Using Dreams to Solve Problems | WooBiz

Summary

In this episode of WooBiz, Andy Walker welcomes back intuitive guide and author Stephanie Gailing to explore how dreams can be used as a practical tool for problem-solving and clarity. The conversation centers on dream incubation—the intentional practice of asking the subconscious to work on a specific challenge during sleep. Stephanie explains how dreams bypass logic, tap into personal and collective wisdom, and often reveal insights unavailable to the waking mind. Through real examples, historical context, and actionable guidance, this episode reframes dreaming as an accessible, powerful resource for business leaders, creatives, and anyone navigating uncertainty or transition.

Woo Skills Exercise: Stephanie guides WooBiz listeners through dream incubation to solve a pressing problem from work or your life. See a step by step guide.

WooBiz+ Extended Episode Summary

After the break on WooBiz+, Andy and Stephanie go deeper—exploring recurring anxiety dreams, nightmares, stress dreams, and how to consciously rework them. Stephanie shares therapeutic techniques for rewriting dreams, addressing fear, and using dreamwork for emotional healing and resilience. This extended conversation offers practical tools for anyone dealing with recurring or disruptive dream patterns.

Detailed Show Summary

Stephanie Gailing returns to WooBiz to discuss how dreams can serve as an intentional, actionable tool for insight, creativity, and decision-making. Andy introduces the idea that while business culture emphasizes logic and data, dreams operate in a different cognitive space—one that bypasses judgment and accesses deeper awareness.

Stephanie explains dream incubation, distinguishing its ancient roots from modern applications. Historically, dream incubation involved sacred sleep in temples such as those dedicated to Asclepius, where dreams were used for healing and guidance. In modern practice, dream incubation is the intentional act of asking a clear, focused question before sleep and allowing the dream state to explore solutions that conscious thought cannot reach.

She outlines how to prepare for dream incubation, emphasizing the importance of working on a problem beforehand, crafting a simple question, writing it down, and remaining open to whatever imagery or emotion arises in the dream. Rather than expecting literal answers, Stephanie encourages listeners to look for what felt alive, fresh, or emotionally resonant.

The conversation also explores how dream symbolism is deeply personal. While archetypal meanings exist, Stephanie stresses that symbols must be interpreted through individual context and lived experience. Andy connects this idea to intuitive symbolism, reinforcing that personal resonance should come before reference guides.

Later, Andy shares a vivid dream involving his late father-in-law. Stephanie models a respectful approach to dream interpretation, focusing on emotional tone, presence, and how the dream may influence waking life—especially in moments of grief, memory, and seasonal transition.

Throughout the episode, dreams are presented not as abstract mysteries, but as an accessible, integrative practice that blends intuition, creativity, and self-awareness—offering listeners a new way to engage their subconscious as a strategic ally.

Stephanie Gailing’s Bio

Stephanie Gailing is an intuitive guide, author, and educator with more than twenty-five years of experience working at the intersection of wellness, creativity, and symbolic insight. Her early career focused on integrative health and conscious living, where she developed educational programs, operated an eco-products business, and consulted within the natural products industry.

Over time, her work evolved to explore the deeper, symbolic dimensions of well-being. Astrology became a core language for understanding life cycles and meaning, while dreamwork and systemic family constellations opened powerful pathways for healing, self-awareness, and creative clarity.

Today, Stephanie weaves astrology, dream exploration, constellation work, and intuitive coaching into a holistic practice that helps individuals reconnect with inner wisdom and creative vision. She is the author of seven books, including Planetary Apothecary, The Complete Book of Dreams, and The Complete Guide to Astrological Self-Care, and writes the newsletters Stellar Insights and Butterflyhaikus.

Stephanie holds a master’s degree in nutrition from Bastyr University, advanced coaching training from New York University, and certifications in family constellations facilitation and ecopsychology.

Stephanie’s Books

Stephanie’s Recommended Resources

Stephanie recommends Deirdre Barrett’s book The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists, and Athletes Use Dreams for Creative Problem-Solving and How You Can Too.
Image Rehearsal Therapy (IRT) is a behavioral-based approach to treating nightmares developed by Barry Krakow, MS. It’s a form of CBT that involves redefining the relationship between the dreamer and the nightmare, and a re-imagining process in which the dream is rewritten.
Also, she says: “The voice memo app I love, which is great for recording your dreams…plus it then transcribes them for you is called Cocoon Weaver.”

Transcript:

[00:00] Andy Walker: What if your best problem solving tool isn’t logic or data,

[00:05] but your dreams?

[00:07] Dream expert Stephanie Gailing explains how to use dream incubation to solve problems and make better decisions.

[00:16] That’s today on WooBiz.

[00:26] Hello and welcome to another episode of WooBiz.

[00:30] The show where we explore intuition,

[00:32] energy and the unseen skills that can help entrepreneurs and leaders make better decisions and find their way faster to success.

[00:42] This week’s guest is one of my personal favorites since we launched in mid-2025.

[00:48] Stephanie Gailing previously joined us to explain how moon phases and their related energy can be used to time business decisions and key activities.

[00:58] That episode deeply resonated with me and she’s back today to take us into another powerful intuitive tool,

[01:05] your dreams.

[01:07] Stephanie is an intuitive guide astrologer and gifted author who writes extensively about dreams, energy cycles and soulful self leadership. She’s also a wellness expert.

