The number one obstacle to doing dreamwork is not remembering your dreams. For those who know that their dreams have something to offer them and want to utilize this natural healing tool, it’s vital to strengthen your dream recall. But to truly begin to remember your dreams, first, you have to honestly want to, and second, you have to accept your dreams as they come.
You may be thinking—well of course I want to remember my dreams! Why would I be reading this if I didn’t? If this is you, then congrats! You are 90% there. Like anything you want, to truly demonstrate your desire for something, pour your attention and energy towards it. Write it down, sing it out, dance with it. Ask for help. Find an object that has some resonance for you and place it by your bed so you can remember your intention. Buy a notebook and write dreams on the front and put a pen on top of that notebook and right next to your bed. If you want to remember your dreams, and you are put your full and focused attention on doing so, you will.
Because I’ve found these simple practices to be so helpful, it has led me to another conclusion. 9/10, the reason someone is not remembering their dream—even when on some level they want to—is because on another level, they don’t.
Why?
Because dreams are reservoirs of all that we are trying to avoid in our day-to-day consciousness. Your soul’s calling. Your deepest desires. The rumbles of your passion and your creativity. The truth and depth of who you really are and what it really means to be a human in this world, right here right now. Your wounds and your trauma, and all the myriad ways you’ve developed to protect yourself from feeling those specific, individual pains…and ultimately from feeling love. This is the stuff of dreams, if you really start taking a look. And, I’m convinced, this is the reason most people don’t remember their dreams, even if a part of them wants to. Because who wants to worry about all of that stuff? We all have lives to lead, right?
So yes, if you want to start remembering your dreams, you have to want to…you have to want to look within, and look hard. And be unflinching in your desire for the truth, for the thing that feels most real—even, or perhaps especially, when it hurts.
But there’s something else I’ve noticed happens once people set their intention on remembering their dreams—they place all kinds of expectations on them. They want their dreams to be particularly action-packed, or emotional, or have really beautiful images. Maybe they want to lucid dream or have some kind of visitation by a spiritual being. Whatever it is, sometimes when they do remember a dream, they immediately toss it aside. “Well, that wasn’t a significant dream, it doesn’t really count. I’m going to try hard tomorrow to remember a real, significant dream tomorrow.” No matter how many times I tell people how all of their dreams are precious and filled with wisdom, they remain convinced that only some of their dreams are worthwhile, and the rest of them are not.
It’s kind of a perfect metaphor for the way we treat ourselves, our deepest selves. At times it can feel that we spend the majority of our lives trying to prop up the parts of us that we think are worthwhile, and hide, avoid, or forget the parts of ourselves that we don’t think are valuable.
Learning to honor each dream in the exact form that it comes is an essential key to becoming a dream recall master. And, it’s excellent practice for what the dreams are trying to teach us on a large scale as well—to just accept and honor our selves, our full selves, every nook and cranny, simply as we are.
A couple of months ago a friend of mine told me that I do shadow work. When she told me this it startled me, since it doesn’t sound very nice. And there’s certainly a part of me that wants to seem nice. But the reality of this hit me over time. Yes of course—dreams are shadow work. Our dreams show us the parts of our being that we would rather suppress, deny, or avoid. When I do work with dreams, I’m there to support you in feeling courageous enough to take a look at those parts, and over time, release your judgment of them, and accept them as the gifts that they are, pieces that fit perfectly into the overall puzzle that is you.
Some people assume that shadow work means that you are going to look at the ‘bad’ or ‘shadowy’ parts of who you are. But I’m here to tell you the shadows have been getting a bad rap! Your shadow is ANYTHING that you aren’t allowing to be present in your consciousness. And what I’ve noticed is that people are often just as likely to be suppressing the reality that they are loved, that they have access to their own truth, and that they are capable of healing and transformation as they are to be hiding negative things about their personalities.
From my dream world to yours, I want you to know, your dreams love you so, so deeply. Maybe even more deeply than any human ever could on this planet. They see you, exactly as you are, in the precise way that your soul longs to be seen. They want you to know that you matter, and that your dreams, those hidden dreams you have for yourself, they matter too. If you truly want to remember them, you can. And if you can accept your dreams, and in turn your full self exactly as you are, then you can make them come true.
Can you share with me a dream that you think is totally meaningless?? It would be fun to see if we can bring in the depth and healing your dream might be trying to offer you. With all of my love—and please do not hesitate to be in touch or disagree with me here! It’s such a pleasure for me to hear all of your perspectives and ideas.
