Five Steps to Master Dreaming

At the height of my game I could recall up to seven complete dreams a night that contained all of the vividness of real life. I was fortunate to spend each morning, over breakfast, as a child having lively discussions about our last night’s dreams and what they meant to our waking existence. My psychic mother insisted that I understand this other world because it contained important messages about past, present and future and these messages could help me and others. I willingly obliged because each night’s sleep was filled with wild adventures, my own personal Disneyland where my imagination ruled.

Growing up a child of the ’60s, dream interpretation was all the rage among the higher consciousness crowd. As an entire movement endeavored to know themselves, understanding the mechanics of the subconscious mind became a preferred route to greater self-awareness. Most schools of psychoanalytical thought, Freudian, Jungian, Adlerian, and Gestalt rely greatly upon the dreamscape to find clues to personal growth and empowerment. In order to unlock this door to the psyche and benefit from its treasures we must first be able to remember and here are 5 steps to help you master that art.

1. Allow yourself a decent amount of sleep each night. Most of us do not give ourselves the physical relaxation necessary to create a fertile landscape to dream. Getting 7+ hours is good for mind, body, and spirit.
2. Dump the day behind you. Before you go to bed do a mental review of your day. Clear a path for your subconscious to do its work. If there is too much of the day still whirling in your mind it will prevent the nocturnal activity from really taking off.
3. As you are falling asleep repeatedly tell yourself to remember your dreams. Planting this idea firmly into your mind before you go to sleep really works wonders. You may need to be persistent but if done nightly; you will see results within a short time.
4. Don’t bolt right out of bed. Ease into consciousness. Take a few moments upon waking the go over your dreams while they are fresh in your mind. This is what takes us to the most important and final step, writing down your dreams.
5. Keep a journal and pen next to your bedside and upon awakening, quickly write the details of your dream. Do not stop and analyze as you are writing. We will call this stream of sub-consciousness writing. No critiquing allowed. Even if all you remember are snippets, a vague feeling, an odd symbol, or a flash of a face, write these down. This is your life script unfolding.

Our mind is our friend. It is constantly working out ways to help us live a better life. I have found my dreams to hold the solutions to many of my day-to-day issues. My dreams allow me to step outside and see situations from an objective view to gain clarity. Dreams are also powerful relaters of information from our intuitive self. They often hold information of events still to come. Once you have developed the ability to have vivid dream recall you can then begin learning to work with interpreting them and we will go a bit more into this in the future. For now, simply practice these five steps and you will become the master of your dreams and the navigator to a more fulfilling waking world.