Quality time with your dreams…

It turns out that I didn’t grab my journal or my digital recorder last night to record my dreams, because my dreams… or at least the two I remembered at the time, just vanished. and I had nothing to report.

I found out that when you make an abrupt movement, or are woken up by a sudden noise or even a loud alarm clock, this can actually push away your ability to recall the dream you just had. 

I believe that is partly what happened to me last night.  I suddenly turned onto my other side because I was cold and went to grab the blanket to pull it further up towards my chest.  And with just those little movements, the dream slipped away even though I know that at that moment when I was awake, I was starting to remember it.

What do you do in this situation? Some books have suggested that again, it’s all about the comfort you feel when you’re sleeping.  Having the right mattress, pillow, and temperature in the room may help you prevent you from having to make sudden movements that distract your dream recall. 

Also, I have been reading how waking up naturally, if you can do it on some days, without any buzzers or outside noises to startle you awake, can help train you to remember your dreams. 

This is because at this time in the morning, you are coming out of a dream state.  Take the time to think about the images that come to mind as you rest in bed for a short while.  Don’t get up. Just lie there in the moment, and let your mind scan over the details that come up in the silence, in that very instance. 

Although this is hard before you have to go to work, and because we are often in a hurry when we get out of bed, it might mean trying it on the weekend or a day when you don’t have to worry that you might be late or miss your time to get up.

After awhile, the more you get used to this, you may be able to try more frequently.  Honoring your dreams by spending a little extra quality time with them just after you awake from the dream state means your are giving value to your dreams.  And just a few minutes each time will help to develop  your ability to recall these dreams and find out what the dream world might be telling you.

I’m going to see if I can spend a few minutes… maybe I’ll start with 5- lying in bed tomorrow morning, letting the images from my dreams sink in- before I actually get up and start my day.

You try it to!  We can exchange notes on how it all went.

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Voice Your Dreams!

I know that I had a few dreams that I remembered last night DURING the night.  

And I was sure that I would remember them in the morning, but like many of the books I’ve been reading have told me, if you don’t write the dream down just after you have it or when you remember it, it can very easily be lost by the morning.  It’s true. This morning, all I could muster up were very vague images of someone’s hair.. having extensions in it, or was she trying to put the extensions in? And someone else was trying to fix up her smudged lipstick… and I think a few girls were getting ready to go out somewhere. But where? And who were they?  Was I one of them? I don’t know. But I know that if you had asked me last night, I could have told you a whole heck of a lot more.

I find it fascinating how dreams can seem so vivid while you’re having them, and even just after, but then just slip away so easily only a few minutes or hours later.

I’ve tried keeping my journal near my bed, so that I can quickly jot the story down or at least record the details that I remember at the moment.  But, if any of you have tried this, you know that it’s hard to muster up enough energy to even hold a pen in your hand while you’re half asleep, let alone actually write anything that makes sense.

I know, I know. It doesn’t HAVE to make sense. The point is to just get it down, and to make sense of it later.  It is just way easier said than done.  But I will keep trying.  I heard recently that often people write their dreams down in the dark, almost in a scribble form, just to get them recorded at that very moment.  And maybe scribbles can include rough sketches or diagrams.  I’d just be worried that nothing would be legible enough to read in the morning.  And what if you’re one of those people who doesn’t write a lot?

Well, I have another idea.  I’ve decided I’m going to see if I can record my voice on my digital recorder, spilling out whatever it is that I think of from my dream, IN THAT MOMENT.   Hopefully, I’ll have enough energy to just click record and stop on my recorder? If you have a tape recorder or any device that could record sounds, try it too! I’d love to know what others come up with. Does it help? Is it easier? What kinds of things do you end up saying on it? Does the voice or the details surprise you? Do you scribe the ideas down after you’ve listened to them on the recorder?

I couldn’t try it last night because I realized the batteries on my recorded had run out. So, in the middle of my grocery run today, I made sure I sought out batteries.  Now that I have them, I’ll keep the journal, a pen, AND the digital recorder next to my bed tonight. We’ll see which one I end up grabbing, if any, and what comes out of my sleep tonight.

