Dream Journaling as a technique for finding creative solutions

Sleep And Dream Journaling as a technique for  finding creative solutions

1. Authors

Patricia L. Garfield “Creative Dreaming” (1974, 1995), Stanley Krippner, Joseph Dillard “Dream working: How to Use Your Dreams for Creative Problem-Solving” (1988),
Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold “Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming” (1990), Michael Michalko “Thinkertoys”(1991), Deirdre Barrett “The Committee of Sleep: How Artists,
Scientists and Athletes Use Their Dreams for Creative Problem Solving – and How You Can Too” (2001), Amy Mindell The Dreaming Source of Creativity (2005), Fariba Bogzaran, Daniel Deslauriers “Integral Dreaming: A Holistic Approach to Dreams” (2012), Clare R. Johnson “Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming: A Comprehensive Guide to Promote Creativity” (2017).

2. History

Dreams have played an important role in different cultures and religions during the whole history. A large number of prominent works of art, scientific discoveries and creative solutions found their origins in a dream. It can be argued that sleep is the secret powerful weapon of many Artists, Scientists, Athletes and creative Geniuses, who have used this simple, affordable yet powerful method in their work.
All of them were convinced that the unconscious was an undisclosed and inexhaustible source of creative ideas. Stimulating and analyzing your dreams is truly one of the most fundamental ways to trigger great ideas.
This method was used:
Philosophists: Zhuangzi’s dream of a butterfly’s dream prompted him to create his concept of emptiness – as a true reality. Augustine experienced an inner spiritual rebirth when he had a dream in which a voice called him “Tolle, lege” (“Take and read!”). Rene Descartes saw three dreams on the fateful night of 10-11 November 1619.
In his “Diary of Dreams,” he recorded a new system of thinking, which laid the foundation for modern European philosophy. Swedish philosopher and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg outlined his theological concept in his Journal of Dreams. The first dream on April 6, 1744, became a turning point in his work and destiny.
Scientists: German chemist Friedrich August Kekulé stated that the idea for the ring structure of benzene came to him in a daydream, in which he saw snakes biting their tails. He was so impressed he urged colleagues, ‘Gentlemen, learn to dream.’
Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev invented his Periodic Table of Elements in a Dream. Nobel Prize laureate German physiologist, Otto Loewi dreamt of how to prove that nervous impulses were chemically transmitted.
Albert Einstein said that during adolescence he dreamt he was riding a sledge so fast, that he reached the speed of light. He watched the appearance of the stars changes relative to his speed. His meditation on that dream led to the discovery 1905 of the Theory of Relativity.
Niels Bohr gained insight into how electrons remain in their orbits from a dream of horses running around a race track. For this scientific discovery, he was eventually awarded a Nobel Prize.
Mesrop Mashtots, who invented the Armenian alphabet in 405, had a dream in which an angel revealed the letters to him.
Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, claimed that he dreamed of the goddess Lakshmi which helped him make discoveries.
German-American archaeologist. Hermann Hilprecht had an amazing dream of the connection between two pieces of agate which enabled him to translate an ancient Babylonian inscription.
Canadian doctor Frederick Banting dreamed of a way to isolate insulin and, therefore, make diabetes treatable.
Inventors: William Watts while watching the rainfall in a dream, noticed that the raindrops formed perfect spheres as they fell. In 1782 he poured molten lead through a sieve to form a ball and patented a process for making lead shots.
Elias Howe dreamt of natives shaking spears with holes in their points. This led to the idea of a sewing needle and the invention of the Singer Sewing machine.
William Blake dreamt his brother showed him a new way of engraving copper and Blake used the method successfully. Thomas Edison intentionally used hypnagogia as a method of generating new ideas.
The idea of the tail unit of the Antey (AN-22) aircraft came to Airplane designer Oleg Antonov in a dream.
Writers and poets: Dante Alighieri presents his Divine Comedy as a dream-vision, which begins on the night before Good Friday in 1300. Three dreams stand out in the second part of the poem «Purgatorio».
British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge dreamed of the poem “Kubla Khan” (1797) before he wrote them. Mary Shelley saw Frankenstein’s idea in a dream (1818)
Robert Louis Stevenson claims to have dreamt the plot of many of his stories. So he came up with the plot of “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” (1886) during a dream.
William Styron’s vivid dream of a girl he met in Brooklyn as a young man led him to write Sophie’s Choice.
Stephen King reaped images from his vivid dreamscapes for his novels and short stories, including Salem’s Lot, Misery and It. The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer was conceived in a dream. The idea for “The Terminator” first came to director James Cameron in a dream.
Lewis Carroll, Aleksandr Pushkin, Aleksandr Griboedov, Edgar Allan Poe, Marcel Proust, Charlotte Brontë, Howard Lovecraft, John Arden, Andre Breton, Sylvia Plath, and Katherine Mansfield are just some of the authors who actively used their dream content for creative inspiration.
Musicians: Giuseppe Tartini, a composer, gained inspiration for his Devil’s Trill Sonata in a dream. German composer Richard Wagner stated in his opera Tristan and Isolde: “I dreamed all this…”. Igor Stravinsky once had dreamed of a scene of a pagan ritual and this dream marked the beginning of composing his famous piece “The Rite of Spring”.
The 22-year-old Beatle Paul McCartney dreamed the melody of the songs “Yesterday”, “Let It Be “Yellow Submarine” in a dream. Rock star Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones wrote the hit “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” in his sleep.
British musician Aphex Twin wrote part of the music by going to sleep in the studio and then recreating the sounds he heard in dreams. The singer and songwriter Billy Joel say he often dreams of musical arrangements.
Painters: Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, simply sketched their dreams.
American artist Jasper Johns was inspired to paint his first flag painting as a result of a dream.
Film directors and screenwriters: Akira Kurosawa, Christopher Nolan, and Alejandro Amenábar drew plots for their films from their recurring dreams.
Athletes: Pro-golfer Jack Nicklaus had a dream that allowed him to correct his golf swing.
Military Leaders: Emperor Constantine on the eve of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312) saw a cross of light above it, and with words «In hoc signo vinces» (“In this, conquer”). On the following night, he had a dream in which Christ explained to him that he should use the sign of the cross against his enemies
Emperor Charlemagne (8th c.) also has prophetic, visionary dreams at times. He even went to sleep with a pen by his side and paper under his pillow. Не had dreams that called him to battle and military campaigns.
The significance of dreams for clinical interpretation first has been considered by Freud’s psychoanalysis, and also analytical psychology and gestalt therapy approaches.
Jung first observed that the dreaming mind shows creativity, a desire for integration and a tendency to resolve unfinished emotional and mental problems.