[01:20] Today she’s here to show us how our dreams can offer guidance, clarity and insights for real world decisions, especially in business and life transitions.

[01:30] Stephanie’s the author of the Complete book of a comprehensive guide to understanding dream symbolism, recurring themes and the deeper messages your subconscious is trying to communicate.

[01:41] She’s also the author of the Astrology of Dreams and the Full Moon book and her work bridges ancient wisdom with practical modern application.

[01:52] Well, hello Stephanie. Welcome back to the show. It’s so good to see you.

[01:56] Stephanie Gailing: Thanks Andy. It’s so good to see you as well.

[01:59] Andy Walker: Well, you know, since you were last here,

[02:02] I’ve been looking at all of your materials, your books. I mean, you’ve got so many really great books and, and you know, thank you for sending me one about dreams.

[02:10] I’ll put this up here since we have a little bit of video these days. For those of you who are on audio, it’s called the Complete Book of Dreams and it’s a fascinating read.

[02:19] It’s all about the types of dreams you can have and what they mean and how you can use your dreams. And really that’s why I wanted to cut you to come back on this one is because look, business people dream too, right?

[02:30] And they sometimes, as you said to me very astutely just before we started this,

[02:35] you can invoke the dream state to solve problems. So I kind of want to explore that. But let’s see where this conversation goes because I think everybody dreams and it’s such a useful and fascinating tool and I think a lot of people don’t really understand it.

[02:48] So let’s start there. So how did you come to write A book called the Complete Book of Dreams.

[02:55] Stephanie Gailing: Yeah. So, you know, as we’ve discussed before, as I’ve shared with you, my whole work has always been focused on helping people access a greater level of well being.

[03:05] Andy Walker: Right.

[03:05] Stephanie Gailing: And that has moved me into different realms and different landscapes. And about 12 years ago, I mean, I should say as a child, like since I’ve been a child, my dream life is really vivid.

[03:15] But it was about 12 years ago that I realized how dreams themselves and access to them,

[03:23] your relationship with them, how they can be a great mirror for self awareness, for self embrace,

[03:31] for really knowing yourself.

[03:34] And so I just dove into that realm and I, you know, I studied, I learned and I just felt it was really important to and write a book about this subject and got really lucky by some stroke of fate to partner with a really incredible publisher to bring this book out.

[03:51] Andy Walker: So you said you’re a vivid dreamer yourself, right. So what kind of dreams do you have and how do you harness your dreams? Because you’re a writer and a wellness consultant and an astrologer.

[04:01] You do all these wonderful intuitive type things and you do a lot of work with writers and editors.

[04:07] So how does this parlay? How, how can you use your dreams as a tool for creativity or intuition or even problem solving? What’s, what’s your approach there? Let’s start there.

[04:17] Stephanie Gailing: Yeah, So I, I both look at it two ways and I invoke it two ways, right. Sometimes it’s just allowing the, you know, where I just allow the dream, right? Like the dream comes and just to be in the awe and the reverence of, you know, what did that dream bring to me?

[04:33] You know, know. And the dream also being not something abstract, right. The dream being this vessel and the space that the psyche has, right.

[04:42] That it does not have the space for the attention for during the day when we have so many conscious thoughts, like what still is residing within us that has this opportunity in this moment for reveal, right?

[04:55] That which is deep within us, you know, that we are sort of sourcing from ourselves, from our own personal consciousness and it can also be from the collective consciousness.

[05:05] So there’s that piece. And sometimes I will actively do like a dream incubation, which, you know, we can talk about that process later. I have a certain, you know, something I want to solve, right.

[05:13] And whether it’s something personal, right. With a relationship or it’s a creative problem, it’s something that’s, you know, that I’ve been sort of digging into, but like I had not yet been able to crack the nut, if you will.

[05:25] Right. And then you can actively work with your dreams for that.

[05:29] When we have unfettered access to the insights, the wisdom that lives within us and, or that we can access,

[05:40] I mean, it just brings you a whole world,

[05:44] a whole world of creative insight, of healing insight, of. Of awareness and, and wisdom and knowledge. So that was very broad. I mean, from there we can obviously go into like, how do we, you know, working with writers or things like that.

[05:56] But I think I just wanted to share that at first.

[05:59] Andy Walker: Yeah, Well, I mean, it’s a great place to solve problems. I like it because the, the logical mind is.

[06:05] Has been put aside,

[06:07] right. And it’s. And as you see talked about the collective consciousness, what a great place to send a problem for help.

[06:15] Right.

[06:16] Whether it’s the spirit world or our higher selves or whatever else is happening,

[06:22] it seems like the barriers are down and it’s a good playground to play.

[06:28] Now, how do you. So how do you start that process? How do you direct it? Let’s talk about that.

[06:33] Stephanie Gailing: Yeah. So there is a term, a concept around, called dream incubation, right? And this means. This term means two different things, right? Traditionally, dream incubation is the sacred act of dreaming in a sacred space,

[06:51] right? To be able to have communion or union, right. With something greater, to bring forth insight and knowledge. And, you know, and you can look back and this is absolutely.

[07:01] One of the things that got me really hooked on Dreams like 12 years ago is the Asclepian temples, right? Back in the ancient Greece, Greek and Roman basin, there were these temples set up by doctors in honor of Asclepius the Great, you know, physician,

[07:15] where people would come from far and wide to have sacred sleep. And then the physicians would,

[07:20] you know, so they would prime that. They would do all these activities and it sort of prime that space and then they would help them interpret their dreams, right. This notion of sacred dreaming.

