Meet today's guest:

Kelly Lydick received her M.A. in Writing and Consciousness from the New College of California. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, The Rumpus, Drunken Boat, Switched-on Gutenberg, Natural Awakenings, Java, and True Blue Spirit magazines, and many others.

Her work has also been featured on NPR’s The Writers’ Block. She is the author of the experimental, Mastering the Dream, and she is a contributing author to Dreams That Change Our Lives. She is also a co-founding editor of Immanence Journal.

Kelly holds certifications as a Meditation Facilitator, Reiki Master, Crystal Reiki Master, and Gateway Dreaming™ Coach. She teaches writing and personal development workshops, and offers private consultations through her company Waking the Dream.

In 2016, Kelly was honored by the internationally-renowned Omega Institute of Rhinebeck, New York with a Juno Award for excellence in women’s leadership for her service-based business.

She holds professional memberships with the International Association for the Study of Dreams, where she has presented her work on dream studies, the Academy of American Poets, and the Arizona Authors Association.

“Dreams hold the keys to the depths of your inner being. They have the power to help you understand the hidden parts of your consciousness, and their symbols provide knowledge about the deepest parts of self. “

This is a quote from my guest, Kelly Lydick, who joined us on the show to help us become more aware of why our dreams are so important and provide some tools to get them working for you.

By way of introduction, Kelly began by sharing a bit about her story and how she came to be a Gateway Dreaming Coach.

I had been dealing with some chronic health issues around 2008 and my understanding was that I would have a very difficult time having a child, if at all.
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During that time, I became a Gateway Dreaming coach…I had been struggling with some health imbalances and that really prompted me to turn inward and also to explore the depth of my dreams – which had been a passion since I was young anyway – so it seemed to really fit.
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I became a coach in 2010 and started working 1:1 with clients and teaching some workshops. In 2015 I unexpectedly became pregnant with my son which was a huge miracle in my life. From that point forward, I’ve been working on my business, working with my private clients as a coach and raising my son. It’s been quite a ride so far…it’s exciting to think about the future too.

It turns out that dreams and how much attention we pay to them can totally influence our health! In fact, Kelly says that dream-work can help you balance your life, as well as explore greater consciousness and become more creative.

Kelly went on to teach us a tool called the dream incubation process which allows you to tell your dream what you’d like to know about and then use the dream to receive an answer.

I always recommend that folks do the dream incubation process as the very last thing before they retire to sleep. It’s as simple as writing a question on a piece of paper. For instance a good question would be – what next steps do I need to take to balance my health – or what is the next best steps to grow my business?
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Write the question on a sheet of paper, fold it up and put it into some kind of small container with a lid. It’s important that the container has a lid – it’s not just a symbolic, visual cue, but it’s also a way of containing the energy of that question. Place that container on the bedside table, then right before you retire to sleep make sure that you have your feet off of the ground… sit there and meditate on the question – repeat it to yourself at least 3 times. You can do that silently in your head or aloud and then after that move into a space of non-attachment, put that question out into the ether and retire to sleep immediately.

According to Kelly, this process can open certain channels that access both the subconscious mind and the higher self and the more you practice doing this, the more easily things will open.

When the dreams surface throughout the night inevitably the symbols are going to be telling the story to answer the question.

Kelly shared some things that can affect the dreaming process and talked about different theories for interpreting the symbols you receive. She told us how her clients can often see patterns outlining a story and described a technique called ‘rolling’ that a person can use to recall a dream previously forgotten.

Tune into the show to get all the wonderful tools and tidbits Kelly went into during our talk and then be sure to head over to KellyLydick.com so you can sign up for Kelly’s newsletter and receive a free MP3 dream incubation download as a thank you.