3. Description

Dream incubation and sleep journaling refer to productive creative techniques that aid practical problem-solving or creativity.
The method consists in initiating and inducing a creative state, choosing before going to bed the subject of your dream or the problem to be solved, remembering them clearly upon awakening, as well as interpreting and analyzing them.
Before going to bed, it’s necessary to remind yourself of your most pressing challenge. While you are asleep, your brain will work on the problem and you can l wake up with the brilliant insight you were looking for.

4. Main functions

1. This is the way to boost your creativity that enables anyone to generate creative ideas and powerful solutions. It can lead to insights to help you solve any problems, and generate new thoughts, ideas and creative breakthroughs. Dreams are also powerful tools for creative inspiration.
2. One dream can result in a brilliant discovery, invention or amazing solution, leaping that waking consciousness cannot. We can awake the next morning with new solutions to previously intractable problems or even be infused with radically new and original ideas.
3. Keeping a dream journal can be a way of personality growth and realization of untapped creative potential. It helps you recognize patterns in your life, access intuitive insights, creatively engage with the world around it and achieve success.
4. Dreams can be used for Personal Development, focusing your intention, improving mental clarity, memory in general and problem-solving skills.
5. Being connected to our dreams is one of the best ways we have to better understand ourselves and the world, and find a connection to our deeper, wiser selves. Dreams can train the mind to be freer and more receptive, and achieve a higher state and a new transformative vision.

