Remembrance

This is the critical stage where you stand on the bridge between sleep and awake. If you jump too quickly into your waking life—splash water on your face and guzzle down a cup of coffee—you will be blinded by the light, your dreams will quickly be a distant memory, and your treasures will be left in the dark. When you stand on the bridge between sleep and awake the key is to wake-up s-l-o-w-l-y, retain your dreams, and gently bridge the gap between worlds by putting on your dreamer’s sunglasses as you face the light of a new day.

If you genuinely desire to benefit from the magic of your nighttime dreams in a conscious way then it begins, at the very least, with you remembering your dreams.

While remaining in the position you were in while dreaming, allow your first thought upon awakening to be, “What was I dreaming?” Deliberately press the rewind button in your mind and replay your dreams at least three times. This portal explores techniques and rituals to help you remember your nighttime dreams by learning to transfer them from short-term to long-term memory.

Here are a few other tricks to remembering your nighttime dreams:

Snooze alarm is your friend

In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need an alarm to get up—our bodies would complete their sleep cycle, and deliver us to our waking state with perfect and effortless dream recall. However, if you are like most, you need your handy dandy alarm to make sure you get up in the morning. For most people, the blaring ruckus of their alarm sends their dream back to dream land with its dream tail between its legs. The good news is that if you have to wake up to an alarm you have the miracle of your snooze alarm.

Set your snooze alarm 30 minutes before you have to actually wake up.

As soon as you press the snooze button, you are headed right back to dreaming, but with an awareness to PAY ATTENTION to your dream…so that you will be more apt to remember it.

DON’T MOVE A MUSCLE!

As you begin to awaken, either to your snooze alarm, or after eight hours spent journeying through the multi-dimensions of your dreamscape, don’t budge an inch! Your body’s position, the particular crumple of your blanket, and the smush of your pillow are part of the container for your dream. If you can, make sure your alarm’s snooze button is reachable by your arm, so that you don’t have to move your body. If you have to move too much, your dreams will evaporate like smoke from a genie’s lamp.

To the best of your ability, maintain the position you were sleeping in, or climb back into bed and do your best at recreating your body’s sleep position.

Ask yourself…?

One of the reasons more people DON’T remember their dreams is because the first question on their mind as they begin to wake up is, “What do I have to do today? This question leads to an onslaught of 10,000 things that can never possibly get done in a year, much less a single day. This activates the adrenaline to go to the races…and in seconds flat, your dream is gone, baby, gone.

However, if you can remember to allow the very first question to ask yourself as you gently lay on the bridge between sleep and awake to be, “What was I just dreaming?” now, my friend, you’ve got a real shot at remembering your amazing dreams!

NOW pick up the pen

Now the critical last step is to “Physicalize” your dream by transferring it from the multi-dimensional realm of your dreams, to the third dimension. The easiest way to do this is to pick up a pen and scribble (as legibly as you can, please) your dream down in your dream journal, with as much detail as possible.

Some people prefer to record their dream into a microphone (or the Evernote phone ap works great).

There are some dreamers prefer to draw a picture of their dream.

Others prefer to roll over in bed and whisper their dream to their lover, husband, or wife (or all of the above). The only challenge with the last suggestion is that the person doing the listening, unless they’ve already captured their dream in 3-D, then they are in jeopardy of losing their dream as they get wrapped up in yours. So, make sure whoever you share your dream with has “physicalized” their dream before you share your dream with them.

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Now, let’s address the significance of Remembrance in your waking life. If you genuinely desire to live an awakened life of your dreams, it helps if you can remember who you really are, where you come from, and why you are here.

Open your mind and heart to re-discover your true identity as an infinite spiritual being, powerful beyond measure, and heir to all the blessings this earth has to offer. You may need to call in a special dream guide or two to assist you in recollecting your core strengths, gifts, and genius.

Many of us suffer because we have mistakenly collapsed our circumstances into our identity, and thus forgetting that we are truly magnificent, regardless of our circumstances! We human beings can also fall prey to coveting what we are not, and taking for granted what we are. Remembering who you are as a spiritual being, and remembering the unique way life expresses through your talents, strengths, and gifts, gives you the opportunity to value who you are. This is why Remembrance is another cornerstone to awakening to the life of your dreams.

There is an unseen life that dreams us. It knows our true direction and destiny. We can trust ourselves more than we realize and we need have no fear of change.
~John O’Donohue