Dream Journaling

Dreams

In today’s society, dreams are largely dismissed as nothing more than something your mind does when you’re asleep. Sharing them with others is usually met with polite remarks and your words forgotten soon after.

If you want to dissect what your dreams mean, or you always seem to forget your dream and just want to remember them, keeping a dream journal could prove to be more beneficial than you think.

What is a dream journal?

A dream journal, also known as a dream diary, is an ongoing record about the dreams you have while you sleep. The purpose of a dream journal is to help you recall your dreams, so you can analyze them later.

Sometimes, dreams can be a way for your subconscious trying to tell you something you aren’t aware of. Certain stress dreams for instance, could be a sign that you’re overwhelmed at work or perhaps you’ve feeling guilty about something.

Dream journals are your best tool for making sure you can immediately jot down your dreams when you wake up, so you don’t forget them later on.

Benefits of a Dream Journal

1. Better problem-solving skills

Studies show that we are smarter when our minds are well rested. In this state, you can cope better with the day’s stresses after 6-8 hours of sleep. For an even better outlook on life, taking time to assess your dreams will put your mind at ease. That is because they are how your subconscious mind makes sense of life when you’re awake and conscious. Interpretative dream journaling signals to your brain that dreams are important.

As you continue journaling, you’ll find that your dreams play a beneficial role in your life. Your night visions will educate you as it puts together the puzzles in your subconscious mind. You’ll be able to problem solve life’s hurdles quicker because you’ll have more insight and a better understanding of what needs doing.

2. Overcome anxiety and stress, and process your emotions.

Everyone dreads nightmares. They do however help reveal our innermost fears and allows us to find safe and healthy ways to cope with them. With every dream enter into your journal, the better your ability to recall and note underlying themes, character, and events.

Once you realize your areas of anxiety, it provides the opportunity to do something about them. That’s one of the advantages of journaling- many people go around life stressed and anxious, and they don’t know why.

An applicable example is if your dreams revolve around losing a relationship or a job, you can take steps to cope and improve. Practice positive thinking and make changes to mitigate the potential of a break-up or being fired.

Dreams are windows to the soul, as they say.?For the awakened mind, dreams act as the window to your subconscious mind and the soul. It’ll also give you a better understanding of your thoughts, emotions, and actions. These insights aid you manage your life better.

And, just as a daily journal can help you process your emotions, so, too, can a dream journal.

Our dreams are often informed by the events in our lives. For example, you may have had anxiety over a big presentation at work, and found that same performance anxiety reappears in your dreams. Even if the source of the anxiety is different, your subconscious may be trying to help you work through that “emotional unfinished business” and process it, so that you wake up with fewer worries in the morning.

By keeping a dream journal, you’ll have a record of your recurring dreams and the themes and patterns within. And, you may even find it easier to understand those feelings that you can’t quite put your finger on during the day. Identifying patterns in your dreams and subconscious thoughts can make it a lot easier to process them because you’ll gain a deeper understanding of yourself. After all, it’s much less difficult to work through something when you understand its root cause.

3. Lucid dreaming

This type of dreaming has become a healthy hobby for some people. It is when while you’re asleep, you’re aware that you’re dreaming. It is said to have significant mental health benefits. Another study exploring LD and personality found that lucid dreamers were socially bold, dominant, experimenting, enthusiastic, and warm (Gruber et al., 1995).LD have also been associated with creativity (Blagrove and Hartnell, 2000) and with psychological resilience in the face of traumatic stress (Soffer-Dudek et al., 2011).

4. Spiritual awareness

In Christianity they believe God can still speak through dreams "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions" (Joel 2:28 NIV ).?God?has?been dramatically fulfilling His promise, because He has kept this promise over generations of believers. So by dream Journaling you can come to an awareness of what God might be trying to communicate with you

Dream journaling isn’t limited to a single faith or belief system. Depending on your guiding principles, you can use what you write as points to reflect on. Meditating upon them will give you awareness of yourself that is not limited to the outside world. If you’re not sure what your dream means, some guides will point you in the right direction.

5. Improved dream recall

Whatever you give your energy to grows. This same principle applies to the ability to remember your dreams. If you say you don’t dream, you’ll be particularly surprised when entries of “no dream recall” turn into full narratives. The simple act of dutifully journaling will tell your subconscious mind that recalling dreams matters. In time, a shift will take place and you’ll have full access to your dreams.

Keeping a journal increases your awareness. Once you’re conscious of recurring patterns, your mind will automatically help you realize you’re dreaming. In this space, you enter into lucid dreaming.

If you want to cultivate psychic or prophetic abilities, dream journaling is the way to go. Approach it as a way of connecting with an All-Knowing Supreme Being who’s not constricted by time or space. This way, when something you dreamt about comes to pass, it’ll affirm that a connection between you two exists. It becomes almost impossible to dismiss experiences as mere coincidence

6. Tap into your creativity

When dreaming, science tells us that the logical part of the brain shuts down, letting your creative mind take over. As with everything new we learn, your mind creates neural pathways allowing you to remember things as well as see ‘old’ things differently.

If you write or make creative content for a living, your dream journal could act as a reservoir of new ideas to explore.

From Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry to Salvador Dali’s?Persistence of Memory, many famous writers, artists, creatives, (and even inventors!)’ ideas?came from their dreams .?

Keeping a dream journal can inspire you. Not only the dreams themselves, but the process of thinking about each dream and asking questions can inspire creativity, too. You’ll learn to be more open-minded and inquisitive in your waking life, which can help you find more creative solutions to problems and situations you face every day.

7. You get to know yourself better

The subconscious mind is vastly untapped, yet here lies information about us, others and the world. With access to this area of your brain, you’ll be able to uncover hidden gems that you never thought existed. Once you begin journaling, if you work on and live by what you discovered, you’ll transform into a better version of you.