Enduring nightmares due to the situation? Learn to transform them

"It's a shame that we can't edit our lives as easily as we can edit a movie, isn't it? Especially in times like these, when we're under a lot of stress and exposed to distressing sights and unbearable stories, many of us wake up in the morning after having really unpleasant dreams at night.

I'd like to introduce you to an available, natural, and accessible tool that can help improve your mental state today—or more precisely, tonight! While copying, pasting, and editing are typically associated with film, articles, or music, the truth is that within our lives, fully visible to the eye, there is a film—a whole film library, in fact—that changes every day. So, here's our private cinema, always at our disposal: the dreams of the night.

The critical mistake in understanding our dreams

Most of the time, we dismiss dreams as just another amusing, annoying, or casual element produced by our brains, or we try to interpret their messages. In the recent, tense period, we also understand that nightmares are a natural way for our subconscious to 'release' accumulated stress. But what can be done about it? If we view our dreams not merely as an 'output' of the brain but as an invitation to a conversation, our attitude will change entirely. We will discover a real tool for change that can transform our feelings, even in the face of very challenging realities, to say the least.

So, how do you change your life (or just relax a bit) through a dream?

Now, it's crucial to use the most available and natural tools for making a change, and night dreams are precisely such a tool. They serve as a gateway to the subconscious, allowing access to the most essential 'software' for us—our consciousness."

So, what are we doing?

For instance, one of my students had a nightmare. In the dream, she flees from terrorists in her childhood neighborhood and seeks refuge in a building that once belonged to a neighbor. Along the way, she loses her father and is too afraid to call out his name. In the dream, she thinks she spots him at one point and tries to approach, but a sniper emerges from her left, preventing her from reaching her father as she continues into the ruins of the building. She woke up early in the morning with an anxiety attack. Without a doubt, the dream indicates feelings of stress and distress.

Time to edit!

Now, editing a dream requires us to simply write down our dream exactly as it happened. It is better to use a writing tool and a dedicated dream notebook (not a computer file), but if necessary, a Word file can suffice. In the next step, we might want to make actual changes to the entire dream—not to write that there are no terrorists at all, but only sun and flowers, with the dreamer and her father walking in a meadow. However, even for our consciousness, this scene might be too radical and unreliable. This goes beyond editing and becomes the creation of an entirely new script.

Therefore, we will try to make small and subtle changes. For example, we'll write the beginning of the dream exactly as it is, except at a certain point, we'll 'tilt' the script. We'll write that our dreamer navigates through all the destroyed buildings until she reaches an empty land. At this point, her father arrives from the other side and informs her that our forces have captured a significant portion of the terrorists, and it's necessary to keep moving away from the danger zone. This way, the dream resolves in a more harmonious manner but isn't drastically different from the original dream.

This is how we 'program' our brains to start finding solutions in reality and alter thought patterns, potentially even changing real-life situations.

How do we continue to edit and bring about change in our lives?

By editing dreams, we can 'engineer' problems with family, anxieties, difficulty finding a relationship, and more. Right before going to sleep, we can ask to release tension in a dream related to a specific topic—a relationship with a company, work, financial problems, or anything else—and then observe the dream that comes to us. The importance lies in the process. It's worth persisting with the process to gradually witness improvements.

Editing is an ongoing operation. Every time an unpleasant or distressing dream occurs, we can make an edit—and little by little, we'll see an improvement in the dreams of the night and, over time, in reality itself."

"The boss yells at me in a dream."

Here is an example of an ongoing job difficulty that my student experienced: Yaara, a student in a dream course, has persistent problems with her boss at work. Initially pleased when he hired her, six months have passed, and she feels that he is now dissatisfied with her. He is constantly nervous, and precisely now, she wants to ask for a raise. It bothers her so much that she dreams about it repeatedly; in the dream, he shouts at her and asks her to make coffee (in reality, she holds a managerial position and does not make coffee for anyone). The dream repeats itself with slight variations, but the coffee theme persists in every dream, likely reflecting the feelings of inferiority or humiliation she experiences.

So we asked Ya'ara to rewrite the same dream in an improved and calming version. For example, she could write: "Uri (the boss) comes in, says good morning to me and smiles, wearing a yellow shirt. He tells me that I'm the only one in the office who manages to keep the desk tidy. He informs me that our client praised my outstanding work, thanks me sincerely, and supports me for the rest of the day. At noon, he mentions making coffee and invites me if I feel like it."

This is a great edit because it's not excessive. Uri doesn't undergo a radical transformation or propose marriage to Ya'ara in this version. He simply behaves like a reasonable and considerate boss.

The next day, something really interesting happened. Uri was still annoying and nervous, not very pleasant, but... cut... he came to work that day wearing a yellow shirt. In other words, some subtle synchronization between dream-editing and reality began, even if only as a hint.

We knew that Ya'ara might still dream about Uri, so she made this edit three times. After two months, she reported that something had shifted. They are not in the warmest relationship now, but the heavy cloud has passed. Uri complimented her on one of the jobs she did for a client, and she even feels ready for the next step—to ask for a promotion.

In conclusion, editing a dream is an amazing and effective tool that doesn't require any sophisticated tools from us, only the elements that already exist in our lives. True, patience and commitment to the task are required here, and perhaps even a small financial expense on a lined notebook (around ten shekels or so?). I recommend making dreams our allies because in the future, we can derive a lot more from them.

What can I offer right now?

Until 07/12, the school's teaching staff and I are providing a month of free tarot and dream activities for the occasion. Anyone interested in the field can visit my website and sign up for the 'Winning Card' program, which is entirely free and packed with beneficial content. There are plenty of calming activities, resource-building, and creative exercises using tarot cards. Additionally, it's an opportunity to explore the world of dreams and tarot. I hope, like everyone else, that we will quickly return to immersing ourselves in the subjects we love and regain our peace and security—both from within and in general.

The author is Sagi Mendelboim, Director of the School of Personal Fulfillment, Tarot, and Dreams. He is the author of the bestselling book 'The Guide to Reading the Tarot Cards' and specializes in classical homeopathy. With 29 years of experience in studying and teaching courses and workshops on personal development, tarot, and dreams, he conducts sessions via Zoom in Tel Aviv and other cities throughout the country. For more about dreams, tarot cards, and other topics, visit Sagi's website."