Journaling and Dreams

“I had a very disturbing dream last night.  I was in our house in Youngstown but the kitchen was this kitchen (in Atlanta)…”  

Those words could have been written last night, but they were written October 3, 1974!!

Re-reading journals from 1974, I was surprised at how many dreams I’d written down.  It struck me that journaling has gone hand in hand with my love and appreciation for dreams.  That slow day to day chronicle not only gave me a channel for expression, it built a nest for dreams, for soul. 

Grab a pen and paper and write down your life.  No one else may ever see it.  It’s your sacred space to talk to your holy Self.  Everything, big and little.  Don’t judge, don’t re-read (yet), just write.  

Journaling is one way of keeping track.  What’s that mean?

Well, say you have a nightmare.  Or a series of nightmares.  Good chance something going on in your waking hours is awry.  Nightmares are helpers.  Awful, but they’re telling us something.  What?  

We’re all blind to ourselves.  That’s how we’re made.  We need mirrors to see our own faces.  And, even with mirrors, it’s a challenge (possible, but difficult) to see our own backsides.  Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way, says that when you write immediately after waking without stopping (NO THINKING!), the stuff that comes out is what’s really going on.  DON’T re-read.  At least not yet.  

Dreams give you the inside, inside scoop.  Match it up with the inside scoop in your journal and you’ve got gold.