Steve Andreas > Books Authored > Heart of the Mind > Chapter 11

Loss of a Cherished Dream

We have found this method to be especially useful when people are grieving over something that they never actually had, except as a hoped-for dream. A woman who finds that she cannot have a child, or a businessman in “mid-life crisis” who realizes that his expectations of success are not likely to be realized, may grieve as deeply as someone who has actually lost a child or a top-level job.

When these dreams are as vivid as the memories of people who have actually lost something, lost dreams will produce the same feelings of emptiness and loss. Using the grief process with their dream enables people to experience the dream as an ongoing resource, with the same fullness as if they actually had it.