This neglect has shown up in my dreams in many forms: dying and forgotten fish, forgotten rooms or even forgotten wings of a home, moving back into the house where I had an art studio, etc. While my waking mind was focused on being a mother, wife and Dream Analyst, my dreaming mind was begging me to remember this other part of me that I essentially, abandoned.  I made vain attempts here and there to get back into my art by fooling around in photoshop, doing a color pencil drawing, etc. but I had yet to pick up a paint brush.

Thankfully one of my childhood friends, Kimberly Dawn, a fantastic folk artist, posts her new art pieces on Facebook… practically on a daily basis. I mean this woman paints like there is no tomorrow! Gah! I would get so jealous, but in a good way. Kimberly’s posts, along with my dreams, were motivation, gentle nudges that I finally succumbed to! I bought myself some oils, brushes and artist boards and decided to get to work, or rather get back to overdue work!

I’ve been wanting to paint a series based on our most common dreams: drowning, falling, flying, etc. but after I thought about it I decided I needed to break the ice so I decided to paint Marilyn Monroe my favorite subject to draw, paint and doodle over the years. Her face is easy for me. I know every angle and curve. If I could paint her with success then I would know I was back! So I began. And then I had a dream…

I was in a house that was not mine but I knew my way around it. I walked into a bedroom and I found my mother sitting on a bed holding my baby daughter, which I don’t really have in waking life. I had been gone so long, months it seemed, and I was worried my baby would not remember me. I took her from my mother and held her. She looked up at me, smiled and cooed at me. She remembered!!

My baby represented my art that I had been away from for so long. I was VERY worried that I would be so rusty I would not be happy and lose patience but just as the baby remembered me, so did my artist self. Marilyn was turning out beautifully and my dream was giving me approval. Whenever someone smiles at you in a dream, you can almost always connect it to self approval in your waking life, btw.  🙂

As you can see, my neglected baby is still alive, healthy and even thriving!! I am back and my inner dreaming mind is pleased. My mother in the dream represents the part of me that needs to continue to give birth to new paintings and ideas as well my ability to nurture and care for this part of me. I need to remember to continue to be a good mother to my art. I can’t allow myself to neglect it again. If I do, I have no doubt the dream police will be after me, inundating me with bad dreams. As Leonardo da Vinci once said, “A well spent day brings happy sleep.”

Want this painting hanging in your home? She’s for sale! If you’re interested, or know someone who is, go here to purchase a print.

Sweet dreams!!

The post A dream, a baby and Marilyn Monroe appeared first on Lauri Loewenberg | Dream Expert.

I’m standing in the lobby of a nice hotel in New York. There are large, beautifully colored fish floating around in mid-air. I thought that this was a fantastic idea as the fish really added to the ambiance of this place. As I approached the front desk, I noticed a large gold plaque on the wall that read: “Your dreams want to be challenged.” Hmmm, I thought… And then I woke up.

I thought about that plaque all morning. What a nice inspirational message, but then it hit me. It doesn’t mean dreams as in hopes and goals; it means dreams as in the kind you have at night. Wow! My dream was talking to me, challenging me… reminding me.

You see, it was only a month or so before that I had mentioned to my husband that I really wanted to get back into my art and maybe I can get some inspiration in my dreams. I used to paint all the time. I would even paint murals in people’s homes. I was THIS close to working for Walt Disney. Long story short, I fell into the dream business and it has kept me so busy that I no longer had time for my art. So I put it away and let it collect dust. I have a friend on Facebook, Kimberly Dawn Clayton, who is an artist and is constantly painting. She posts her work on Facebook frequently and it’s very lovely… and it makes me jealous!! Jealous of all the time she gets to paint her heart out. So I had decided I wanted to start drawing and painting again too. And then I just sort of let that statement sit there and start collecting dust too…

…until this dream! That plaque on the wall was the clever way my dreams were reminding me that they were ready to work for me, ready to give me some cool inspiration and ideas for my “come back” piece of art. My dreams wanted to be challenged!! So challenge them I did. I set my mind to start on a new piece as soon as my dreams gave me an idea. I stayed mindful of it all day and then at night, before I turned out my light, I wrote in my dream journal that I want my dreams to give me some cool imagery. (I use my own book Cracking The Dream Code every night because it is an interactive journal that helps you connect your dreams to what happened the previous day in your life and it gives you a place to ask your dreams a question.)

My dreams obliged! I had a dream that Robert Pattinson (Team Edward!!) asked me out on a date but his eyes were rainbow colored! I woke from that dream knowing I had to use that imagery in my next piece but I wasn’t sure how. Just a few nights later I dreamed of a beautiful woman in the sky who was glowing. That’s it! I’m going to do a flying dream picture with that woman and give her Robert Pattinson’s rad rainbow eyes!!

