Want to remember your dreams without keeping a dream journal?
Most people don’t keep one anyway if we’re being perfectly honest.
The main reason is motivation. People can’t be bothered. And that’s fine, nothing wrong with that. A dream journal is definitely not mandatory. It helps, but there’s not a lucid dreaming law saying you must have one.
I’ve been testing out some things and I’ve found a good way to avoid it (in the beginning).
I’m as guilty as you
I don’t always record my dreams. I usually go through stages, and just the same as you it’s because life gets in the way and I tell myself I don’t have time.
But I know it’s important and you have to keep your dream memory topped up every so often. Once you stop recording them your memory will eventually get worse.
Surely there’s something you can do to keep your memory topped up, either when you go through lazy phases or when you’re just starting out?
Dream seeds
You have to scribble something down every morning, but it’s only 3 simple sentences:
- Who you were with
- Where you were
- What you were doing
It’s that simple. When you finally get up to record your dreams, you only need to plant 3 dream seeds. You don’t even need to record them in a journal. I’d recommend writing them on a piece of paper.
And carry that piece of paper in your pocket during the day. Occasionally open it up and look at it. Try to go over the dream to keep it fresh in your mind. If you think of anything else you can write it down. Do this every day.
At night, you can throw the paper in a box with all the others. Every so often you can look through the box, take a dream out and relive it.
Writing it down doesn’t matter
Writing a dream down, either a journal entry or 3 sentences, doesn’t make any difference at all. You won’t start remembering your dreams because you wrote something down.
I’m sure some people will argue that writing something down is good for helping your memory. I agree with that, but it’s not the point. I’m just saying you’re not going to magically improve your dream memory by writing down a hundred words on a piece of paper.
The real magic comes when you continually go over the dream in your head during the day. The trick is to turn your dream memories into normal memories. To break down the barrier that stops you from remembering your dreams.
That’s why I don’t care if you write down 200 words or 3 sentences. I’d rather you had a single piece of paper with you to open up during the day, just so you get a quick reminder of your dream and you can go over it again when you have a few minutes.
Back to basics
If you’ve read the article on remembering dreams you’ll know what I told you to do. The way you remember your dream is by going over it straight away when you wake up. Like I said to my email readers on the first lesson, you also have to practice keeping your eyes closed and staying still as soon as you wake up.
But I think we can do things a little differently from the aforementioned article. It’s still absolutely vital you learn to stay still and keep your eyes closed, but going over the dream doesn’t need to be so complicated in the beginning.
3 minutes is nothing
You still need to go over your dream when you wake up, but don’t go crazy. Just spend 3 minutes thinking about it. Extreme details can come later; spending 3 minutes thinking about it and finding the answer to those 3 sentences is good enough for me.
That’s something people always email me about. They would love to learn lucid dreaming, but don’t have the time to fully commit. So I’m trying to break it down into easier steps that will eventually accumulate into awesome lucid abilities.
If you can’t find the time to think for 3 minutes and write down 3 sentences, I want you to email me. Just say:
Jamie, I can’t find the time to think for 3 minutes and write down 3 sentences
I want you to email me so I can bash my head against the wall. It’ll take less than 5 minutes. Don’t do this to my head.
A quick roundup
– Stay still and keep your eyes closed when you wake up.
– Spend 3 minutes going over the dream in your head.
– Write on a piece of paper:
- Who you were with
- Where you were
- What you were doing
– Go over the dream in your head during the day, as much times as you’re OK with. If you need help remembering the dream you can carry the piece of paper in your pocket.
– Add things that crop up onto your notes (if you want).
That’s it people, a simple way to get started that anyone should be able to follow. My head depends on it.