[07:29] So first of all, I think just no matter what the, the even bringing that forward, that my dream is a. I believe in the power of my dream. I believe in my dream as a vessel for connection, creativity and awareness.

[07:42] Right. It’s sacred, right? It’s a sacred.

[07:43] Andy Walker: Yeah, sure.

[07:45] Stephanie Gailing: Now, more modern dream incubation. The term dream incubation is the active process of asking your dream to reveal insights that you can’t seem to access. Right. With your conscious mind, you know, with the judging mind, the logical mind, the editing mind.

[08:01] Right. The left brain mind.

[08:02] Andy Walker: Yeah, yeah.

[08:03] Stephanie Gailing: A lot of work out of Harvard. This woman named Deidre Barrett, who has Done studies showing that dream incubation actually has validity as a practice, as a process for, as an exercise for accessing creative problem solving potential.

[08:20] So wait, before I keep going. Thoughts, questions. But then I’m going to run.

[08:23] Andy Walker: No, I’m compelled, I’m compelled. Just keep going.

[08:27] Stephanie Gailing: Okay,

[08:29] so what you want is, you want something that’s been evading you. It’s not just like, oh, I want to know this. It’s like something that you’ve just been like, you know, I’m, I’m working on a book and I don’t know, like how to like, you know, where the hinge is,

[08:41] you know, or how to develop this character. Or I’m, you know, dealing with this team issue right at work. Right. And I can’t, we can’t seem to have a breakthrough.

[08:50] It has to be something that you’ve like already been sort of like sort of turning over the soil of. Right.

[08:56] Andy Walker: So let’s say I’m trying to noodle through a problem. What should I build next for my company? Right. What product should I build next?

[09:04] And I’ve been thinking about it and I’ve got lots of options, but I’m really not clear which direction to go. Right.

[09:10] So can I prime for that?

[09:12] Stephanie Gailing: Yes, that’s perfect. Okay, so what you want to do is you prime for that. You’ve been working it, you’ve been working it, you’ve been tilling it. So like, and the, the importance of that is like, you’ve already been starting to sort of, you know, work through some channels.

[09:25] Right. Instead of your mind space,

[09:27] what you want to do is then you want to have a single simple question or inquiry. And maybe what the simple question or inquiry is, you know, what’s next? You know, something like, what is the next product to develop that will blah, blah, blah, blah.

[09:40] Right. You want the intention there?

[09:42] Andy Walker: Sure.

[09:43] Stephanie Gailing: So what you do is throughout the day before you just sort of reflect on that and you meditate on it. You know, you’re just, you know, maybe in your evening,

[09:51] you know, tea or evening, what have you. Like, you’re just like you’re being with this question. You’re being with this question.

[09:58] You want the question to be very simple. Like, you want it to not to be like,

[10:02] oh, what if this, then if this, this, then this is this. Because when the dream reveals you, don’t you want to make sure you’re clear, like how to slot it, if you will, and not be like, oh, did it answer part A or part B or part C before you go to sleep?

[10:14] And this is always so important, important dream incubation or not, I always recommend people to have something to write next to their bed with a pen.

[10:22] Andy Walker: Okay. Yeah.

[10:23] Stephanie Gailing: So you write your question on a piece of paper. It doesn’t have to be a fancy dream journal. You just want to, you want to document it one so that you have it.

[10:33] And also, again, it’s another way that you’re seeding it.

[10:35] And as you go to sleep, you, you just use that almost as like this mantra, this lullaby, right? The question,

[10:43] it doesn’t have to be exact, but saying to your psyche, like, dream,

[10:47] please share insights on what is a product that we should develop next that will X, Y, Z. Right? And you just like, let yourself lull, lull, lull, lull to sleep.

[10:58] Here’s what’s really important.

[11:00] When you wake up in the morning or in the middle of the night or whenever it is,

[11:06] what you should not do is just. The question was this. I’m just going to answer, you know, based on. I’m. I’m going to record the dream based on the answer.

[11:13] You don’t want to do that. You want to stay open. You always want to stay open to what’s coming through. You don’t wanna edit.

[11:21] So you wake up. Maybe you wake up a few times, you. You jot down. Also, I really love using a voice memo recorder. Sometimes, you know, if you’re lucky and the dream comes through, sometimes you can’t write as fast and you just allow, you know, you just capture whatever you can capture,

[11:37] right? So you’ve captured the dream and you don’t edit. You’re, you know, it’s not like, oh, a scene is important or a character’s important. There’s a color, a feeling,

[11:47] a song lyric. Who knows, right? Just capture it all.

[11:51] Then you return to it, right? And you know, you return to it, right? Then you can return to it again after, you know, when you’re having coffee, when you make space for it.

[11:59] And now you look at the dream through the lens of the question.

[12:03] Right? Okay.

[12:05] You know,

[12:06] and you may look at it with the lens as well as, like,

[12:10] you know, maybe it’s like there was some invention. I mean, probably, you know, chances are it’s not like you’re. I mean, your dream could be like the invention is this, right?

[12:17] Sometimes. Oftentimes it’s more subtle, right.

[12:20] So I always encourage people then, with a question like this to navigate what felt fresh in your dream,

[12:28] what felt alive.

[12:30] Andy Walker: Yeah.

