In our society today, dreams tend to be overlooked.

Dreams deserve more attention than they currently get because they can reveal to us a great deal about ourselves. Simply paying attention to dreams and analyzing them via a ‘dream journal’ is a good start.

Yet the most rewarding dreams are lucid ones, which are dreams where one is aware that they are dreaming. Few people in this world lucid dream on a regular basis, if at all, but that doesn’t mean that most people aren’t capable of doing so.

Having the ability to lucid dream offers a number of benefits, especially when it comes to reaching your fullest potential in life. Many people face mindsets, emotional trauma, or other hindrances that hold them back. Mastering the art of lucid dreaming can give somebody the ability to achieve their highest aspirations in life by ridding themselves of those things.

Here are several ways that you can utilize lucid dreaming:

Access Your Subconscious

Oftentimes in life, we are held back by forces that we don’t even realize are there. Whether it is childhood trauma or a fear of failure, memories and experiences can lurk deep inside us. If we ever wish to achieve our fullest potential, we must remove these forces. These negative emotions are like anchors that weigh us down and prevent us from functioning fully.

Our subconscious is a fascinating entity, one that many go through life without even being aware of. It’s truly a shame because it is our subconscious that ultimately provides us direction in life.

The reason the subconscious gets ignored so much is that it is difficult to access. Uncovering what lies deep down often requires consulting a professional psychiatrist, who is able to help evoke these emotions and experiences. However, lucid dreaming gives us the opportunity to uncover and interact with our subconscious directly, bypassing the need for outside help.

The subconscious reveals itself in different ways to different people. Oftentimes it may come through a person or animal you interact with in your dream. While in the dream you may perceive a conversation as just that, it’s so much more. Remember, everything that happens in your dream is a conception of your mind. This is why it is crucial to remember these conversations within your dreams.

Once you access your subconscious through a lucid dream, it is time to take what you learned and apply it to reality. Spend time focusing on the things that are holding you back in life to help ultimately free the subconscious.

Discovering Creativity

Many people wonder where artists develop their incredible creativity. Famous artists attribute their success to a myriad of reasons, one of which is lucid dreaming.

There are a number of well-known individuals who have utilized lucid dreaming in pursuit of greatness. These figures include intellectuals like Nikola Tesla and Richard Feynman, as well as artists like Salvador Dali.

Perhaps the best example of a legendary figure using lucid dreaming to realize their creativity is the director James Cameron. Cameron has directed numerous blockbusters, but the film Avatar is a clear example of Cameron’s creative genius. If you’re not familiar with this film, it employs incredible imagery and concepts; things that one doesn’t ordinarily conceive of.

Dreams present a unique potential for discovering creativity. The laws of the universe don’t apply within dreams and people are free to do anything that their heart desires. This is because during REM sleep our brains are not inhibited by sensory input as it is during our day to day lives.

This allows us to come up with novel conceptions, objects, and circumstances. This means that experiences that would never happen in real life, may occur in dreams, which broadens our horizons when it comes to finding new ideas.

Face Your Fears

Surveys have shown consistently for decades now that public speaking is one of the people’s greatest fears. The thought of standing in front of a group of complete strangers leaves them feeling helpless and vulnerable.

In real life people who fear public speaking would refuse to give a speech in front of a large group. They would need a safe environment to expose themselves to this level of public speaking; lucid dreaming provides such an opportunity.

Fears are something that traumatizes many people, whether it’s a fear of heights or spiders. These people will likely not feel comfortable facing these fears in real life. Lucid dreaming presents the opportunity to face these fears in a dream, instead of real life.

In a lucid dream, we are safe in a safe scenario as we control the environment we perceive. Once we face these fears our minds can create and reinforce positive feedback patterns within our subconscious to eradicate these fears for good.

Develop Skills through Visualization

The best way to become an expert at something is to simply do it over and over. However, depending on the skill, that is often easier said than done.

Pretend that you want to become a great snowboarder. Time and money inhibit you from hitting the slopes on a regular basis. Your ability to constantly hone this skill is inhibited by those factors, but if you choose to embrace lucid dreaming that won’t be the case.

Imagine that every night you dream of standing atop an enormous mountain. You’re filled with ecstasy at the prospect of gliding down the mountain. You take off and visualize yourself snowboarding with grace. Not only does this visualization help with doubts and fears, but it also contributes to muscle memory once employed in the real world.

What NOT to do

Once you obtain the ability to lucid dream with consistency, the possibilities are virtually endless. This means that some people may tend to get carried away.

Sure doing things in a dream that you can’t do in real life is fun and exciting, but by doing so it squanders the chance to reach your potential. Instead of spending your dreams on what could be considered a waste of time, use it to be productive and to further your goals. It truly is a unique and valuable experience that few in this world get to experience.