When I was a child(around 6) I would have what my mom called ” walking terrors ” at night. I would wander around, eyes wide open, shaking and sweating, she would follow me around for several hours to make sure I didn’t hurt myself. She told me later, after I got older, that I scared her because it was like I didn’t even know she was there. I would look right past her and point at the walls saying things were coming out of the walls. I never remembered anything the next morning. My grandma then told me to think of what I wanted to dream about when I went to bed and I could make the bad dreams stop. It worked, however, now I can’t remember any dreams and there are times when I wake and think it’s important that I do. I am really afraid that if I try too hard to remember that I will reawaken my bad dream, and while I didn’t remember much of it, the fear was so intense I’m afraid if I remember it now (I’m much older) it will kill me. Is there a way I could Still block the bad dream and let the normal dreams through? The bad dream was always the same.
Thank you so much for sharing and I hope this message finds you well. Similar to life, I don’t know if it is possible to block yourself from the negative emotions or experiences that might arise without also cutting yourself off from the amazing and incredible emotions and experiences that can happen. I would suggest the approach instead of trusting that whatever scary or difficult dreams might come, they also come to teach and heal you, allowing you the internal space to transform those difficult things into a renewed sense of strength and wholeness. If you need assistance with this or have any other questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to send me an email at KeziaVida.K@gmail.com. with love, Kezia
Hi Karen,
That happened to me too! I’ve since found a way into my dream world that has been the most rewarding, life changing journey of my life. Here’s a practice i learned that helped: before you go to bed, have a talk with your divine/soul/dream world. The conversation might go something like… “I’m wanting to have a relationship with you and receive all your wisdom, but I’d like to start slowly. Can you please send me a dream tonight that expresses your depths in a gentle way? I’m listening.” Wishing you all the best.
That’s beautiful thank you for sharing that! with love, Kezia
That is dope! Thank you for sharing. I am gonna do that this evening!!
awesome! thank you!
I once heard a voice in my dream calling my name and then I just woke up.what could it mean?
The first question I would ask is how did you feel when you heard that voice calling your name? And when you can just be in the experience of that feeling, stay there. Don’t worry too much about what it means. Just feel it.
I often experience sleep paralysis. Othertimes I’m in that almost sleep state and find myself being pulled at by my feet. During one of these occurances, I finally fell asleep and was able to control my dream for the 1st time. It was a simple dream…I was staring into the ocean and turned around to see a parking lot and an industrial building. I realized I was dreaming but could control it. I all of a sudden became frightened for no reason, made myself fly straight up and then comanded mysrlf to awaken. Never understood that dream and it never happened since. I barely if ever remember my dreams and not sure how to remedy that problem.
I rarely recall dreams anymore and it upset me because I would always learn from them. This is since I had recurrence of sleep paralysis, I would always dream there was a bad spirit taking over me, I couldn’t move or speak, I had to use all my strength and will to just call out for help. As soon as I was able to ask for divine help it would stop and I would wake up. I know I have blocked myself from dreaming since then. I later realized I was in an abusive relationship at that time, but it is not my situation anymore. But I still feel very separated from the dream world.. Do you have advice to help me? Thank you 🙂
Yes! I will email you 🙂
Hi! My name is Precious and I recently noticed that I don’t dream anymore and when I do dream I can’t remember it. This is the first time this I happening, I’ve always been a vivid dreamer so this is concerning to me especially considering the spiritual journey I’ve started embarking on and the fact that I know important messages lay in dreams. I haven’t had any bad dream experiences lately so I know I’m not intentionally blocking my dreams out of fear or anything so I’m at a loss. Please help.
Did you ever figure it out? This is currently happening to me right now.
This happened to to also. Always remember my dreams and many times i had prophetic dreams. And since 1 month i see the dreams, very interesting but I dont remember them.
My goodness this is so my story.
Me too!!! Maybe I’m not ready to? I feel like I am but maybe the divine does not?
I have a reoccurring dream that I am not going to graduate from High School because I don’t have enough credits because I never would go to my math class. I did go to that class and really liked my teacher but I didn’t finish a project in Home Ed and she could of flunked me but she didn’t. I tell myself that it is crazy. I am 67 years old now and I graduated. I had it again last night?