I have to say that as much as I enjoy sleep already, I seem to look forward to going to bed even more, now that I’m on this quest to search out and catch those dreams!

Remember to honor your dreams before you go to sleep. Tell yourself you are going to remember your dreams. And see if your dream guides hear you.

                              Night night!

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What if you can’t remember your dreams?

What happens if you’ve decided that you’d like to explore your dreams, and take note of them, but you can’t remember them?

From what I’ve been reading and experiencing, it seems as if dreams need to know that they want to be heard.  You have to show your dreaming world that you appreciate it, that you either feel it is important, or are willing to open your mind up to the possibility. 

And since we dream while we are sleeping, we need to ensure that we show we value sleep, and our sleep space.

One way to do this is to make sure the surroundings in which you are sleeping are made comfortable for dreaming. If you sleep with your cell phone right next to you, and a laptop on around you, as well as too many gadgets or clutter, this could clutter your ability to remember your dreams.   These daytime gadgets could be too much of a reminder of the work you still have yet to do, or unfinished tasks that worry you and don’t allow you to relax. 

We all dream, whether we remember the dreams or not. But it is said that the comfort of our body while we sleep and how soundly we sleep affects how well we remember our dreams. Creating a sense of peace in our bedrooms therefore, is important.  This can be done by neatly arranging items on shelves or dressers, or even clearing surfaces of any objects in order to create open, inviting spaces.  Consequently, this openness can very likely be reflected in our dreams as well.  

Sleeping in loose, comfortable clothing as well as with cool air (encourages good breathing) helps with comfortable sleep. From what I’ve been reading, it sounds as if the things around you can not only influence your thoughts while awake, but also while you sleep. 

Finally, simply acknowledging that you are interested in dreams, even if you had, or still have, your doubts about their influence, may allow a shift in your ability to remember dreams.  I believe that the more awareness you put out there about your interest in your dream world, the more your inner, subconscious world will hear you. And you might see some shifts in your ability to recall dreams.

Try it out, one night at a time.  I am going to make a consious effort to acknowledge my belief in my dreams tonight, and I’ll let you know what happens.

Sweet dreams!

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Listening to Our Dreams…

Over the past year, I’ve been reading more and more about how valuable tapping into your dreams can be.  And it seems that the more I become aware of this, the more I try to remember or take note of images, messages, people and signs in my dreams. 

At first, I thought it would be a lot of work to try to keep up with my dreams. But I’m coming to realize that the more I learn about it, the more I naturally become connected to the dreams… slowly, but it’s improving over time.  And it shouldn’t be work, or stressful, or even time consuming. In fact, it is starting to become more of a fascination, in a positive way.  And becoming more attentive to my dreams has been beneficial to me in many ways.  I have woken up remembering lines from a poem I started creating in my dream, and have used this information a few times to create a larger piece of writing.  I’ve also gotten answers that I was searching for about a next step in my life in my dreams, without even realizing at the time that I wanted the answer.  And sometimes, I’m not sure what an image means, but it sticks with me, and later comes back to connect to something else I dream about.

The funny thing about dreams is that they are happening while we are sleeping, while we are not actually acting or “living” the dreams. it seems like a pretend world. Yet, some of that pretend world has served as the impetus for me to act in my real world, to take action on something that I may have been hesitant or unsure of before. 

And this is one of the reasons I believe that dreams are a way to find out more about yourself, to help you make decisions and step back into the “real” world with a new perception or new outlook.  I think our subconsious speaks to us through our dreams, and, if we just open ourselves to it, if we train ourselves to welcome it and become more aware of what it is trying to say, it would be amazing what results we could attain.  Our subconscious is much more intelligent than we often give it credit for. All we have to do is show it we value it by listening.  What if we were to spend more time listening to our dreams? I think the results could be at the least fascinating, and at the most… life changing.

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I used to think of dreams as just a part of our sleeping world. I am beginning to see how they are not only linked to, but can also help guide, our waking world.  Dreams are much more important to us than most people realize.  I hope to use this blog to explore the value of dreams and help myself and others learn how to tap into their dreams and makes use of what may be messages passed on in dreams.

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