And so I present to you my “come back” piece of art. It only took me three days. Oh, and the woman was inspired by Kate Winslet as Rose in Titanic when she was near death and sang “Come Josephine in my flying machine” to herself. I think I may do a series of art pieces depicting common dream themes. For the next one, I’m thinking a drowning dream could be quite cool. But first, I must consult with my dreams for inspirational imagery. I’m pretty sure they’re up for the next challenge.

Your dreams want to be challenged too! It doesn’t matter if you are an artist, a writer, a musician or an investment banker, your dreams will give you great ideas for your art, your relationships, even on how to invest your money. All you have to do is ask. Google, Nike shoes, the sewing machine, even the Twilight series (speaking of Robert Pattinson) all exist because someone challenged their dreams.

“I use Cracking The Dream Code in my practice. This is an amazing book. I use it nearly every day with my psychotherapy clients. It’s a wonderful adjunct tool. “
–  Dr. Jimmy Clifton, Millsburg, IN

“I LOVE your book Cracking The Dream Code.  I refer to it almost every morning! Even with as long as I have had it I am STILL amazed by the accuracy!
– Mindy Direen, Salt Lake City, UT

The post Ask your dreams and they will answer! appeared first on Lauri Loewenberg | Dream Expert.

A lot can be gained from paying attention to and working with your dreams. The truth is that dreams are not only a means of problem solving but are also an endless resource for ideas and inspiration… in particular, musical inspiration.

The most recorded song in history, “Yesterday” came to Paul McCartney in a dream. In a radio interview on London’s XFM Paul was explaining how he came up with the song and said, “That was entirely magical – I have no idea how I wrote that. I just woke up one morning and it was in my head. I didn’t believe it for about two weeks”.

The lyrics to “Blue Suede Shoes” came to Carl Perkins in a dream. Carl described the genesis of his Rockabilly hit to Gadfly Online, “I was playing at a place called the Roadside Inn. I heard this boy tell the girl he was dancing with ‘Watch out, don’t step on mah suedes’ and I looked down at his feet, and he had on this pair of blue suede shoes. It kinda stuck to me.” The incident stayed on his mind all night and when he woke up in the morning he immediately began writing down the lyrics on an old brown paper potato sack, the only piece of paper he had around the house. Elvis Presley then recorded the song and the rest is history!

The riff to “Satisfaction” came to Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards in a dream. According to the St. Petersburg Times, one night after playing a show in Clearwater, FL on June 5, 1965, Richards woke up with the guitar riff and lyric “Can’t get no satisfaction” in his head. He recorded it on a portable tape deck, went back to sleep, and brought it to the studio that week. The tape contained his guitar riff followed by the sounds of him snoring.

Legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix used his dreams as inspiration for many of his songs. He once said in a 1969 interview with Musical Express, “I dream a lot and I put a lot of my dreams down as songs. I wrote one called ‘First Around the Corner’ and another called ‘The Purple Haze’, which was all about a dream I had that I was walking under the sea.” He also claims his song “Angel” was inspired by a dream where his mother came down from heaven to take him with her. Sadly, it was only a few months later that his mother did come to take him with her to heaven on September 18, 1970.

Check out my sexy pin up art!

Some of the lyrics to “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It” Came to R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe in a dream. In 1992 he revealed to Q Magazine that “The words come from everywhere. I’m extremely aware of everything around me, whether I am in a sleeping state, awake, dream-state or just in day to day life. There’s a part in ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’ that came from a dream where I was at Lester Bangs’ birthday party and I was the only person there whose initials weren’t L.B. So there was Lenny Bruce, Leonid Brezhnev, Leonard Bernstein… So that ended up in the song along with a lot of stuff I’d seen when I was flipping TV channels. It’s a collection of streams of consciousness.”

Just like the above musicians, you can put your dreams to use for you too because they are offering you wisdom, solutions and inspiration every single night… but first, you’ve got to learn their language!  My book  Dream  On  It will have you understanding your dreams in no time! Keep it by your bedside so you can easily figure out your dreams as soon as you wake from them. You’ll wonder why you didn’t get it sooner!

“Since I’ve been reading your book, my my dreams no longer worry me PLUS, my recurring dreams have stopped… because I found out what they meant and handled the issue. Being able to understand my dreams makes me feel so powerful!!” – Judith, Memphis, TN

The post 5 Iconic Rock and Roll Songs That Were Inspired By Dreams appeared first on Lauri Loewenberg | Dream Expert.