Tzivia Gover.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
NORTHAMPTON — Although they often live in the margins of mainstream society, dreams are a wellspring of creativity and lodestars for our life pursuits.
That thesis is a prominent one in Northampton author Tzivia Gover’s new book “Dreaming on the Page: Tap into Your Midnight Mind to Supercharge Your Writing,” which recently received top honors in the 36th annual Independent Book Publishers Association Benjamin Franklin Award program. An annual book award competition, the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award program recognizes excellence in independent book publishing across 57 categories. “Dreaming on the Page” earned gold in the Body, Mind and Spirit category.
“It is truly an honor,” Gover said of the award. “I love anything that elevates this topic and gives me an excuse to talk about it.”
A certified dreamwork professional who has authored seven books for adults and children, Gover explores the interconnectivity of dreaming and writing by tracing the history of each and by offering a self-help guide for those who wish to strengthen their relationship to their dreams.
Throughout the book, Gover illustrates how dreamwork can better connect us to ourselves and to the world around us.
“Dreams are such an affirmation that everybody’s story is important because we’re telling stories all night long,” Gover said. “Whether we think we’re novelists or not, [dreams] are narrative machines.”
Gover’s inspiration for writing the book is traced back to her own experiences as a lifelong writer, dreamer and educator, but a chance encounter with a book at a little free library called “100-Day Goal Journal” is what really turned the ignition.
Attached to this book was a sticky note that read, “Intended for hitting a serious goal in 100 days,” a phrase that Gover used as motivation to write the first draft of “Dreaming on the Page.”
“That’s the kind of dreamy life thing that happens when you’re tapped into your nighttime dreams,” Gover said. “Those kinds of synchronicities.”
Using science, psychology and the spirituality of dreaming, Gover provides prompts, journaling tips and exercises to help make one’s inner muse accessible. The prompts cover a wide array of methods of using one’s dreams to jump-start one’s writing, including how to write though darkness, how to write into emotions, how to write the self and how to begin journaling your dreams.
The book recommends different tips about turning routines into rituals and encompasses ways in which journaling one’s dreams can impact one’s waking life, while also investigating the different ways in which humans perceive dreams and the ways in which sleep deprivation as an epidemic has impacted how we interact with our dreams.
Although it follows a linear path, the book is structured in a way where readers can go out of order and arrive at any section or prompt based on where they are in their own dream-working trajectory.
“I wanted my book to be structured so that people can enjoy the front to back, but also the standalone,” Gover said.
Whether one skips around or reads from front to back, “Dreaming on the Page” argues that the weaving of dreaming and writing can be a therapeutic experience for anyone who tries. In fact, Gover said that dreamwork has been clinically proven to help with things like managing grief as well as managing transitions like divorce or a death of a loved one.
“Dreamwork and writing has therapeutic benefits,” Gover said. “Therapeutic in the sense of not necessarily psychotherapy with somebody with a trained degree, but therapeutic in the sense of beneficial and healing.”
“Dreaming on the Page” is tied together by Gover’s own day-to-day encounters with her workshops, where she meets clients one-on-one to teach them about dreams and writing. Those experiences have galvanized her unfailing mantra; “that everyone dreams, and everybody has a story to tell.”
To learn more about Gover and her books, and her workshops, readers can visit her Third House Moon website: https://thirdhousemoon.com/.
