As I close my eyes to dissolve into sleep, my vision is plagued by darkness emitted from the dark sky and I am unable to see my surroundings. Within moments I drift into a dream, where the darkness from outside continues to prevail as I am completely blind. My dream soon transitions into a nightmare, and I envision myself unable to see what lies before me. Rendered sightless, I grow frustrated with my inability to do routine, everyday tasks.

When I woke up the next morning, I realized that last night marked the fourth night in a row in which I faced my deepest, utmost fears through a reoccurring nightmare.

Desperate to understand why blindness was a prevalent theme in my dreams, I dug deep into my subconscious and innermost thoughts. What were these dreams trying to tell me, and how could I get rid of them? I tried to paint a picture of the chaos portrayed in my dreams in an attempt to match it to reality. The unbridled disarray illustrated night after night seemed to have no connection whatsoever to my everyday life.

Out of options, I turned to Google, which basically said that the blindness did not relate to physical limitations, but instead it meant that I was “turning a blind eye” to what I didn’t want to see. Which means I was intentionally ignoring what was hard to perceive or “taking the easy way out” when life grew too difficult to handle.

My dreams were trying to tell me to keep my eyes open to everything—good or bad. I created a way to avoid whatever was hard to perceive, which allowed me to run away from my responsibilities. I came to the conclusion that if I continue to see things with a metaphorical blind eye, I will force myself to remain motionless within the course of time. Dealing with the hardships of life is just part of the journey, and it’s the only way to learn and grow from mistakes.

So before I go to sleep tonight I will remind myself that seeing what is beautiful or good in the world is tantamount to seeing what is bad or hard to understand. And because of what that entails, I will sleep with my eyes closed and my perspective open.