Dream Journaling

I've been almost obsessed with tracking my dreams this summer. I am so fascinated by the fact that unchartered territories exist in that space, the possibility of endless ideas that all come from within. I'm desperate for that all access pass.

Dream journaling can be harder than it seems though. I read all kinds of advice and asked everyone I knew who had done one for their approach, hoping to find something that would click with my habits and routine. The punchline to that joke is that I have no habits and routines, as I suspect most of us don't. There is often no moment to relax and reflect and then expulge an entire dream sequence in written form. The cats cry at 4am, the garbage truck rattles all imagery out the window and down to the gutter, Z. distracts me with breakfast and 'the day' or I wake myself up determined to get work done and forget any last remnant of fast fading dream sequences.

" A dream has four components, according to Jung: (1) An opening scene which introduces the setting, characters, and initial situation of the main character; (2) the development of the plot; (3) the emergence of a major conflict; and (4) the response to the conflict by the main character. This outcome is called the Lysis."

Later in the day I'll remember.  I was working with Bill Maher in LA, I was in a stairwell in NY, I was walking the streets of that city that maybe only exists in my head, I was back in high school looking desperately for my baritone in the instrument room. Glimpses though, not enough to build out from.

Recently I decided to just go with those glimpses and then I try to shake things out from there. If something stays at the surface even after I'm fully awake I  try to capture it completely. The computer has been a great help in catching things quickly, plus I don't have to worry about not being able to read my own writing, which is often terrible in the morning. Even if I haven't been able to capture most of my dreams, the important shift is that I'm starting to tune in better, I'm aware and actively trying to remember.

On the nightstand is Our Dreaming Mind by Robert L. Van De Castle. It's a textbook that Z.'s sister lent me and it's incredibly fascinating and helpful.