Remember your Dreams

Hello, my lovely Readers!

Dreams can have profound meanings in your current life and often help process events the mind couldn't properly deal with during the 'awake' state. Many people have a hard time remembering their dreams once they wake up, though...

Copyright (c) Josephine Wall

There are a variety of helpful methods that will help you retain the memories from your dream:

• Remain in bed with your eyes closed or partially closed. Refrain from turning on artificial light and try to regain hold of the pictures that played in your mind just moments ago. As soon as light enters your eyes, your body starts to wake up, and the dream disappears from your conscious memory.

• Reminisce and consciously recall what you saw in your dream (best in conjunction with my first tip above). Re-trace the steps, scenes, or events of your dream in your mind's eye. Try to focus on details that stand out. Note specific colors, animals, characteristics of people you meet, and the way you feel at certain times during your dream experience(s). What do you hear, smell, taste, or perceive via touch? Is it warm or cold? Did anything feel out of place or time? Were you the same age in your dream, younger, or older than today? What is your relationship to people you met in your dream — and were their behaviors and actions as you'd expect or different somehow? Did you receive (or perceive) any particular message from a person, via a letter, a phone call, text, from an animal, through a symbol, numbers, or similar sources that could hint toward something you've been carrying with you in the back of your mind? 

• Avoid distraction from the dream immediately after getting up. If you direct your attention to anything but your dream, you won’t be able to concentrate on the dreamlike pictures the dream left behind, as they quickly fade away as other thoughts enter your mind. So, try to avoid exposure to intrusive noises and interfering information from things like radios, TV, people talking to you about something other than your dream, kids demanding attention, etc. (Of course, don't just ignore your kids and loved ones. Instead, make some preparations the evening prior, by letting a partner or loved one know that you'll need a little quiet time after waking up. You can also try to just wake up a bit sooner than everyone else, which will buy you a little time to recall your dream(s) and even journal, if you like). 

• Write it down as soon as possible. For me, putting my nightly impressions into written form helps to retrieve, order, and connect single thoughts with each other until they form a cohesive 'big picture'. The mere action of writing everything out assists me in recalling further details of my dream, as I go. Often, my dream essentially 'flows' out of my mind onto the paper. From here, it's much easier to make sense of my dream, especially once I've had my favorite caffeinated beverage. 😊 ☕ 

• Tell someone about it — without interruptions. Sometimes, it helps to tell another person about your dream, as if it was a story. Other people may even ask you questions about details of your dream that you did not remember or realize. You could even ask them to prompt you the next morning. Dream details are more likely to float to the surface of your mind and create new and additional meaning, while answering questions.

• Use a dictation device or voice recorder to record your impressions, feelings and sensations. Some people like to put the pictures they saw into words and tell about them. If you don’t happen to have anyone around to talk to about your dream, try this effective method! These days, it's easy to take voice notes with a digital voice recorder, with a free phone recording app, or use a writing app that allows voice recordings or voice-to-text functionality. Some phones also offer a temporary transcription option as part of the accessibility menu under settings. All of these are great options that don't even require you to keep your eyes open.

• Paint a picture of the dream, and the impressions you managed to bring back into 'waking life'. Some people have an easier time remembering images than words. This method seems to be quite helpful to kids, as well. A selection of prompts or questions about the dream could aid visual recall, too — and can be prepared in advance; perhaps, as part of a dream journal.

• Find the main aspects of your dream in a dream interpretation book or online database. Finding one word quickly leads to others and helps you remember the remaining context of a dream. They are often organized by alphabet order or theme. So, while writing down particularly vivid details of dreams can provide you with a list of potential dream symbols, you can, of course, rely on memorization and recall everything by heart.

• Ask yourself about the nature of your dream. Was it just a random dream, your brain's problem-solving effort, a prayer answered, the result of unresolved fears or PTSD, a precognition of a future event, a real-time vision, astral travel, a stress dream letting you know you're approaching burnout status, a supernatural meeting with a loved one who has passed on, or perhaps, divine communication? I'm pretty open to any of the above, although it's not the same for everyone else. Let me know if you've experienced any of the above or if you have questions about any of these types of dreams. Perhaps, we can dive a little deeper into each of these subjects and how they express themselves while we sleep, in another blog post — or ten... 🤭😁 

I hope you found this dream blog post helpful. If I missed anything you would love to read about, in the near future, just shoot me a message or comment below! 

Cheers!

Petra