Resources for Dreamwork
Painting: Jacob’s Dream, Nicolas Dipre, c. 1500
Help in Remembering Your Dreams
Put a pencil and paper beside your bed.
Before going to sleep ask through prayer for a dream or focus your intent on remembering a dream.
As soon as you wake up, write it down. Dreams fade very quickly and waiting to write it down usually means it will be lost.
Later, work with the dream. Write in your journal all your associations to animate and inanimate objects, places, colors and feelings. Pay attention to overall themes and dynamics between characters. Relate the dream to an outer or inner experience. Check both the outer world and the inner world. It can refer to either the outer or the inner world. It can refer to both the outer and the inner world.
Once you get in the habit of writing down the dream and you develop some skill in relating the dream to your interior and exterior life, dream recall is increased.
Developed by the Rev. Canon Susan Sims-Smith
Creating with Your Dreams
DREAM REFLECTION by Marybeth Leis Druery:
Write out a dream, double-spaced. Step 1: Circle all the nouns (persons, places, or things) in your dream, Step 2: Write your associations with each noun on the line between the circled words, Step 3: Circle the word associations which ring true or have energy for you related to this dream.
Use the following process for each person’s dream sharing: Step 1: the dreamer reads the original version of the dream (without substitutions), Step 2: everyone notices what they are sensing in their body and breathe into that, Step 3: the dreamer reads the second version of the dream (substituting the associations for the circled nouns), Step 4: everyone notices what they are sensing in their body and breathe into that. Notice if anything has shifted, Step 5: pause briefly in silence, Step 6: the dreamer shares 1-2 sentences about any insight into the dream, Step 7: everyone in the circle is invited to offer one open-ended question for the dreamer to reflect on individually later (e.g. if this were my dream, I’d wonder… or I’d ask myself this question…), Step 8: the dreamer receives the questions in silence and does not respond. ROTATE ROLES and REPEAT.
Created by Marybeth Leis Druery for personal non-commercial and non-profit use only. For other uses, contact the author to request permission: leismb@mcmaster.ca
Prayer
Holy Dream Maker, Creator of All,
Be with us as we open our hearts and minds
to the divine wisdom in our dreams.
We thank you and honour You.
As you guide us in the way to health and wholeness,
may we be open to the blessings of your message.
A Video we recommend: Times Opinion: Robin Wall Kimmerer on Paddling Against the Wind