[12:31] Stephanie Gailing: What felt like. There was flow, right? Like what got revealed to you. That may Start to reflect the insights that your psyche was offering about the question.

[12:45] Now,

[12:46] sometimes literally, like, you get a thing. You, like, get the answer, right?

[12:50] Sometimes you’re like, wait, I was like, eating spaghetti in my dream. Like,

[12:54] there’s nothing. There’s like, nothing here for me about the question.

[12:58] Or I don’t remember my dream. Like, I didn’t remember.

[13:01] Andy Walker: That’s right. Yeah. Yeah.

[13:02] Stephanie Gailing: And you know, what I would encourage or what I would. And what I do encourage people is to.

[13:07] You do it again. Right? You do it again.

[13:09] Right.

[13:10] And you know, you can also, you know, because I am an astrologer, you know, I oftentimes will work with the moon cycles. It’s doing this, say, during a full moon,

[13:18] during it. During, like right after a new moon and the crescent moon or especially the balsamic moon, which we’re almost in actually, like right before the new moon, when the psychic space is really open, you may access more and just see what gets revealed.

[13:35] But again, you know, dreams. This is another thing I love about dreams.

[13:39] You know, when we go to sleep, it’s not.

[13:41] Not us, it’s just another part of us, right? We’re. We’re so oriented in our culture to the light,

[13:47] right? To the awake, to the active.

[13:50] And then we split off.

[13:52] The passive,

[13:53] the dark, the receptive. You know, honoring your sleep and dreams allows this unification of all, of the embrace of all and all of us.

[14:02] And so this just this sweet sense of, like,

[14:06] you know, the dream might have not made sense,

[14:09] but you are giving. It’s like you are honoring the fullness of yourself and just see what comes up, see what gets revealed.

[14:17] It’s really quite, quite amazing.

[14:20] And I forgot the name of her book, but for anybody who’s interested to look for the researcher, Deidre Barrett, she wrote a book on this and also published articles on how she’s used this with students and others for, like, creative problem solving.

[14:31] So.

[14:32] Andy Walker: Oh, wow, that’s really cool. Okay, I’ll look that up and I’ll put that in the show notes because that sounds like a great resource.

[14:38] Okay, so what if you get garbage back? What do you do if. Or would you get garbage back? You know, I mean, as you said, like flipping pancakes or spaghetti on the wall or whatever it would be.

[14:48] And you’re like, well, wait a second.

[14:50] Or maybe spaghetti means something to you. I don’t know, do you look for symbolism in there or what do you do?

[14:55] Stephanie Gailing: Okay, so so many things I want to say about what you just said,

[14:59] so. Right. I mean, I get the, like, garbage back but it’s like, right, it’s like, you know, the psyche offered you whatever the psyche offered you, right? And we don’t know, I mean, sometimes literally our dreams are just like a rehashing of our day,

[15:10] right? Just sort of like we’re going back over or we’re noticing things we didn’t notice or there’s, there’s some space, you know, sometimes, you know, there’s a lot of things that our dream offers.

[15:19] But let’s just say in terms of what it offered was this like spaghetti dream. You’re like, I’m not even in the food business. Like, or the ceramics business or the flatware business.

[15:29] Like, what’s up with this?

[15:30] So what I would. I, I feel like there’s two places that can go and I, I will help. I’m going to share how to, how the, the sort of orientation I use to discern.

[15:40] Is it this one or is it that one?

[15:41] The first thing could be,

[15:43] I mean, the first thing I would do is I would stay with that. Right? Like,

[15:47] you know, what was, you know, let me go back to twirling the spaghetti.

[15:52] How did I feel? Like, did this have any sort of emotional connection? Was there anything opening? Was there any sort of resonance? Is this a symbol? Right. Is there any sort of con, you know, you could have the spaghetti dream, I could have the spaghetti dream.

[16:06] Like our neighbors could have the spaghetti dream. What does spaghetti mean? Dream dream means, you know, dream dictionaries aside, there’s a place for dream dictionaries and also not in my view,

[16:17] what a spaghetti dream means to you is different than me. So what does it mean to you?

[16:21] What does it harken? What does it beckon something? Does it turn something? Are you like, oh, spaghetti reminds me of that time when I was in Milan. That reminds me of.

[16:30] Right. I would just like go with the associations and see where it goes.

[16:35] Yeah,

[16:36] you just might be having a spaghetti dream cuz you ate spaghetti the night before and like you have indigestion and like, you’re like, I shouldn’t have eaten the spaghetti. And it’s coming up in my dream.

[16:45] So it, it’s not. Oh, you know, so then it’s like, well, well, which is it? And I’m a big fan, I guess you’d say, of like,

[16:54] like you sit with it and you just connect to the resonance. Like, you know, that inner sense of trust or their inner sense of movement. Like you could sort of do this with constellations as well.

[17:04] Like, you know, you could put both of those out there is like, you know, do I feel more resonance with. There’s something in the dream that I can unwind, no pun intended, to the spaghetti.

[17:13] Um.

[17:14] Or is this just like,

[17:16] you know, a pizza dream, a spaghetti dream? Like,

[17:19] so that’s, you know, I think that’s. And even that to me, you know,

[17:25] that notion of, like, let me feel into it, let me be with it, let me be aware of it.

[17:31] Even over here, we’ll build another muscle for you as a creative, as a business leader, as a person who’s living with great awareness.

