It's common knowledge that everyone dreams every single night, but how many of us actually remember the details just minutes after waiting and have the discipline to jot down some notes? I know I've struggled with this very practice for years. In fact, the only time I really do it, is when I have a dream that appears to laden with meaning, that I can't help but write it down, I feel obligated to my future self to recall this message.
And that's what these are, messages from your unconscious mind, reflections of impressions boiling within! Ignoring the subconscious mind leads to suppression, which comes out sideways as all kinds of peculiar habits, addictions and coping mechanisms. Your dreamscape is a wonderful opportunity to get in to the basement of the subconscious mind and engage those demons head on! Heck, most of the time, it's not so bad ;)
So how do we get started and ensure we stay on track with this simple task?
This one is basic, but trust me, makes all the difference, if I have to fiddle at all for the journal, forget about it. I'm thinking about my run, about some coffee, what I got to do, what I'm gonna wear. You have one chance to get the dream down (for the most part), set yourself up for success and get your tools ready.
I will add that for many using their phone to record the dream is much easier, just make sure you get around to writing it down eventually so you can read them together.
When you're future-focused[https://live-alchemy.net/future-focus] many wonderful things happen. One of them, is that tasks like this, that will only pay off in the future, become that much more appealing. You will strengthen the muscle that says "this is good for me, do it now and benefit at a later date". The information coming out of your dream is raw when you wake up and is easy to dismiss. Put it down on paper and then just allow your conscious mind the time it needs to make sense of the images coming through and get on with your day. Plant that seed for later; believe me, there are few things capable of furnishing more direct insight than a steady stream of dreams to read, especially when grouped together.
I do this every few months, but the benefit has really galvanized my motivation to keep that journal up to date. When you wake up, the dream has just washed over you and you're in no place to understand it's message (unless it's darn blunt and obvious!). When you read the dreams, particularly as a group spanning over time and periods of your life, they will come alive to you and make sense in a way that your "addled by the thought of coffee morning brain" simply cannot process. And this comes back to our habit creating paradigm[Power of habit book summary link], isolate the queue (waking up), cement the right action (writing in the journal before doing other morning stuff) and follow through with the reward by actually going over your fields notes and gleaning the insights borne of your astral homework!
I hope these tips can help you out and leave comments for others travellers below if you come up with others. Also feel free to just post your dream for interpretation by myself or other readers! It's fun and sometimes, if we don't take ourselves to seriously, produces some rather hilarious sharing.