Dream Journaling as a Path to Emotional Self-Awareness and Healing

Dreams are such interesting things!

Sometimes we wake up with our heads full of vivid images and events that seem so real that we might wonder whether the experience actually happened, somehow. Like a technicolor movie just unfolded, while we were sleeping.

Do you dream of butterflies?

A "Homework" Assignment

Back in my late 20's I spent a couple of years in therapy, as part of what you might call my personal "awakening," during which I started questioning the who, how, what and why of everything around me.

After cycling through several well-meaning psychotherapists who were mostly left scratching their heads (while I fixed and upgraded their computers, or painted their offices), I ended up having a beneficial therapeutic relationship with a woman named Kathleen.

One of her primary "gifts" was the ability to elicit the information she was looking for through a wide range of tools by meeting me, as I was, rather than by trying to "shoehorn" me into psychological models that happened to fit her knowledge and specialty.

Whereas we agreed that I was more or less "emotionally constipated," she didn't try to coax me into "talking about my FEELINGS" as is the typical approach; instead she assigned me the "homework" of keeping a dream journal... knowing that I was a writer, and good with details.

"Just treat it like writing a story, and include everything you remember seeing, and who said what, and how that made you feel, and so on."

Small tortoiseshell

What Lies Beneath the Surface

In some ways, I suppose it was clever psychological "trickery" on Kathleen's part, but she'd gotten to know me well enough to know that I would try to "excel" at doing an assignment, and because I was both deeply introverted and a writer, my written expression would be able to convey what my verbal could not.

In time, "practicing" at connecting with my emotional landscape through dream journaling helped me become more at ease with my emotional landscape during my waking hours.

The "genius" of Kathleen wasn't so much interpreting and progressing as a result of what the actual dreams revealed (although they were certainly useful!), as it was a great exercise that put me into a state of mind where discussing "what was going on with me" flowed far more naturally, because I was — in essence — practicing every day.

What lies over the horizon...?

Some Truths About Dream Analysis

People assign a lot of weight to the relative importance of their dreams; sometimes placing their "message" ahead of their actual waking thoughts.

In my own case, I came to recognize that the dreamscape allowed me to wrap what I might call "an acceptable framework" around what mainstream thinking might otherwise call "crazy and far-fetched ideas." Somehow, society is less inclined to shake its head and negate "I had a vision in a dream," than someone saying "I have this unusual idea!"

Sad... but true.

However...

You have to be discerning. Much like our thoughts while we're awake tend to often be a random jumble of nonsense, similarly many of dreams are little more than fragments of thoughts and ideas... what Kathleen used to describe as "dream garbage." And so, we must learn which parts of our dreams are these bits of "noise" and which are the more cohesive patterns we might call a "signal."

Cherry blossoms....

The Journaling Process: Creating a Practice

I have been keeping a dream journal for close to 30 years, now.

My journal is still a bound paper book that lives on my nightstand, but the way I use it has changed.

Originally, I wrote everything out longhand; now the journal is mostly there so I can scribble down the "highlights" of a dream as soon as I wake up; the details and full descriptions are written into a private online journal/blog.

Of course, everyone is different in their individual approaches.

The most common "objection" I hear is the complaint that "I don't REMEMBER my dreams!" That may be true, which is why dream journaling often is a practice rather than something you just start doing. The starting point is simply paying attention to the fact that you are dreaming, and then learning to be a better observer when you are inside the dream, so you can remember what was there when you awaken.

When I started dream journaling, it took about 10 days before I was actually remember to recall the details of a dream. For some, it's easy. For others, it takes a lot of practice.

Salmonberry in bloom....

Why Bother?

Even though I have long since left therapy, I still keep up with my dream journal. It's actually quite interesting to go back and look at old patterns, and to see how my dreams were influenced both by stressful times, and by happy times.

Above all, I recognize the recurring themes that come back, year after year: Running around an airport with a ton of luggage, and the departure gate keeps changing; being "recalled" to my old boarding school because I "forgot" to take one class and actually didn't graduate; Packing up my house to move and discovering that most of my "stuff" isn't mine, and so on and so forth.

Sometimes my dreams are prophetic, to a remarkable degree. The cool thing about having a dream journal is that you go from "I think I dreamed that once!" to being able to go back and actually look up what you "think" you remember.

When I talk about becoming more "self-aware," it often manifests as simply paying attention and being aware of what's going on in my immediate environment. And mindfulness is a good thing.

Thanks for reading!

How about YOU? Do you remember your dreams? Do you think dreams have meaning, or are telling us things we're not consciously aware of? Have you ever kept a dream journal? Does it sound interesting to you? Or do you believe dream interpretation is mostly mumbo-jumbo? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190418 15:03 PST
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