5. Essence of the method

The essence of the method consists of memorizing the content of your dreams and using this information to enhance your creativity and productive problem-solving.
Our dreams give us precious insight into our subconscious. They allow us to give us access to the deepest parts of our creative identity and most authentic source of inspiration, reconnecting with our hidden creativity.
The technique allows you to work with your subconscious and catch ideas that you did not know existed.

6. Theoretical grounds 

Unconscious Problem Solving. Human brains are built to solve problems, it is still active in sleep, so dreaming is thinking in a different state.
In sleep, we are still working on all the same problems, that are presented and formulated in a new way.
That is why we can reach a solution that we can’t imagine when we are awake.
The creative essence of dreams. Our dreams provide access to the unconscious. The world of our dreams is a tremendous storehouse of ideas and an inexhaustible source of creativity. They convey specific messages that can assist the dreamer with problem-solving, creative activity, artistic inspiration and psychological and spiritual development
In other words, some entity in the dream is trying to tell the dreamer the answer to something that they’ve been wondering about.
“Dreaming is the art of the mind. Every dream is intrinsically a creative experience. As the artists of the night, we are co-participants in weaving new creations from the complexity of our entire being.”
Fariba Bogzaran and Daniel Deslauriers, Integral Dreaming: A Holistic Approach to Dreams (2012).
The neurophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms of dreaming.
There are two principal cycles of sleep: rapid eye movement (REM) and non–rapid eye movement (NREM), and they alternate.
REM sleep, enhance the creative process more than any other sleep phase. Namely REM sleep helps the brain connect unrelated ideas, which aids creative problem-solving.
The first REM phase begins 70 to 90 minutes after we are asleep. This period of REM sleep is usually about 10 minutes, and the last maybe an hour.
People experience the longest duration of REM sleep right before waking up. During this time, the brain is highly active but the body is not and people can experience vivid dreams.
While dopamine levels rise in pleasure centres of the brain both when we’re dreaming and when we’re being creative. The release of acetylcholine, a chemical that enters the brain, causes the hippocampus and neocortex to enter a flexible state.
It allows the neocortex – responsible for high cognitive functions- to unconsciously search and establish connections between seemingly unrelated things.
It increases cognitive flexibility and facilitates insight, helping the formation of new associative networks in the brain and useful connections between ideas.
Process of free, random association. This type of random association can cause people to wake up and solve a problem.
The free association aspect of the creative process precedes actual creation. The act of creating art itself is a connection between seemingly unrelated thoughts and experiences.
The abundance of surprising connections and curious ideas we face in our dreams increases our chances of stumbling upon a novel solution.
Dreams are a rich source of ideas, as they often contain combinations and rearrangements of objects, challenges, and events that would be almost impossible to come up with while awake.
The brain tests out and builds connections between vast stores of information. It sparks new creative insights as novel links are forged between unrelated pieces.
This task is accomplished using a “bizarre algorithm that is biased toward seeking out the most distant, nonobvious associations”.
Visualization. The neurophysiologic state of REM sleep is characterized by high activity in brain areas associated with imagery. The dreaming mind allows us to vividly, and visually see something that doesn’t exist yet. Imagination is essential to creativity as it helps you to combine past experiences in a new way. In the sleep state, the brain thinks more visually and is irrational.
Silence of the inner critic and censor. Creative dreams mimic brainstorming or the process of free association creation. While asleep, the brain is capable of doing things it can’t do when it’s awake.
The more original an idea is, the stranger it will look. Premature criticism can crush potentially brilliant solutions. Therefore, those who are looking for creative solutions should postpone their judgment, let circuits float free and be open to alternatives.
Dreams are capable to relax the controls and gaining enough access to deep strivings and fantasies.
They can break down preconceptions that block our abilities to solve problems in our waking lives.
Conceptions and Patterns making. REM sleep helps construct vast associative networks of information within the brain. Sleep is capable of creating abstract overarching knowledge and super-ordinate concepts out of sets of information.
Meaning-making. Dreams are our subconscious “attempts at making meaning.”( Stanley Krippner).
The language of the dreaming mind. Dreams may be expressed as symbols, metaphors, analogies, visual imagery, association, and archetypes that are rooted in personal and collective levels of unconsciousness.

