Tips for Keeping a Dream Journal

  Keeping a dream journal is one of the most valuable tools anyone can have to capture a glimpse into their waking life.  It not only is a chronicle of what has happened in your dream life, but it can give you incredible insight into yourself and your life that you can get few other ways.

  If you’ve read many of my blog posts, you know that I very often make the case that most dreams come from outside of the dreamer. (There are dreams that come from inside the dreamer, and the majority of the time those dreams are induced by strong feelings or desires.) This is an incredible advantage, because when dreams originate from outside a dreamer they are not limited by what the dreamer knows or has experienced. In other words, your dreams carry the ability to reveal, not only knowledge, but secrets that you’ve been searching for about yourself and your life, perhaps for decades.

  When you capture the dreams that are given to you in a dream journal, (which you should always keep right next to your bed accompanied by a reliable writing instrument) you are on your way to heeding warnings that could save you from making decisions that will cost you years of your life. You are also very likely making a record of things like: answers to why relationships haven’t worked in your life, the right answer to a decision you have to make within a certain time limit, even the big reveal on your life’s calling.

  So now that I’ve convinced you to start keeping track of your dreams on a daily basis, here are a few tips on keeping a dream journal.

  First, make a point to get a blank journal of some kind you can keep on the nightstand next to your bed.  It doesn’t have to be anything fancy but it does have to be something you will lose.  So, if you absolutely detest writing things down, you can use the voice recorder on your phone.  Maybe the thought of being this diligent sounds like work to you.  After all, the best time to journal a dream is right after you wake up from it. Even if it’s 2:47 am.  If you wait until you wake up for the day you risk losing the dream all together.

  Once you have a dream journal next to your bed and a writing instrument that works, think about how you can record your dream that is personal to you. For example, if you happen to be a gifted in drawing and you don’t want to write down a dream for twenty minutes, simply draw it out. Draw images that remind you of what happened in your dream. If you do not have an artistic talent then simply make recording your dreams your own.

  Next, make up your mind that you are going to record every dream experience you have, even if it’s just a single scene. Many times dreamers think that their dream is not worth recording unless it’s a full story. Meaning can also be extracted from dream fragments.  If you are diligent in making a note of your dreams and you only have fragments to keep track of when you awake, make a note of them. Several fragments when looked at one after another could very well make a meaningful dream story.

Lastly, remember to pack your dream journal when you spend the night away from your home. This will help to keep your dream journal consistent. One of the most frustrating things you can do to a dream interpreter is to leave huge blank spaces between dreams. When you put a date on your dream, which you should always do, you will give the interpreter who you give the privilege access to your dreams a much easier job to see the threads that join your dreams together.

Comment on your experiences with dream journals.

EB

Photo credit: karimiaz via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA