Strategies for Dream Healing

Dreams are a portal into your subconscious and can teach you about yourself and your true emotions. In the dream world, reality is warped by limitless opportunity and intertwined with intuition. In this seemingly magical, mystical place, very practical healing and organization of thoughts can occur.

Here’s how you can get your dream-therapy started:

• Begin by practicing dream recall
  • Keep a piece of paper and pencil or journal next to you where you sleep
    • When I don’t have paper, I will type a few reminder words in my phone to trigger dream recall upon waking. For some, though, the brightness of a phone can make it difficult to fall back asleep. Do what works for you.
  • Write down any dreams you remember
  • Talk about your dreams often with a friend or partner everyday and soon after waking if possible
    • I remember dreams most often when I have friends who talk about dreams on a regular basis. See if there’s someone in your life who would like to work on dream healing with you.
  • Dream Expert Rob Dubinski recommends the following, “In your waking life, notice coincidence, animals appearing in surprising ways, deja vu, and somatic memories. Pay attention to recurring patterns and corresponding moon cycles.”
    • I usually remember my dreams right after I wake up from a nap, between alarms in the morning, and when I’m looking in the mirror brushing my teeth. Often I will have a deja vu moment the following day when talking to someone who I dreamt about.

• Begin setting intentions for your dreams
  • Pick a place you want to go or a person you want to see and think of them as you are falling asleep
    • It’s helpful, but not necessary, for these places and/or people to be familiar and for you to see them often in your waking life
    • Sometimes having a picture by your bedside can bring you back to that intention if you wake in the middle of the night
  • Create a bedtime routine that eases you into a sleep-state -ideally free of electronics- if you don’t already have one

• Continue the practice of dream-recall and intention setting until you experience consciousness in your dreams. This may happen progressively- first you may realize you’re dreaming and wake up from excitement. Eventually you will be able to become aware and begin controlling your surroundings
  • notice your hands or a clock in your dream- when you look at them, is the image skewed like in a funhouse mirror? Is time passing at an unfamiliar pace?
  • Pick an object to try and locate in your dream
  • Try meeting up with someone in your dreams!

• Start working toward becoming lucid (aware that you are dreaming while dreaming!)
  • Lucidity is a challenging skill and takes practice- try not to get discouraged if you are having trouble becoming or staying lucid!

• Dream analysis is an important part of dream-healing.
  • Begin your own dream dictionary.
  • Looking at dream meanings online or in books is a good place to start, but ultimately you are going to know best. Ex. When I dream of the ocean, I pay attention to the state of the water- if the tide is coming in or there is a flood or tsunami, I reflect on what’s coming up for me
  • Sometimes dreams are literal. Sometimes they are abstract. Sometimes they give a warning of what’s to come. Sometimes they reflect our fears and anxieties
    • This important distinction can sometimes be hard to differentiate. How does one know what type of dream they had and how to interpret it? The distinction will become clearer the more you practice.

• **Know when to turn your brain off for a while- too much dream travel could leave you tired and anxious. It’s important to let some dreams happen and let what does not need to be remembered be forgotten.

Once you are able to follow through with intentions set for your dreams, the opportunities are endless. I use my dream space as a place to do and say things I am not ready for in waking life. It’s how I test the waters. Anything goes. You can also use your dreams as a place to release energies that don’t serve you; I love to yell in my dreams, because I don’t like to yell in waking life, but I find it to be a useful tool for releasing anger. I spend time with people who are far away, speak strange languages, fly, and swim with whales- sometimes all at once! But most of the time, I let my dreams take me away, and that is where I learn the most about myself.