Your Dream Journal

1. Select a notebook specifically to record your dreams in.  A nice fancy journal or a blank bounded book may encourage you to use it. However, a plain spiral notebook or paper pad wil l also l suffice.  Keep it by your bedside where it is easily accessible. Dream details fade quickly after awakening so it is essential to record the dream  immediately. 

2 . Keep a consistent dream format. Date each dream entry. It doesn't matter if you use last night's date or the next morning as long you keep it consistent.

3 . Write in the PRESENT tense as if the dream is still occurring before your eyes. This helps to recall your dreams by putting you back into the moment of your dream.

4. Write down every possible detail of you dream. Location, colors, sounds, objects, characters, and your emotions are all important aspects of your dream. You may want to ask yourself the following questions.

• What are the significant images or symbols in your dream?

• Where is the dream located? What is in the scene or what is the landscape like? What is the ambience or mood of the dream?

• Who else is in the dream?

• How does the dream make you feel? What is your mood when you first wake up from the dream?

• How does your dream parallel a situation or experience in your waking life? 

5.  Grammar, spelling and punctuation are not important when recording your dreams. Just get the dream down on paper before it slips away and record everything that you remember even if it may only be fragments. As you start writing, more and more pieces of the dreams will come to you. Because we are not able to write faster than what we are thinking, it may be a good idea to record your dreams on tape first. However, it will still be a good idea to go back and document the dream on paper.

6. When something is hard to describe in words, draw a quick sketch of the imagery. Color pencils or crayons may help depict your picture more clearly.

7. After you have record your dream, make a little footnote of any major concerns or issues that is going on in your waking life. As your journaling grows, you will hopefully see a correlation and pattern between your dream and reality. 

8. Lastly, put a title on it.

9. Highlight keywords, symbols, characters or themes that stand out. It may be helpful to keep an appendix or a glossary of personal dream themes. You will start to develop a pattern and  formulate your own significance to these dream themes.

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