Benefits for Creating a Dream Journal

Benefits (and Tips) for Creating a Dream Journal 

Dreams can be seen as a window to our subconscious and unconscious minds. Although dreams can appear to include seemingly random pairing of images and events, they can also hold deeper messages and meanings.  Dreams can shed light on our our worry, our desires, our relationships, and the state of our overall health. 

Having a practice of utilizing a dream journal can expand our understanding of ourselves and create an opportunity for positive personal and spiritual growth.  

What is a dream journal? 

Simply, it’s a tool for tracking the focus of our mind during sleep, specifically during our dreaming state or Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep. In a dream journal we note what we can recall from our dream time for increased insight and awareness.  When we track our dreams with the intention of personal and spiritual growth, we can experience increased clarity for what is happening in our lives; from our inner world to our outer world. Introspection and reflection reveals areas that may be needing our attention and support.  If we create action around those areas, it allows us the opportunity to create positive change in our life.  Introspection and reflection may also illuminate the areas we are feeling positive and confident in our lives. 

How can a dream journal be helpful? 

Dream journals can be a mechanism for healing and growth. Dream interpretation, or analysis, is one way to expand our understanding of the underlining reasons related to why we feel the way we feel, why we think the thoughts we do, and why we behave the way we do.  

Our dreams can show us where we are struggling, providing a new strategy for understanding, and managing our mental and emotional states during our awake time. They can also reinforce all the healthy strategies we utilize and the skills and talents we possess to help us to successfully navigate life. 

We can increase our life satisfaction by tracking, understanding, and responding to information gathered from our dream journal.  

What are the benefits? 

1) Opportunities for increased self-reflection and self-understanding. 

Dreams provides a window to view our unconscious and subconscious minds.  Dream journals can take away some of the mystery of why we do what we do and why we are the way we are.  We can learn more about what is motivating us, keeping us from taking risks, and creating mental or emotional roadblocks.  Dreams can highlight our hopes and dreams, our inner most desires and they can highlight our fears, worries and anxieties.  Dreams can also show us areas of struggle and hinderances for surviving and thriving.  

2) Increased clarity of patterns in your life.  

As noted above, keeping a dream journal offers a great opportunity to observe patterns in the way we communicate, think (including decision making skills), feel (including about ourselves and others), react, behave, and interact. 

New self awareness gleaned from self-reflection can increase our self-understanding and open up opportunities to make different choices for ourselves during our waking hours. Finding and understanding patterns can support new understanding for managing our mental and emotional states, which can decrease our worries, stress, fears, and anxieties. 

Understanding our patterns of thought or behaviors can provide insight into challenging situations and relationships.  We may understand the role we are playing in those challenging moments, providing insight to better manage upcoming challenging events and situations. Leading us to receive new insight and opportunities for different choices and action because we gain fresh ideas and perspective

3) Increased understanding and confidence in our intuition and messages from guides. 

Messages received during our dream state can serve as another way to connect deeper to your inner wisdom.  We can receive confirmation of an intuitive knowing. We can receive intuitive nudges for making supportive choices and feel more confident in taking inspired action. This can also help support new or more effective problem solving skills. 

During our dream state, we can also communicate with our guides.  It may be easier for our guides to send messages and there may be increased ease of receiving and understanding their messages. This can decrease our sense of isolation or "doing it all on our own".  We can see new opportunities to co-create alongside our guides.  

4) Prepares for a practice of lucid dreaming. 

During lucid dreaming we can become aware we are in a dream state and to some extent can interact with and manipulate the dream. Individuals engaged in lucid dreaming can experience less anxiety (during wakeful hours) as they feel more empowered during their sleep state as they exert more control over the actions and interactions within a dream state.  During lucid dreaming, individuals can break down blocks to their creativity.  They can unlock new solutions, innovations, and discoveries. Lucid dreamers can improve or increase their peak performance.  

What is important to notice in your dreams? 

Anything that stands out to you.  Notice the unusual and mundane.  Notice the familiar and the new.  Anything that makes sense and the non-sensical.  

Notice your emotions.  Notice your initial reaction to any element of your dream (from in the dream state) and notice if you have a different reaction while recalling the dream.  

Notice the situations and circumstances of the actions and events. Are there any reoccurring themes or concepts? Notice your perspective, are you watching the scene unfold or is it from the perspective of being in the scene? 

Notice the other details. Including any animals, colors, symbols, people (and the role or relationship they could represent), elements of Nature, names, words/jargon/language used, and places (familiar and unknown).  

Tips to successfully use a dream journal:

Set the scene.  Place a pen and journal on your nightstand for easy access.  Plan on journaling first thing after waking so that you can recall the details of your dream with more ease.   

Use muscle memory.  If you are having trouble remembering your dream, lay back down in the position you were in prior to waking. 

Access tech support. You can also use the memo or record function on your phone.  This is especially helpful if you wake up during the night and do not want to turn on the lights to write down your dream notes.  

Set your intention.  Prior to going to bed, set your intention that you will remember your dreams with a statement such as, 

"Tonight, I will dream.  I will receive messages from my intuition and from the Universe for my highest good.  Tomorrow morning, I will remember all the important aspects of my dreams". 

Seek to understand.  Access tools and resources you have in your life to interpret and better understand the meaning of your dream or patterns of your dreams. 

• Process it out.  Talk to a trusted friend or family member who can listen objectively.  Notice your reactions to sharing with them and your reactions to their feedback.  Bring the dream to a therapist who specializes in dream interpretations for additional feedback.  Another person's observation can be helpful, but ultimately trust what your intuition is telling you about the content of your dream. 

• Analyze on your own.  Seek out a reputable dream book or website that provides information on the possible meaning of the images, situations, and symbols that appeared in your dream. Remember, often times dreams are not literal but representations of concepts and emotional states.  Practice thinking abstractly or "bigger picture" when analyzing on your own.  

Bonus techniques to enrich the practice of dream journals: 

Use automatic writing.  After noting all the important aspects of your dream, spend a little more time journaling using automatic writing. Simply write whatever comes to mind regarding your dream. Try to not censor your writing.  

Use prompted writing.  If automatic writing is a challenge, begin with three journal prompts to get you started. 

"Last night, I had a dream about...."

"During the dream, I was feeling...."

"If I could know what the message of my dream was, I think it would be...."

Access other creative expressions.  Paint, draw, sketch, sculpt, etc.  Allow for free association to create something that visually represents important aspects of the dream (how you felt, how you interpret the circumstance or situation).  Try to not simply recreate the scene, but create something from the elements of the dream to re-tell the story visually. 

Explore the dream through physical movement.  Dance, sway or move in any way that you feel inspired by the dream.  Express yourself through movement, interpreting the dream through movement. 

With all of these techniques, notice how your body responds.  Notice if any tension, aches or pain arises.  Notice if any tension dissipates.  Notice the area and if it corresponds to an energetic area of the body, such as a particular chakra or meridian. Take a moment to consider why there is a physical response. If needed, spend some time soothing or relaxing any tense area.   

Like new habit or practice, consistency is key.  If this is a new practice you may feel frustrated at the beginning not being able to recall details of your dreams.  Keep practicing!! 

Be curious, be open, be ready to understand yourself on a whole new level!

Mary

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