“You need to get more work done. Can you go back to sleep?” Mimi Herrmann, Quanta Change founder, said that to me a few times over the years. You’re probably laughing, but she was completely serious.

Dreams are your brain’s vehicle for recharging your batteries – specifically, the battery that stores how you feel about being human and how you deal the situations in your life.  So, you have your dreams to thank for the way you wake up and handle each day.

What do these often mysterious and strange stories mean?  Your dreams are pictures of feelings.  Your brain brings people, places, animals, things, or even time frames (like high school) into dreams based on the feeling that they trigger for YOU.  So, there are no hard and fast rules for what anything means in a dream.  For instance, water will mean one thing to the captain of the swim team and something very different to someone who nearly drowned when he was 6.  The feeling that the person/thing/etc. triggers for you is the feeling that your brain is using to recharge your batteries.

Quanta Change taps into this productive recharging time, and Quanta Change dreams are when you can permanently remove layers of Learned Distress, the feeling that “there is something wrong with me just as I am.”  Learned Distress is the source of the negative moments in your life, so your dreams carry immense potential for change.

In a Quanta Change dream, something is wrong and you do something about it.  The something wrong can be as mild as not liking what someone is wearing or as intense as someone trying to kill you.  What you do about it can also range from the mild (thinking, “That’s a strange thing to wear!”) to the very intense (turning around and killing your attacker).  Whether or not the situation resolves, the point at which you do something is when you peel off a layer of Learned Distress.  We can often tell what your brain is unlearning by looking at the dream.  As an example, here’s my very first Quanta Change dream and some insight about it:

Dream.  I’m living in a beautiful, posh Victorian house.  Everything I need is being provided in an abundant way.  But then I realize that vampires own the house, and they are sucking my blood.  I decide to break free, so I run away from the house.  The vampires chase me, and I keep running.  I turn around and scream at them, “I’m taking care of myself!”  I run some more and find a house.  I knock on the door, but no one answers.  I run to the next house, get in, ask for the phone, but can’t figure out how to dial it.  I scream at the vampires again, and then I wake up.

Feeling context.  Vampires trigger fear for me – specifically, they are scary creatures who suck all the life out of someone.  When I began my Quanta Change process, I was sick and I desperately wanted someone to take care of me.  In my life, I had been willing in many ways to give up my freedom and power to those who could provide for me what I didn’t feel I could do for myself.

Change Theme: At the time, the specific thing I was telling my brain I wanted to change was that I wanted to feel able to take care of myself and enjoy doing so.

Points of change – where I unlearned a layer of Learned Distress.
1. Realizing that it’s vampires running the house and deciding this wasn’t good
2. Breaking out and running away
3. Turning around and screaming at them – “I’m taking care of myself!”
4. Going to the first house for help
5. Going to the second house for help, trying to dial the phone
6. Screaming at the vampires again

Result.
This was the first of many cycles of change for me in the theme of standing up for myself and caring for myself.  Several days after this dream, I felt strikingly more independent.  Each one of those cycles brought me to a new level of inner strength and ability to operate on my own without the need for others’ approval.

What are your thoughts or questions about dreams?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!