Dream like photo of door opening onto scene of moutanins, trees, flowers, and clouds. — What is dream logic & how do you capture it when you’re writing in a dream journal?

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What to write in a dream journal

When describing a dream in your dream journal it’s a natural impulse to write about the dream the way you would tell a story to a friend, following a linear narrative and logical conventions. For some dreams, this “logical” style of writing can cause you to inadvertently leave out important information in your dream journal. Here are a few tips for what to write in a dream journal to describe your dream in a way that maximizes the information you have available for dreamwork, dream interpretation, and dream analysis.

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Describe how things felt in the dream. Did the backyard in the dream feel like your childhood backyard even though it looked nothing like it? Did the dream scene look scary but feel comforting? Add this information to your dream journal entry.
Include information that is logically inconsistent. In a dream it can be 1970 and 1990 at the same time. You can be inside a department store and simultaneously inside your house. Your high school math teacher can also be your father. You can hire construction workers to complete a project on your current house, see the construction work being done on your childhood home, and think, “Great, I’m glad I got that completed on my current house.” Include all these logical inconsistencies in your dream journal.
Describe variations from reality. If the dream takes place in your current home, but with a few differences from reality, include those variations in the description of your dream. Instead of writing, “I was in my house,” write, “I was in my house, but the walls were pink instead of gray and the light fixture in the dining room was a chandelier that doesn’t exist in my actual house.”
Write about what the dream reminds you of. If a scene or object in a dream reminds you of something else - no matter how strange the connection seems - write it down. Does the store in the dream remind you of a park near your childhood doctor’s office? Does the hallway remind you of your great-grandmother’s house? As you’re writing, does a different dream from the past come to mind, or do you suddenly remember a movie you saw? Include all of this in your dream journal.
Ask yourself, “How old am I?” This may not be relevant to every dream, but as you are writing a dream entry, it can be helpful to ask yourself, “How old am I in this dream?” Allow your mind to introduce an answer without searching for logic - feel rather than think your answer. Write down the first age that comes to mind.
Include detailed descriptions that are part of conventional story-telling, too! Describe the people, places, and objects present in the dream. Write about the colors, the weather, the geographic location, and anything else you can remember from the dream.
Describe how the dream resolved. Describe how the dream ended and anything that was resolved. Were there conflicts, obstacles, problems, or issues that arose during the dream? What progress was made in addressing any conflicts, obstacles, problems or issues that arose? Were decisions were reached? How was progress made, or how were any issues resolved?

With a detail rich description of your dream that incorporates “dream logic,” you’ve now built a solid foundation for exploring and understanding your dream.

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