Hello!
THANK YOU for subscribing to my newsletter. If you’re like most people, you probably find yourself having all sorts of madcap adventures while you sleep. Whether you’re randomly having lunch with your dentist, trying to solve a crime, or showing up at work naked – I’m guessing that you would love to be able to decode those messages and make sense of them somehow. I’ve got you covered.
As promised, here is my SUPER simple approach to making sense of your dreams. It’s a four-step process that focuses on journaling:
- Put a journal and a pen beside your bed before you go to sleep so that you can jot things down as soon as you wake up.
- Set the intention before you go to sleep that you would like to remember your dreams when you wake up. Some people like to write a note on a small piece of paper that says, “I’m going to remember my dreams” or something like that and then put the piece of paper in their pillow case 🙂 It might sound silly but it works!
- When you wake up, just write down whatever you remember from your dreams, trying to capture as much detail as possible without editing or analyzing. No detail is insignificant. Just capture as much as you can.
- Then, when you have time (this part can be later in the day if you need to get going), review the dream by going over the dream’s “FACETS.”
FEELINGS:
Describe the feelings you experienced during the dream, or upon waking.
ASSOCIATIONS:
Focus on your dream again, and jot down any ideas, thoughts, memories, or insights that spring to mind – no matter how odd or unrelated they may seem.
CHARACTERS:
List all the main characters and describe your reactions to them in the dream and in waking life. Be aware that characters may represent the real person or symbolize a part of your own personality, and that dream characters are often distorted; sometimes they combine features of more than one person.
ENDING:
Describe how the dream ends and note whether the ending provides partial or total resolution or is unresolved. Note whether the dream ending mirrors any trends in your current relationships.
TITLE:
Create a title that will help you remember the dream. You can also give it a subtitle or create a tagline of sorts, so that it reads like a movie title would. For example: “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” The feedback that I often get is that this one process often reveals more about the main message of the dream than anything else does – and I agree.
SUMMARY:
What are main emotional themes of this dream and how are they linked with current issues in your life and to important relationships?
Once you have multiple dreams that you’ve reviewed in this fashion you can look for themes across the dreams, e.g. emotional themes that come up again and again.
Good luck with it – and know that the more we practice this, the more our dreams speak to us!
Once we send the message to the unconscious that we’re here to receive its wisdom, it’s like beginning an ongoing conversation that gives us untold insight into the inner workings of our minds.
Happy dreaming!
-Leslie
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