It’s understandable why someone would want to take some kind of dream analysis shortcut.
Quicker is usually better. It’s “efficient.” But not in this case.
People wake up in the morning. There’s a rush to get everything done. Get breakfast. Get to work. Sometimes they’ve made a promise to themselves to go to the gym or ride an exercise bike. Sometimes they even have to get others ready to go.
Dream journaling? Dream analysis? Cut it out. Skip it. Consolidate the steps. Take a dream analysis shortcut.
Before you do, realize there are no good dream analysis shortcuts.
The good thing is that once you’re familiar with the process—there are only three steps—you can usually write a dream down and understand it in less than five minutes.
You can’t look at your dream after you’ve woken up and tell immediately what it was about. You’ve got to pull it apart, look at the individual components, and then figure out how they relate to each other. You’ve got to take the time to ask what each component individually means to you.
The good news is that this process usually only needs to take five minutes at most. Most dreams aren’t that complicated.
That five minutes can do you a whole lot of good in the rest of your life.
What if the entry takes longer?
You still can’t take a shortcut, and still benefit from dream journaling like you should.
Make a few notes about the dream on an index card or on a pad that you keep for jotting down your thoughts. Write it all down in your dream journal when you have the time.
There are no shortcuts to dream journaling and analysis. You can’t look at a dream and immediately tell what it was really about. You’ve got to consider the parts and how they fit together. The latent dream content isn’t what matters. It’s the intent.
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James Cobb RN, MSN is the founder of the Dream Recovery System, the three-step, five-minute dream interpretation and remembering system that will lead you to a fuller, richer life.
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