Integral Dreaming (F. Bogzaran, D. Deslauriers).

The dream might be symbolic and we might interpret it one way this experience can be beyond our limited constructed reality.
Within the Integral Dream Practice, there are two main phases: reflexive and reflective.
The ‘reflexive’ phase consists of the playful creative, non-interpretive processes, like automatic writing, that make up one way of being with the dream.
The non-interpretive approach encourages an immediate encounter with the dream through creative expressions and experiential modalities. It is a way of knowing that is somatic, intuitive and creative. It matches the similar flow of the dream state.
The reflective phase uses the analytical mind by examining and connecting the insight of the dream to one’s life.
This stage is based on an interpretive approach, which assumes that:
1. We are complex and multidimensional beings.
2. Dreams are complex and multidimensional.
3. Viewing dreams has to be multilayered.
Integral Dreaming also acknowledges that there are overlaps between disciplines, such as science, art, psychology or shamanic, but they’re all just different paradigms of viewing dreams. Each has its contribution to dream function, understanding and discovery.

7. Rules and tips

1. There are no set rules for keeping a dream journal. You can experiment with different modes of dream journaling and decide what works best for you. Decide on the way of journaling according to your personality and lifestyle.
2. Take an active role and use a creative approach in uncovering the secrets of your inner visions. Avoid being victims in your dreams.
“One would do well to treat every dream as though it were an unknown object. Look at it from all sides, take it in your hand, carry it about with you, let your imagination play around it, and talk about it with other people” (C. Jung).
3. Gradually improve your diary practice. You can start by simply writing down what you remember from your dreams. As you go along, you can start to interpret the symbolic content of your dreams.
4. Set an intention to explore and remember your dreams right before falling asleep. As you drift to sleep, you’re very suggestible.
Use affirmations, which can help you to see and remember your dreams: “Tonight I will dream and Tomorrow morning, I will recall my dreams.”
5. Make the question about your problem the last thing you think about before nodding off.
6. When you wake up, remain as still as possible in your body and not open your eyes. Try to reenact the dream events in your mind as soon as you wake up. Just focus on getting down all the information you can recall as quickly as possible. You will interpret your dream later.
7. Don’t wait, write down everything that you can remember. As you start writing, more and more pieces of your dreams will come to you. Write freely.
8. If you remember some parts of the dream, try to stay calm in that dream-like state to find the details of the dream.
9. As a variant, it may be a good idea to record your dreams on tape or a mobile phone first. Later you can go back and document the dream on paper.
10. Write down only what you remember, even if it’s just a series of random emotions and images, even if it may only fragment. Don’t try to form a narrative. This will give you a better interpretation than a made-up story.
11. Note everything that you can remember happening in your dream, including where you are, who you’re with, what sounds you can hear, what objects and colours you can see, how you’re feeling emotionally, and any other sensations that you experience. Include the details that were the most striking to you, what you were feeling.
12. Don’t worry about grammar, spelling, or punctuation when writing down your dreams.
13. Don’t judge your dreams, don’t evaluate them, just review and remember them.
14. Even if you don’t remember anything – just write “No dreams recalled” in your journal. If you can’t remember a dream, just record whatever is on your mind—these thoughts often come from the dream and provide a first clue to retrieving it.
15. While recording the dream, use the first person present tense. Put your mindset back in the dream. If you are writing “I am walking…,” “I am doing…, you’re replaying the events of the dream, kind of like a movie.
16. Give the dream a title. In reducing each dream to a title, try to capture the main feeling or theme behind it. It’s an easy way for you to find the dream again for future reference.
17. Pay your attention to the most important details: what were the strongest emotions you felt in your dream. What is the most useful and inspiring information? What are the major life-changing conclusions?
18. If it’s easier for you, try drawing your dream instead of trying to make sense of it in words.
19. Be sure to write the date of the dream. If you end up going back through your dreams to look for patterns, knowing exactly when you had the dream might be helpful. You can review your past dreams for patterns that reveal your deepest fears and blocks. 20. For better results, wake up thirty minutes or1 an hour earlier. The last hours of our sleep have the longest REM cycles, which is the period of sleep during which we dream.
21. Write down your dreams every day. The important part is to create a habit. Recording your dreams will strengthen your mental processes. Eventually, you will be able to remember more with consistent practice. Your dreams will become richer and filled with metaphorical meaning.
22. Share your dreams with people you trust. This can also aid in dream recall.
23. Don’t forget to bring your dream journal along when you travel. If necessary, do these several evenings in a row.

