The Importance of A Dream Journal

How to Set Up Your Dream Journal

Effective dream-catching starts with your dream journal. Here’s a list of suggestions about how you can maximize your dream work and increase your odds of catching some juicy dream material to work with.

STEP 1: CHOOSE THE RIGHT BOOK

The right book is whatever works for you. Spiral bound steno pads will do the job. College-ruled notebooks work well, too. I use a bound sketch book with blank pages to record my dreams.

Here are two important tips to remember when you start your dream journal:

1.) Always leave the LEFT-hand page blank so you can add comments later. You have the dream recorded on the RIGHT side of the journal, and all the notes about that dream on the left side, so all the information is together.

2.) Reserve a few pages at the back of your journal and create an index. You can find related dreams more easily when you have an index. I organize my index alphabetically by title of the dream.

You can also keep an electronic record. There are no hard-and-fast rules.

STEP 2: KEEP YOUR JOURNAL PRIVATE

Nobody has the right to read your journal without your permission. Dreams are sacred, so take your time deciding to allow another person to read your dream journal.

STEP 3: MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH YOUR JOURNAL

Whenever possible, write your dream notes first thing in the morning. If you let a dream sit for too long, often you won’t be able to make sense of your night time notes.

STEP 4: ALWAYS DATE YOUR REPORTS

The date can help you connect the dream to waking life events. Certain dreams may cluster around anniversaries of big events in your life, and having the dates of when you dreamed the dream will help you pinpoint when this happens.

In addition to the date, I always write a couple of sentences about what happened in my waking life that day, so there is context for the dreams that follow in the night.

STEP 5: GIVE EACH DREAM A TITLE

When you are finished recording the dream, using the first person and the present tense as you write it, give the dream a title. Put down the first phrase that comes to your mind. It will often bring out a dream message you may have missed.

Write the dream in first person, present tense. When you share the dream, everyone is in the present experience of the dream with you. This brings the dream to life in a deep and profound way.

Here’s an example: I am walking down the street when I meet a woman wearing a purple pineapple on her head. She tells me I need to carry the pineapple now, and hands it to me. I wake up.

STEP 6: NOTE YOUR FEELINGS AND IMMEDIATE ASSOCIATIONS

Write down any hunches that you may have about the dream. Notice any physical sensations when you first come out of the dream. You may also want to note down what was on your mind the previous day.

Little dreams are usually about processing the residue of the day, our waking life issues. Big dreams are usually related to what lies in our future, not what is behind us.

STEP 7: NOTE RECURRING THEMES AND LOCALES

Do you change clothing often in your dreams? Are you being pursued? Telephone calls in your dreams? Are you often naked in public? Do you return to places in your dreams that you don’t know in your waking life?

STEP 8: LOG CORRESPONDENCES BETWEEN YOUR DREAMS AND WAKING EVENTS

At regular intervals, go back through your journal and check the dreams that seemed to foreshadow external events. Add any validating material you may have found after you worked the dream.

STEP 9: PAY ATTENTION TO OVERLAPS BETWEEN YOUR DREAMS AND THOSE OF OTHER PEOPLE

You may find over time, especially if you share dreams frequently with others, some interesting parallels with their dreams. Sometimes, one person’s dream seems to hold the answer or a key to another person’s dream.

This demonstrates the principle that we are, indeed, all one.

STEP 10: DECORATE YOUR DREAM JOURNAL

Decorate your journal with drawings, postcards or anything else you feel may help you to make your dreams more real. Track recurring symbols and build your personal dream dictionary.

STEP 11: ROUGH FORMAT OF A PAGE OF YOUR DREAM JOURNAL

Starting at the top of the page on the RIGHT side of your journal, a typical page looks something like this:

DATE

A couple sentences about what happened that day. Jot them down before you go to sleep.

TITLE – Leave some space to write the title after you record the dream.

THE DREAM goes here. Remember, first person present tense.

HOW I FELT WHEN I WOKE UP – Record that feeling if you remember it. Were you curious? Startled? Sad?

You are ready to share your dream.

Finally, if you don’t have any dream material to start with, write something down. Perhaps you write about how you feel about NOT remembering your dreams. Any action you take to move in the direction of interacting with your dream life will bring tremendous benefits. The most important thing is to start.

Now go dream strong.

(c)2002-2021 DLHT/ Julia Marie. All rights reserved. Personal sharing with others or posting on websites and in publications is permitted as long as the information is not altered, excerpted or added to, and credit of authorship and my website address is included: https://www.juliamarie.us/