[17:37] You know, so even to, like bringing awareness to our dreams.

[17:41] Andy Walker: Yeah.

[17:41] Stephanie Gailing: And so little. Forget the dream for a moment.

[17:44] Just opens up all. Opens up your intuition, opens up your. Your subtle perception, opens up your feeling state, opens up that right brain that you can marry with your left brain and like,

[17:55] come to things. Come to life,

[17:57] professional or personal, with sort of all your faculties.

[18:02] Andy Walker: You know, it reminds me of. I was reading Nicole Bigley’s book. She’s a psychic we had on the show going back eight, six or seven episodes. And in her book, she talks about,

[18:12] you know, when you get an intuitive hit, like when you get a symbol.

[18:15] Right. And that’s increasingly. That’s what I. My experience, my clairvoyance. Like, I. Like I was out the other day and I was seeing a symbol of a nut and bolt going on, and then I saw a symbol of a.

[18:25] Of a robin. And both that sort of said, things are going to come together in the spring. So robin’s a sign of spring.

[18:31] So what she said. And it just connects with what you just said, which is,

[18:34] what does it mean to you? Not necessarily. Don’t go to the. To the. Because there’s a universal symbols book that you can get,

[18:40] and you’ll say, robin is renewal and birth and spring and whatever.

[18:45] But for me, we have so many robins in our backyard in the spring, they’re all pulling worms. And it. To me, it occurs like it’s a symbol for spring. So I would go to my interpretation first based on what she said and what you just said, too.

[18:56] Right. It’s what you. Means to you first. And then if you don’t have anything there, then you can go to the universal thing and see if those symbols work to.

[19:02] Stephanie Gailing: To.

[19:03] Andy Walker: Would that be fair?

[19:04] Stephanie Gailing: Absolutely, completely fair. I mean, there is definitely,

[19:08] you know, the archetypal,

[19:11] this. The archetypal significance of symbols.

[19:14] And yet invariably, I’ve been quoted in a lot of articles, you know, mostly online, about dreams. You know, people are writing, like, what does the snake dream mean? What does it mean when your teeth is falling out, all this.

[19:24] And you know, they ask all these questions, what does X mean? What does Y mean? And I always come back to,

[19:29] you know, it could mean this or typically this, this. But the most important thing is context, your personal context. What does it mean to you based on your lived experience?

[19:38] Right? Because I do think, like,

[19:39] I mean, some of those symbol books, like that Tashan Book of symbols is beautiful. And I, I use that in my dream work and just in my work in general.

[19:46] But you don’t want to go narrow, right? You want to, like, be wide.

[19:51] And you also, can’t you not kind of. You want to come from the place that is you and your own knowingness. Right? So, yes, I’m completely with you on what you said.

[20:01] Like, stay, stay present with what it means to you and then add in, like, oh, symbolically in different cultures, archetypally, that symbol means X, Y, Z.

[20:11] The other thing I would say another way to sort of track and almost get a track record of the symbols for you is another way to use a dream journal.

[20:19] And I have this in my book is you sort of keep track of, you know, you write down your. Your dream. You know, you write down the symbols. You write down how was I feeling when I went to bed and, you know, the night before, what was happening, you know,

[20:32] what was the moon phase, what, anything. You just track all those different things.

[20:36] And let’s just say you can. You have a dream about robins here and there and everywhere, right?

[20:41] Andy Walker: Sure.

[20:42] Stephanie Gailing: You go back. It’s almost like pattern recognition. You go back through your dream journal and be like, oh, wait,

[20:48] every. I’m going to make this up. This is not about your robin dream. But like,

[20:51] every time I have a dream about a robin,

[20:55] you know, my wife has brought an incredible new idea that has shifted things for us. You know what I mean? Like, you start to see, like,

[21:03] what those connections are for you again, to see the system, like where your dream symbol actually lives in a system so that it gives you access to harness more awareness about it.

[21:14] Andy Walker: So it really is sort of an intuitive process then in many ways.

[21:20] Yeah. Yeah. So, well, then would you say, okay, so then do we stay in the modality of dreams if we want more? Like, do we attempt to do it again the next time or do we meditate on it during the waking hours and then go back to it the next night?

[21:32] Like, what’s the.

[21:34] Can you, can you shift gears or should you stick with the same modality? I guess is the question.

[21:39] Stephanie Gailing: I mean, the way that I see it is that we meet the symbols, right? We meet the archetypes, we meet, we can, when we quiet,

[21:51] right? We can meet that vast reservoir of wisdom within that we can’t necessarily easily access when things are loud.

[22:01] So to take some time. So,

[22:03] you know, dream work at night sort of has a cousin or maybe it just looks differently. But it’s the same thing as dream work during the day, right? Whether it’s, you know, just literally daydreaming, right?

[22:15] Or, you know, quieting the mind and like staying with the symbol, you know, like staying with the image, you know, as James Hellman would have us do, you know, or Jungians will do, like active imagination, like being with the symbol,

[22:29] you know, and having this, being in relationship with the symbol and asking the symbol, you know, being in dialogue, like, what wisdom do you have? Do you have to share?

[22:38] You know, so you can work,

[22:41] is it. Work on it, be with it, let it unfold,

[22:45] not just at night.

[22:47] But I love the idea of weaving it through the day because then you’re also making this sort of holistic threading of your conscious and your conscious mind, right? And you’re bringing that all together.