Hi my name is Sal, when I was a child and thru my teenage years I had plenty of sleep paralysis experiences. I remember being so freeaked out that there was days that I didn’t want to fall asleep. I did that for a long time. I remember falling asleep with a sense of fear. I hated it! I’m am now 47 yrs of age and I don’t remember dreams much anymore, until about 2 months ago. I found myself in a wooded area next to a commercial building. I’m outside walking but feeling a sense of fear. I could hear the crushing of the dry leaves so crystal clear. I turn around did a 360 and didn’t see anyone but I felt someone. I started to slowly run looking back and someone or something told me to spread my arms and take flight. So I did, and I took flight. Gosh it felt so real. I flew over the trees, I could see the roof of the building. I felt so awesome, as if it was natural almost effortless. I knew what to do and how to fly as if I’ve done it forever. I had a birds eye view of world below me. I didn’t see what was following me. I remember dreams from the past that I don’t want to publish. perhaps in a personal basis.
Thanks for your help and for the work that you’re undertaking.
Dreams are not just an outcome of real-life experiences or our deepest desires, there is much more to it. Dreams are actually Astral experiences that our mind is exposed to, while sleeping.
It is possible to explore the astral world during sleep, but something called as the “Atomic web” obstructs and filters those visions.
Why do these bizarre experiences from the astral world leave a faint memory on our brain has a dynamic reason. Find it out here – https://thespiritconsciousness.com/2019/01/22/difficult-remember-dream/
Thanks for the link!
I totally agree dreams are not “just” about our real life or deepest desires..at the core what I believe is that dreams can encompass and are so many things and operate on many different levels, psychological, spiritual, earthly, astral…all of it. To me the number one thing is that we don’t make definitive statements about what dreams are and that we allow each individual to come into their own relationship and their own understanding of the dreams they have and the power and opportunities they are offering to that individual.
There is no need to remember when you are living your dream. As a man thinketh, so is he.
No reason to remember or no reason to forget?
Thank you for sharing all this, is really helpful and encouraging to take the step to accept all your dreams even the ones that look like not “interesting “ they probably have a deeper meaning that I don’t pay attention to ! I just had a dream yesterday, in fact I had many dreams and I remember one of them! It was me and some boxes, and all those boxes were having pictures of a certain memory but it was all the same in every boxes but just different moments of the. memory when I was a child having fun at some event with some other children. I felt happy, safe and maybe even nostalgic:) It was really nice and beautiful. But I want to start to appreciate more my other dreams which sometimes I found with no meaning or just useless.. ✨
aw thank you for sharing that dream and I am so glad that this resonated with you! I have seen over and over that when we turn toward what our dream is showing and are willing to stay with it so much beauty can arise! thanks for sharing and being here. xo
You assume the forgetting is passive
There are higher levels of consciousness and unconsciousness available to everyone’s mind to be limited to the suggested interpretation.
Beautiful message. Loved this! This helped me a lot.
You’re so welcome! I’m glad it resonated with you 🙂
I fyl like Peter Pan in my dreams
I dreamt my mother tried to kill my sister by stabbing her. She told me to get out of the kitchen I’m about to do it. I attempted to stop her before my sister came and she cut me on my forearm. Once she got a hold of my sister I managed to pull my sister away from her & we drove off. The same night dreamt my grandmother was two people. A older kinda soul & a demonic possessed spirit. They both are narcissistic. After having tons of dreams every night now I can’t remember any. I understand why I can’t remember them now thank you.
I don’t remember dreaming AT ALL NOTHING…
when i was a kid, i don’t remember how young i was or what was going on in my life at that time, but i used to have these vivid nightmares every single night so i would pray every night to not dream at all if they were going to be bad & i did that for some years & ever since i barely dream or just don’t remember them, i will maybe once every couple months
Thank you so much for sharing your dream! I firmly believe that if this dream has been on your mind enough to share it here, there is very important wisdom and guidance inside of it that you need to hear. I offer 1-hr sessions where I can explore your dream deeply with you and determine the specific message your dream wants you to know. You can schedule a session by emailing me at KeziaVida.K@gmail.com or clicking here: KeziaVida.com/Schedule.
I also reflect on dreams folks like you submit and post the video Mondays on my YouTube channel. If you want me to discuss your dream, click here to subscribe to my channel and drop a comment in one of the videos or reply here to let me know you did so. I’ll make sure to get to your dream in the next week!