Seeding a Daydream

If you want to engage with your dreams, but don't remember them, read on...

Some of us recall our dreams vividly and regularly but for others, dreams we remember arrive less often. There may be quite long dry spells. I have a couple of options to offer here – ideas about how to recall more dreams, and a guided session to seed waking dreams. These can be engaged with in much the same way as sleep dreams, and may serve to awaken and enliven your dream life. 

How to Recall Dreams

I written a number of suggestions about how to recall more dreams in a blog post called Slippery Fish: How to Remember Your Dreams. https://drleslieellis.com/slippery-fish-how-to-remember-your-dreams-2/  In brief, it helps to set an intention to recall your dreams, and keeping a journal by your bedside makes this intention concrete. Then, of course, do write down and contemplate the dreams that come to you, even the seemingly insignificant ones. Linger in the liminal space upon waking, pulling back the threads of what you do recall. When you then write these dream pieces out, you may be surprised how much is really there.

Inviting Waking Dreams

If this does not yield many dreams, I have another option. Seeding daydreams. These come from the same imaginal field as night dreams, but are easier to capture and recall. Don’t worry that you are ‘making them up’ because of course you are. Consider that of all the images that could have wandered into your mind as you evoke a daydream, you and your imagination chose this. It can be treated with the same curiosity and reverence as any dream. 

At the end of this post, I have added a link to a 10-minute audio that leads you through an inner process to invite daydream images. As well, you will receive a link to a deep discount for my little course, Dreamwork for Yourself. This is a series of prompts and inquiries you can use to deepen engagement with your dreams or daydreams.

One way to engage with dreams: Being a Dream Element

Sometimes in our dreams, there is a character or object that we intuitively sense carries important meaning, but we can’t make sense of it at all. Quite a few dream elements can be like this! If you can imagine into the subjective experience of that element, the meaning can reveal itself in startling ways. 

Here is an excerpt from Dreamwork for Yourself that describes how to enter a dream element:

One of the most interesting and mind-expanding ways to work with your own dreams is to embody the different characters and elements from your dream. We all tend to identify with our personal avatar in the dream, our so-called ‘dream-ego.’ But archetypal psychologist James Hillman says something interesting about dreams — that every character or object in our dream is also a ‘carrier of consciousness’ and to truly appreciate what the dream is bringing, we need to visit the perspective of all of the dream elements. 

I find that entering into the subjective experience of dream elements will often help me (or my dreamwork clients) understand something about a dream object that we can’t otherwise make sense of. From the inside of a dream object, often the mystery is solved. The other fascinating thing I have noticed about this process, is that what we find from the inside of our dream characters is often surprising. 

To give one of many examples, I recently worked with a woman who dreamt that she was being rushed into surgery against her will, and the surgeon was a strange albino man with white eyes. She was awake during the surgery, and could hear him say, ok, take the snakes from her wrists. They can remove one, but the other sticks to her leg and won’t let go. Because he was so mysterious, I asked her to embody the albino surgeon. 

How do you do this? First, enter into the atmosphere and environment of the dream. Bring it back using as many senses as possible. Then you may want to adopt the posture of the dream character you intend to embody. Or imagine you are about to play that character in a play. Or imagine seeing out of their eyes and hearing what they hear. Sometimes, slipping into a dream object can be as easy as simply imagining your are that object or person. You can do this with ANY dream element.

In my example, the woman was easily able to become the albino surgeon. What she found was that he was very kind and well-intentioned. He was restoring something precious to her. And as soon as she slipped into his skin, the whole tenor of the dream changed. It was cast in a spiritual light, and went from being a slightly creepy dream to one charged with numinosity. The snake became a part of her, not something she needed to have surgically removed. It was surprising and moving.

Here is the link to the 10-minute audio, Seeding a Daydream.

Below is a link for paid subscribers for a deep discount for an online course full of suggestions about how to engage with your dreams.