The first step in any dreamwork practice is a dream journal. It’s also the first obstacle, for a lot of people.
Where folks get stuck is the usual catch-22 of “dream journals help with dream recall, but without good dream recall I have nothing to journal about.” If you can’t remember your dreams, you can’t write them down. If you don’t write your dreams down, it’ll be harder to remember them.
My solution for this is the waking journal.
The core rule of a waking journal is this:
When you wake up, open your journal and write whatever is present.
If you remember a dream and are able to write down some details, that’s excellent, start there. But if you wake up with no memory of a dream, grab your notebook and write anything else that’s in your mind and body.
You have a vague sense of satisfaction, potentially leftover from a dream? Write it down.
You remember waking up in the middle of the night to your cat stepping on your face? Write it down.
You have a song stuck in your head? Write it down.
Your left leg is sore, and you have a vague sense that you were sleeping in a weird position last night? Write it down.
The main goal is to get to the point where you’re consistently remembering and writing down dreams, but first you have to keep building the habit where you 1) wake up, 2) grab your journal, 3) cast your memory and awareness back through the last few hours, 4) write down anything that comes up.
This is partially an act of habit-building, but it’s also an act of communication. By repeating this day after day, you’re sending a clear message to your unconscious that you’re here to listen. You’re opening conversational space, the same way you might use silence, body language, and facial cues to encourage a speaking partner to keep talking.
This is a simple step, but it’s maybe the most important one. Without the open communication channels that this habit brings, and without the dream recall you strengthen with this habit, there’s very little dreamwork you can do, and thus, very little unification of the conscious and unconscious you can build on.
For some people, this step might take days — I’ve seen people who go from no dream recall to workable fragments within a week or so. For others, it might take weeks to get a level of recall they find satisfying. A lot of it comes down to luck, persistence, and openness. Just keep at it, and the waking journal will do its job.
That said, even before you build up good dream recall, there are some ways to start practicing with the other skills in this course. I’ve included practices at the bottom of the pages for each of the three main skills of our dreamwork.
Right now, lie on the ground for 5 minutes and let your mind drift. When you ‘wake up’, grab your notebook and pen and write down some of whatever’s on your mind, whatever you remember from lying down. Repeating this helps you hone the waking journal reflex.