[22:57] So actually, as I said that, I just had that,

[23:00] that image of like the caduceus, right? So we have those like two snakes intertwining for that wholeness. So, yeah, daytime, bring it into night,

[23:08] bring what Scott came in tonight and today,

[23:10] right? Do that sort of weaving and see what emerges.

[23:13] Andy Walker: What, what a rich place to go, though. Like a really cool though. I think what you’re telling me is it’s not a standalone thing. It, it does work with all of the consciousness, with all the things.

[23:24] We work with our intuition, with everything.

[23:26] And you blend it with the, with the moon, the moon, the moon phase. And I think that’s brilliant, you know, astrology. And I think whatever resonates, right? It’s all part of that problem solving creative process that we all have.

[23:38] And it’s just one more way to access and to amplify it, perhaps.

[23:42] Stephanie Gailing: Yeah, absolutely. I mean,

[23:44] you know, there’s a holism and there’s also too, like,

[23:48] we do want to bring our dreams into the way, into the light, right? Because also, like, you know, people who might be having,

[23:55] you know,

[23:56] post traumatic syndrome or you know, who have recurring dreams, like you want to bring that into the light, you know, you can see, you know, there’s. The recurring dream thing is a really or anxious dream.

[24:05] So the recurring dreams is really interesting. People are like, well, why do I keep under Dreaming the same thing, right? Like, well, why would that be? It’s seemingly that our psyche wants something to be paid attention to.

[24:15] Right. And so then if we can work with it in the light,

[24:19] you know, invariably there is that reduction of the recurring dreams or the stress dream and then there’s healing. Right. So we can sort of work both together for that healing.

[24:30] Andy Walker: Well, oh geez. Should we go down the. You know what, let’s save the stress dreams and the types of dreams actually for the WooBiz plus segment because I have a really good one for you there.

[24:39] But I, and I want, because I, we have a limited amount of time, let’s jump into dream interpretation. Can I share a dream and can you help me through something that I had recently?

[24:48] It’s not as much business oriented, it’s connected to some ongoing things. But, but, but let’s, let’s go there. So I had a dream that was very vivid recently.

[24:57] How, how do you want to proceed on this piece?

[24:59] Stephanie Gailing: I would ask you to share the dream with me slowly first and then I will tell you the next prompt.

[25:07] Andy Walker: Okay, all right, good. So,

[25:09] and as, as the listeners know, my father in law passed in 2024. He passed suddenly on a trip to Spain and he and I were very, very close. I would consider him one of my really good friends, despite the fact that I’m married to his fabulous daughter K.

[25:22] My producer. He, he and I just jive. He was a journalist. We both liked a glass of wine. You know, we just, we just got each other and it was just wonderful.

[25:30] And then he suddenly passed on of a heart attack.

[25:32] And he’s been very much, you know, in my awareness. But this, the other night was the first time he showed up in a dream. And so we’re talking about now 18, 16, 18 months since his passing.

[25:44] And the, the dream was very simple, but it was alike. He, it was like real, like, it was like, oh my God, it’s like a movie.

[25:51] And essentially what happened was I walked into the house that he and his, my mother in law shared and he would, whenever I would go over there, whether it would be Christmas or one of the holidays or we were doing a family visit,

[26:03] nine times out of 10 when I walked into the house, the kitchen’s on the left and he’s sitting at the island and it’s a glass of red wine perched in front of him and he goes, hey Andy.

[26:13] Right? And I’m like, hey Chris, how are you? And then it was just like,

[26:18] you know, old home week, right? Like, oh my God, come On sit down, let me get you a glass, you know, and then we would sit and have a glass of wine.

[26:23] Right. And the whole dream was essentially that me walking into the house, him sitting there with a glass of wine, him inviting me to sit down, have a glass of wine with him.

[26:31] And then there’s a sense of this warm feeling of ah,

[26:34] finally. I, I, I’ve been missing you so much and here you are.

[26:38] And that I think there’s probably more, more details to that dream,

[26:41] but they, I didn’t write it down, so of course I’ve lost some of it.

[26:45] So what do you, what would you make of all that? Is that him visiting me or is this something else there?

[26:51] Stephanie Gailing: Ah,

[26:52] so the, I cannot answer yes or no. Is that him visiting you? But I actually really do like the keeping that open. I mean, he visited you in some way, right?

[27:02] Whether it’s from,

[27:03] you know, memory and recollection,

[27:06] you know, whether it is a soul visitation, you know, which some people say that they have. Which it also could be that.

[27:15] But my how when you woke up, how did you feel?

[27:20] Andy Walker: Yeah.

[27:20] Oh, like, like satisfied. Like, oh, I gotta see him. Like complete or you know, warm, fuzzy,

[27:27] like he was still alive. Like my, my best pal. Like, you know, I hung out with somebody that I really like. You know, that kind of feeling.

[27:35] Stephanie Gailing: Yeah,

[27:36] you know, I wonder too.

[27:38] That’s, well, I’ll still stay with that. Actually, this is something really important with dream work, especially if you work with, you know, dream accountability partner or you’re working in a dream group is the dreamer knows what the dream means.

[27:50] Right. Those around us are around them are just to hold space and ask questions to help them like a Sherpa find the dream meaning. So it’s always really important to say something like if this were my dream, I might.

