A Dream Diary

A Dream Diary.

Dreams occur mostly in what is called REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep – it is a shallow sleep state where our muscles are paralysed and occurs at various points throughout the night. To deprive a person of this REM sleep can lead to memory loss, psychotic or paranoid behaviour and tremors. It is clearly a useful time and state given to us to process all the input our brains have received throughout our waking time.

To avoid ‘dream amnesia’, ask God to give you dreams and ask the Holy Spirit to recall to you as you awake, the things you experienced in your dreams. If you are afraid of what you may dream, tell the Lord and ask for His presence and protection.

Remember, God used dreams to speak to, to warn (like Joseph, the foster father of Jesus), to encourage and to get the attention of many characters told about throughout scripture, and He used people like Joseph (the colourful coat chap) to interpret dreams for the benefit of a nation. God will speak to you through your dreams too, if you ask.

Tell yourself that you will remember your dreams and be intentional. Have a note-book and pen ready to write down what ever is in your head as soon as you awake. Some of it may still slip away as you write, but if you leave it till after your breakfast, chances are it could all be gone.

You do need to be intentional and disciplined if you want to do this. But it is not difficult.

You may not recall a dream every morning, and many/most may seem quite banal, record them anyway. I was recalling on average 4 – 5 every week, whilst I kept this discipline.

1 – Prepare – ask God, tell yourself and have pen, paper and a little time set beside your waking.

2 – Recall and scribble down your dream, with as much detail, colour, people, events, feelings, words spoken, sounds heard… as possible.

3 – Note your feeling state in the dream and as you record it.

(Now you can make a coffee if you want and if necessary, you can come back to the the next bit a few hours later.)

4 – Connect – Jot down the previous days events and major concerns.

5 – Summarise now what YOU think the dream is telling you. Thank the Holy Spirit and thank your sub-conscious mind for making the effort to enrich you with all of this. Listen to what both God and your mental state is telling you.

Below is another dream I had and an example of how I put these steps into practise myself.

[10/10/19

I had a request to present to the King. I had been excited, passionate and courageous to request an audience, but now I had no choice but to go before Him, I knew that the King had every right and power to decide to destroy me. I was so terrified and aware that I was not even beautiful, like Esther. I was led by a guide through a maze of plain stone corridors, hewn out of the rock – like a massive cavern. It was all bare stone, some flares for light, mounted along the way, like a 13^th century dungeon… I kept telling the guide I needed the toilet, but she just laughed and shrugged and continued, with me struggling to keep up. I was rehearsing my plea and praying, wanting to slow down and to find a toilet…

She led me into a slightly larger bare stone cavern, with just a wooden table and stools in one corner. My guide silently took me in front of the standing, cloaked King and she backed out the room, leaving me shaking in awe and fear before this power behind the hood. I fell to my knees at His feet, not knowing how to behave or what to say – I hadn’t been told how to address him… I couldn’t even remember what my request was any more. I just waited in a heap at His feet. In a gentle boom He commanded “Come” and touched the top of my head. His touch gave me courage enough to stand and I followed His command to get a stool and sit with Him at the misshapen table. The stool had sort of collapsible legs and I couldn’t get them to work as I fumbled to obey… my own legs were collapsing too, but I knew I would live and He would be gracious to hear and grant my request. So then I remembered some of my plea (about wanting to teach the children about a kind, Christian King…) and tried to rehearse it, so it would make sense, as I faffed, nervous and jibbering still, with the stool panicking… Then I looked up at Him… and awoke!]

Points 2 and 3 – I included points 2 and 3 in this description

Point 4 – I had been working in the preschool two days previous and had nervously begun to be excited about the thought of going back to working in a classroom with young children. Very preoccupied with XX and his very recent tremendous despair and pain.

Point 5 – I’ve been accepted to bow before my King and bring my requests to Him – so comforted by this today as I need to spend so much time on my knees before Him, for XX and his life and transformation. I can go to Him in my fear and trembling, knowing that He is listening and accepts my request. Thank You, majestic King of eternity, for hearing my prayer.

Christmas blessings to all you beautiful people who read my posts. I really appreciate you.

May your Christmas be blessed with fun and family, love and laughter, peace and great joy. xx