In today’s society, everyone is trying to either make more money, lose a few pounds around the waist, or simply just get ahead of the pack. It seems we’re always striving for some sort of new goal. But in many cases, what is lacking is one vital element…the inner confidence to do it.

In the real world, we face numerous obstacles that can set us back from reaching our goals, our dreams, and our most cherished desires in life. There is never a shortage of mental or physical hurdles that tend to stand in our way.

But what if you could change your level of confidence from the inside out, through your dreams?

In lucid dreaming, you become not only aware of your dreams, but you’re also the sole creator and painter of your vivid reality. Life in your dreams is a mere canvas in which you can create the scenarios you fear the most in your waking life. And the best part, it makes it easier for you to face them and gain inner confidence.

Sure, I know this may sound crazy initially, but I can tell you from personal experience that lucid dreaming is very real. I’ve not only been a lucid dreamer for nearly half my life, but there are thousands of people all across the world that have harnessed this ability as well. In fact, there have been famous people throughout time who have harnessed the power of lucid dreaming to not only change their life, but to become more creative as well. A few of the people that have used the power of lucid dreaming are: Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, James Cameron, Salvador Dali, Chris Nolan, and Stephen King, just to name a few.

One of the ways I’ve personally used the power of lucid dreaming as a catalyst for personal change, early on in my life, was facing my issue of social anxiety. From an early age, I had always been a creative, yet shy and introverted, type of personality. But when it came to making friends or having to face social situations, not only did it bring great stress, it brought great fear.

As I developed into my late teens, I had a discovered an old ragged book on lucid dreaming called Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D and Howard Rheingold. At first glance, I thought it was some sort of “new age” BS, but as I thumbed through it, the idea of being able to control my dreams seemed very fascinating. Eventually, after several weeks of practice, I was able to have one of my first lucid dreams and my life has never been the same since.

In many of my dreams, I have faced huge crowds of people and given speeches, I’ve played sports in huge stadiums, and I’ve even talked to groups of beautiful girls (yes, lucid dreaming has it’s advantages). Because I’m highly lucid during these dreams, and I know that I’m dreaming, facing these real-world fears (social anxiety) becomes much easier.

The real beauty of this lucid dreaming process is the confidence I’ve gained from these dreams has spilled over into my waking life.

Now I’d like to say I’m some sort of mingling extrovert now, but I’m not. But what I am, is not so afraid, and social anxiety doesn’t affect me like it once did. But social anxiety is only one of the many areas that can be improved through lucid dreaming.

Here are three more ways that lucid dreaming can transform your life…

1. It Can Help You Unlock Your Subconscious Fears

When you lucid dream, you are diving into your own subconscious world. In this world, you may discover fears or feelings that have been pushed down into the subconscious for years, but you didn’t realize it. These feelings or fears, may be ruling your life in an unconscious way. In lucid dreaming, you can unlock these fears and set them free by facing them, and accepting them. Virginia Wolf once said, “Yet it is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.” I couldn’t agree more.

2. It Can Help You Harvest Creative Ideas

All creativity and flashes of brilliance come from your subconscious, and using the creative landscape of lucid dreaming can be your greatest resource for creative ideas. Famous creative thinkers like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison knew this, and used it to their advantage. You can too! The seeds of creativity are planted in your subconscious, now you have a way to tap into them.

3. It Can Allow You To Practice New Skills

In your dream world, there are no rules or limits. In this lucid space, you can practice new skills that you’ve always wanted to try. This could be doing things such as, giving a speech, learning kung fu, or even playing a sport that you love, but were never very good at in reality. The only limit is your mind.

Adding lucid dreaming to your repertoire for change can give you the great mental boost you need to move forward in life. When you combine your waking life with your sleeping life, your potential for positive change will greatly increase. I think Carl Jung summed it up best…

“In sleep, fantasy takes the form of dreams. But in waking life, too, we continue to dream beneath the threshold of consciousness, especially when under the influence of repressed or other unconscious complexes.” – Carl Jung

Photo by mark sebastian