Photo of tree on hill in water with full moon, reflection showing in water. — Learn about the benefits of keeping a dream journal and how to keep a dream journal

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Why keep a dream journal?

Life can get difficult and busy. Feeling disconnected from yourself – from your intuition, your voice, your desires – is a common result. Keeping a dream journal is probably not the first antidote that comes to mind for this problem, but keeping a dream journal has incredible power to help you reconnect with yourself.

Psychologist Carl Jung believed that understanding our dreams is crucial to individuation. Individuation is the process of understanding and becoming who we truly are as our own individual unique person, including an understanding of our meaning and purpose in life. We cannot access this deep knowledge and understanding of ourselves without first delving into our subconscious. This is where dreams come in. Dreams provide access to our subconscious. Our subconscious does not speech the everyday language we are used to; the subconscious speaks in images and symbolism.

Encoded in dream symbolism, our dreams have messages for us, from us. Keeping a dream journal helps you learn to make sense of your own unique dream symbols, and it tells your subconscious, “Hey, I’m listening, I want to hear what you’re saying.” When you keep a dream journal, over time you’ll remember more of your dreams and your ability to interpret your dreams will improve. Plus, it can be fun and it doesn’t even require you to think about what you want to write about.

How to start keeping a dream journal

Here are a few tips for getting started with keeping a dream journal:

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Keep a notepad and pen or a phone with a voice recording app near your bed. If you wake in the night and remember a dream, make a few notes or a recording to jog your memory later. You might think you’ll remember your dream when you wake up, but it’s amazing how easy it is to forget the dream you want to journal about by the time you’re waking up for the day!
Write down your dream in your dream journal as soon as you can after you wake up. Write down as many details as you can think of (colors, textures, feelings, objects in the background, etc.) even if they don’t seem important. The better your notes or more detailed your voice recording is, the longer you’ll be able to wait to record your dream in your dream journal. If you know you won’t be able to dream journal in the mornings, make sure that you have detailed notes or a detailed recording of your dream. For more tips on describing dreams and “dream logic” in your dream journal to set yourself up for successfully interpreting your dream check out this post on Tips For Describing Dreams In Your Dream Journal.
Include the date of the dream, give your dream a title so it’s easy to find later (this can also help with dream interpretation), and make a few notes about the general feeling of the dream (e.g., scary, ominous, pleasant, calm, etc.).
Re-read the dream in your dream journal and underline anything that might be a dream symbol (objects, people, places, buildings, colors, etc.). Trust your gut. If it seems like it might be a dream symbol, underline it.
In your dream journal, make a list of the words you underlined. For each word, ask yourself: “What does this mean to me?” Try to feel rather than think the answer. Write down your first thought even if it doesn’t make sense to you.
As you work through the dream symbols, reflect on the overall meaning of the dream.
Re-read the dream. When you come across an underlined word, read what you wrote about this symbol.
Now that you’ve re-read the dream, in your dream journal, write down what you think the dream means. In other words, answer the question: “Why did I dream this?
Leave some blank space near each journal entry to record your future thoughts.
Re-visit your dream journal entry a few days or weeks later and read the dream again. What do you think your dream means now? Did similar themes or symbols show up in later dreams? Write down any new ideas.
Check out this post with a real life example dream journal entry to see how I use these tips in my own dream journal.

As you continue to keep a dream journal the meaning of each dream will become clearer as concepts move from the subconscious to conscious mind. The meaning of a once cryptic dream may become laughably obvious weeks or months later into your dream journaling. Re-reading your dreams once the meaning has become obvious teaches you how to interpret your dreams and how to understand the symbolism your dreams use.

You can apply this knowledge to help you understand your dreams in the future. The understanding generated by keeping a dream journal cultivates a deeper connection to your subconscious and the guidance of your inner voice. In this way, keeping a dream journal can be an incredible comfort amidst the busyness and difficulty of life because it helps you to connect with the deepest parts of who you are.

Check out the free instant download dream journal template, too!