[28:04] Right. Because I don’t know. Right. So, you know, if this were my dream,

[28:09] I might also be really aware of that sense of presence,

[28:15] like and not completion, but that sense of you’re gone, but you’re not gone. Right. Like how does that shift,

[28:23] you know, knowing that you were still in relationship.

[28:29] Right. You know, especially in terms of the, and that’s why I always think the feeling state is really important to,

[28:34] it’s part of context. You know, you could have had that dream and been like, I don’t know, there’s host of other emotions that you could have felt. And then it might have, it would be a different conversation and something else different coming to you.

[28:46] Right. But this,

[28:48] this revisit, like I would just encourage you or if this were my dream, I would encourage myself to like, how do I feel now with this sense of presence? How does that shift things for me?

[29:00] How does that move me?

[29:02] Literally move me and move the inside space of me,

[29:06] you know, because that can also feel super point and super deep. Like you’re gone, you’re not gone,

[29:13] you know, and invariably then, given what you’ve shared about him and your life, to get like your relationship. I mean,

[29:21] how beautiful.

[29:23] Andy Walker: Yeah, yeah.

[29:24] Stephanie Gailing: You know, how beautiful.

[29:26] Andy Walker: Yeah, he was a special guy. But the other thing that occurs to me now that you’ve just said all that,

[29:32] like that resonance,

[29:34] there’s a bit of sadness there, but it’s also a bit of like, you know, so it’s. There’s all those valid feelings.

[29:39] And so here we are,

[29:42] we’re recording this on December 16th today, right? 20, 25.

[29:45] And so we’re only nine days away from Christmas Day and we celebrate Christmas Day in our household.

[29:51] And traditionally the family all gathers in one house. This year it happens to be my mother in law and my brother in law and his wife and his kids and my wife and my kid and my son.

[30:02] But he’s not here this year and this is the second Christmas where we don’t have him.

[30:07] So it feels almost like maybe he came to drop in, either in my psyche or I brought him in to fill that gap because I knew it was coming. And it’s going to feel kind of a bit icky when we do.

[30:19] When we do gather and he is not here, you know, and I always pour him a glass of wine and we keep a chair empty for him because that’s what we do now,

[30:26] you know,

[30:28] But I wonder if it had. That is. Things are starting to connect now for me, based on what you just said, I. It makes sense.

[30:34] Yeah.

[30:35] Yeah.

[30:36] Stephanie Gailing: Wonderful.

[30:37] Andy Walker: Wow.

[30:37] Stephanie Gailing: Wow.

[30:38] Andy Walker: Cool. Cool. So, okay, so then take me through the process. So the listeners sitting.

[30:43] Stephanie Gailing: Can I say one more, I want.

[30:44] Andy Walker: To say please, please finish.

[30:45] Stephanie Gailing: Can I say one more thing about that is like. And then I would just bring, you know, with all of this and the dream, and then us discussing the dream and what you are connecting to, you know, just bring that openness and that curiosity to like, how does this day feel when you’re there and did something shift because of the dream?

[31:03] Andy Walker: Yeah. Oh, right. You take it all the way through to the end. Because really, now that I’m connecting the dots, I need to live through Christmas Day now and see how I feel.

[31:12] And maybe there is going to be a different experience or emotional completion or or something else, my pop. That may be relevant to me or to him or to the family or something like that.

[31:22] Right? Is that what you’re saying?

[31:24] Stephanie Gailing: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[31:26] Andy Walker: Oh, brilliant. So brilliant. Oh, love it. Thank you for that. That was really good. That was really good.

[31:32] Stephanie Gailing: You’re welcome.

[31:32] Andy Walker: So.

[31:33] So take me through the steps then. So. Because the listeners listening to my story, and they’ve had a dream of some flavor, whether it’s, you know, whatever the dream happens to be.

[31:41] So is there a. Is there a 1, 2, 3? We can kind of give them really quickly to do their own analysis off the top of your head, or is that just too complicated and they just need to read the book maybe?

[31:53] Stephanie Gailing: No,

[31:54] I mean. I mean, a few.

[31:56] I mean, some of the nuggets that I will repeat, but also, like.

[31:59] Like I would write down the dream or record the dream. Like, you want to capture the dream, right?

[32:06] You want to. Then,

[32:09] you know, be with it. And again, you know, like, what we. How we discussed this or entered into this is also, like,

[32:17] what happened and how did you feel?

[32:20] Hmm.

[32:21] Andy Walker: Okay.

[32:22] Stephanie Gailing: What happened? What did you see?

[32:25] What did it?

[32:26] Another word is what did it? Here’s a good word. Elicit,

[32:32] right? If we look at a dream as sort of like a portal to awareness, what did it elicit?

[32:36] What arose?

[32:38] You know? And again, if it’s for you, you wanna. You know, you like to write. You know, you wanna sort of write prose about it. You just wanna, like, write words.

[32:47] No. Some people also like to doodle or draw or just color, you know, like, in terms of, like, what. What is it? You know, have. Create a space to see, like,

[32:56] what that is bringing you. But again, like we did right now, how do we bring that into our life? How do we sort of seed the field of our life, the garden of our life, to see what will grow from that insight?

[33:10] Andy Walker: Okay. Okay, great.

[33:12] And then is there a. So then once that’s happened and you’ve starting to. You’re starting to metabolize it in your brain, you’re starting to process it.

[33:20] Is there any value to.

