dogs who are no longer alive. It’s wonderful to bury my face in their fur, inhale their scent, pick them up, hug them anther them bark.
And on even rarer occasions I dream of my Aunt Es, Uncle Bob and Grandpa who all died more than 30 years ago. When they become alive in my dreams, I get to hear their sage advice for my present day concerns.
It’s not as good as having real conversation with my loved ones being alive and with me.
But it is pretty good.
