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SOUL FUTURE DREAM INTERPRETATION TUTORIAL
RECORDING DREAMS:
Using Your Dream Journal
A dream journal is of paramount importance when you begin to take dream interpretation seriously. It is one of the most valuable personal growth tools around. Amongst a host of other benefits, documenting your dreams in a dream journal frees your mind up and allows you instead to direct your resources towards dream interpretation rather than the fear of forgetting. This technique is merely a suggestion which is based on my own experiences of dream interpretation. Ultimately, your dream journal is your personal domain and should take on whatever form works for you.The suggestions below are based on the assumption that you have already made the necessary notes in your Dream Notebook.
STEP 1
The date and time
Both the date and time of the dream can be a useful source of information when analyzing your dreams. For example, I usually have premonition dreams between 3 - 5am, and my most powerful guidance dreams have occured between 7 - 9pm. Dating documents is always useful and can be of immeasurable value when pairing dreams with events or cycles in your life.
STEP 2
Name your dream
Providing a title for your dream helps you to summarise and define your dream. In addition to this, additional insight into your dreams may follow several days or months later, and it is considerably easier and quicker to search through titles than text.
STEP 3
General Information
Including a few words on the day's events, worries and how you're feeling often aids dream analysis, particularly when you're unable to interpret the dream immediately. It also serves as a dumping ground for your worries, fears and anxieties and allows you to put your mind to more constructive use. Keep it brief e.g. bad day at work, feeling depressed.
STEP 4
Incubation
If you incubated a dream or asked a question prior to going to sleep, transfer your query line from your notepad to your journal, verbatim.
STEP 5
Document your dream
Enter your dream into the journal in detail. Do not try to interpret the dream at this point, simply document it in story form. It makes sense to document it in present tense, as if you're reliving it as you write. This not only aid recalls and shortens your text, but it also allows you to include tenses in your dream which may be vital when analyzing the dream. For example, "I think that I will do well in the exam, but when I am unable to answer the questions, I remember that I slept through the lectures and realise that I know nothing" is considerably clearer and less ambiguous than the past tense version which would read "I thought that I would do well in the exam, but when I was unable to answer the questions, I remembered that I had slept through the lectures and realised that I knew nothing."
STEP 6
Emotional response
Next, write down your emotional response to the dream e.g. "happy", "uneasy" or " the dream left me with the same feeling I used to have during school exams". Again, this may provide strong interpretational clues.
STEP 7
Dream analysis and interpretation
Finally, begin the dream analysis. It is easiest to work with the dominant symbols, one at a time e.g. house = my body, kitchen = nourishment, orchard = abundance. The Dream Dictionary on this site may assist you in finding a meaning that resonates with you. Next, try to make a story out of the symbol meanings. Look back over the rest of information such as the question asked, the day's events or the emotional response for further clues. Keep playing with it until something comes to you. Have fun and don't force it, just let it flow. If nothing comes to light, let it go. Often one receives sudden insight several days later. Failing this, if the dream feels particularly important to you, it may be worth your while to apply for a professional dream interpretation.
Learning to interpret your dreams accurately takes some practice. If it doesn't work in the first few attempts, don't give up - it is a skill that is easily learned by anybody who is willing. Keep recording your dreams and continue the deciphering process nonetheless. If the desire is there, your breakthrough will come, and you will be pleasantly surprised when it does.
Copyright © Carine Rudman 2002. All Rights Reserved. http://www.soulfuture.com