[33:22] To trying to invoke the dream again and sort of take that question,

[33:26] hey, Chris, how come you came to me? And then think about that, like, as you said to. To use a dream to sort of create a. To solve a problem.

[33:33] Could I attempt to bring that experience into a second dream at some point? And would that work?

[33:40] Stephanie Gailing: You absolutely can bring that again into a dream. I mean, what I would say is no hard, fast rules. If it feels like,

[33:49] you know, I want to go into this again.

[33:52] Right. I. Is there another layer, you know, is there something more,

[33:57] you know, then and that feels like the movement you want to make then? Absolutely, you know, and whether that’s invoking in a dream and like, sort of using that as the lullaby, if you will,

[34:08] you know, like that’s the question. Or, you know, you know, Chris, I am open for you to,

[34:14] you know, come to me, you know, appear in my dream in whatever form or however you want to phrase that. You could also, though, keep that and work with that in your.

[34:23] In your waking life. Right. Again, I would say in a sort of sweet, slumbery state.

[34:29] Right. That state of like where we’re just sort of in that. The beautiful space space of the liminal space while we’re awake and you know, be in connection, you know, even if it’s.

[34:38] You’re going for a walk and you’re in conversation or, you know,

[34:43] you know, looking for a sign, you know, or, you know,

[34:46] so I. I definitely feel like.

[34:49] Use what arises for you in a way that feels.

[34:55] In a way that will. That is consistent with your feelings and your aims.

[35:00] Right,

[35:01] got it.

[35:02] Andy Walker: Yeah.

[35:02] Stephanie Gailing: And though if you say do that and you bring it back to the dream and Chris doesn’t show up that moment,

[35:10] you know, that’s not a failure.

[35:12] It wasn’t wrong. He’s not. I mean, it’s just like, you know, there’s time and space and time and space are different things.

[35:21] Andy Walker: Okay. Yeah. It’s not right. Nots wrong. It’s just is right. And you can try again or you.

[35:25] Stephanie Gailing: Can try just as exactly.

[35:27] Andy Walker: Yeah. And you can try again or you cannot try again. And it. And it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just. It just, just. It’s just the tool that you’re using to try to open things up.

[35:34] I. I get it. That makes a ton of sense. Yeah. Very good. Okay, I want to talk to you about stress streams because I have a killer stress dream that I have had recurringly and maybe even nightmares.

[35:45] But let’s save that for the WooBiz plus segment, folks, because that’s a fun deep dive and we’re kind of at our time right now, so just remind us again about the name of the book.

[35:56] Well, I’ll hold it up. You tell me where to find it and anything else you want to tell us about you and your.

[36:03] And your. What you do in the world.

[36:05] So it’s a complete book of dreams.

[36:07] Stephanie Gailing: So the book is. Yeah, the book is called the Complete Book of Dreams. You can find it wherever books are Sold both in, you know, brick and mortar stores and online.

[36:16] It. In addition to taking you through how to be with dreams, work with dreams, different kinds of dreams. There’s a whole section also on accessing better sleep. A because better sleep is better sleep and changes your life and changes the world.

[36:29] But also like to be able to dream you need to sleep. So it covers both of those territories.

[36:35] My work in the world,

[36:37] you know, I like to think that I’m a weaver of different,

[36:41] different colors, different threads. All these threads that on their own are. Thank you. Are like channels to, for people to help access greater levels of self awareness and well being.

[36:51] And I love to like combine them together, you know, flower essences, astrology, dream work, family constellations.

[36:57] And also as a writer,

[36:59] I do a lot of work with writers and with creatives helping them access their own, you know, their voice, like live into their creativity and also work through their projects using a lot, all of the tools that I use.

[37:11] So that’s a bit about me and my work.

[37:14] Andy Walker: So how do people track you down then? What would be the best way to reach out to you? If somebody went, yeah, I want to talk to Stephanie Gailing. She is got the mix that I want and I need some more of that.

[37:25] Where do, where do we go for that?

[37:27] Stephanie Gailing: Yeah, easiest would be go to my website stephaniegaling. Com and on and you can find it. Look all about me and what I do and what I offer and then go to the contact page and just send me a note.

[37:36] I would love, you know, send me a note, send me a question. Just, you know, I’d love to hear from you.

[37:41] Andy Walker: Easy peasy. Very good.

[37:43] Stephanie Gailing: Exactly.

[37:43] Andy Walker: All right. Stephanie Galing, you are my hero. I love your mix of woo. You are the wooest of the woo.

[37:53] Stephanie Gailing: Thank you.

[37:53] Andy Walker: But in the best way possible.

[37:55] Stephanie Gailing: I take that as a compliment, a big one.

[37:58] Andy Walker: Good, good, good. All right, well, that’s it for us this week folks. If you do want more Stephanie, you can go to our website, stephaniegaling.com the book is the complet Complete book of dreams.

[38:07] Find it in all fine bookstores, including Amazon. I know that because I saw it there. But in the meantime,

[38:12] we are going to zip on over and do the WooBiz. Plus I’m going to talk a bit about stress, dreams and nightmares and things like that because I got a good one there.

[38:19] If you want to be part of that, go to woobiz.net and click on the Woobiz plus button, top right hand corner. Find out more about that a few bucks a month and you get all these extra, extra material with our wonderful guests like Stephanie.

[38:30] So. But with that, my name is Andy Walker. As you know, this is Woobiz. Don’t forget,

[38:35] stay in the woo.

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