DREAM

Why is it important to talk about our future?

To think about our future as a journey of learning and growth is important for our health and well-being. To have dreams and aspirations is important as it helps us to process emotions, consolidate memories, enhance creativity, and shape future goals. We all need somewhere to head to, and something to believe in!

When we visualise dreams they will show us how we would like the future to be. If we truly believe in our dreams, then we can actually envisage ourselves achieving them at some point. This will bring us a sense of positivity and optimism, which we can refer to even when we hit obstacles. If we believe in our dreams then we can pick ourselves up and keep on going.

What is a dreamtree?

Dreaming of and realising new things in life, whether huge or small, will help us to feel positive, stay motivated and inspired. What if we would capture these exciting thoughts, dreams and desires? And display them as a daily reminder of our goals in life, sharing them with others so they can appreciate our dreams and even become part of realising these dreams?

This is how a dreamtree can help us! While many of us know very well what we would like to achieve or change in our lives, we often do not share these. The dreamtree is a piece of art that can serve as a daily reminder of goals to achieve a better future of living and ageing with HIV. It can also become a conversation starter to share our goals with others and seek their support to realise our dreams.

What have we done so far?

Together with our team of thrivers, we have identified some of our goals to achieve a better future. We looked at some of the things we have done for the first time in our lives and what actions we took to take better care of themselves. We realised that a lot of us recently made positive changes to our lifestyles such as doing regular walks, going to the gym, or gardening. We also celebrated a lot of exciting new events such as going live on TV, doing health education at schools, or starting a new job.

We then reformulated these positive changes and events into simple dreams and wrote these down on small notes. We then used these to decorate our very first dreamtree. The result is a beautiful dreamtree!

What still needs to be done?

Making a dreamtree can be an excellent way to start a conversation on living and ageing with HIV. We would now like to test the dreamtree making with members of the HIV community in a live workshop setting. We will then support participants to make their own versions of the dreamtree which they can then take home as a reminder.

Once we have done this a few times, the next stage will be to develop a digital version of the excercise that can be used during online workshops or events. The dreamtree excercise will also be integrated as (most likely) the first step in a full ‘five ways to THRIVE’ approach. Finally, based on our experiences we would like to design and offer a simple guide for facilitators to use these during physical and online sessions on HIV and ageing.