8. Procedure

1. Physiological condition
1.1. Create and commit to a sleep schedule.
1.2. Avoid late-night eating and drinking.
1.3. Increase your melatonin (sleep hormone). The bright light from a phone screen or TV just before falling asleep can throw off your body’s natural production of melatonin.
2. Materials
2.1. It is necessary to have a dream journal and a pen next to your bed.
2.2. A dream diary can take many forms: a notebook or notecards, a hand-held voice recorder or even a dream logging app installed on your smartphone (like this free, PENZU, Dream Journal Ultimate Mobile App).
3. The notebook needs to be specific to record your dreams and thoughts and solutions related to your dreams.
4. Use a notebook with nice paper and a pen that is a pleasure to write with. A nice journal may encourage you to use it.
5. So make it as easy as possible for your morning self to record your dream immediately upon waking up.

9. Basic Steps

Step 1: Choose a particular question or issue you’d like to solve in your dreams.
Gather the necessary data and acquire knowledge about your problem.
The mind must accumulate information and work consciously on a challenge before the subconscious becomes employed in dreaming. Keep thinking about your problem and writing down your thoughts. Write the question and think deeply to engage with ideas before you sleep. This is all data for the dream process.
Step 2: Focus Your Attention on your problem before you drift off to sleep.
• Right before going to sleep, think about your key problem and formulate a question, whether in your personal life, science, or at work.
• Visual the problem. You can think of the problem as an image, go to sleep picturing that visual representation. Visualise yourself receiving help in your dreams and knowing the solution when you wake up.
• Set the intention of gaining insight into that problem while you’re asleep and seeing an important dream that will shed light on the issue you’ve identified and then remembering the dream when you awake.
• Ask the dream for help directly. Imagine you are putting the question to your internal store of wisdom or power centre.
• Before you drift off to sleep, repeat the key question several more times. Make it the last thing you think about before you fall asleep!
Step 3. Wake slowly, lie still and don’t open your eyes.
Remember your dreams very vividly in the first five minutes after waking up.
• As soon as you remember something, work backwards. Scroll the dreams forward and backwards through the different scenes.
• If you feel an emotion, concentrate on it and the whole dream may come flooding back.
• Remember the most important thing, and then try to reproduce the finer details. You can get a more meaningful interpretation if you remember as many details as possible.
Step 4: Record the dream in a dream journal.
Open your eyes and start writing. Sketch and describe in detail the most vivid portions of the dream. Pay attention to the most important details.
Grab your recording device and make note of a few memorable keywords for each scene of the dream.
When something is hard to describe in words, draw with coloured pencils a quick sketch of the imagery.
Write down any useful or inspiring information, solution or other ideas in your notebook or on notecards. Think about your dreams, thoughts and major conclusions and see how can they suggest solutions to your key problem.
Step 5: Staying in the intermediate state.
Force yourself to hold on to a post-dreaming state, or a state of creative flow – a trance-like altered state of total absorption and effortless concentration
Staying in that intermediate state helps to make new and unexpected connections of different images, concepts and ideas.
Take one or two dream images or ideas and free-associate from them. Write down whatever comes to mind.
• What associations do I have after sleeping?
• What associations can help me solve the problem?
• How can these associations help me solve the problem?
If they still don’t give you the ideal solution to your problems, at least it will give you a fresh perspective on your problem.
Step 6: Analyze and interpret your dreams.
Each dream, and even its small fragment, always has several levels of meaning. After the dream is recorded, ask yourself about your dream. Asking questions is a great starting point because it helps you to start interpreting the dream. It is helpful to have a framework with plenty of questions.
1. Look for literal meanings first.
Examine the salient elements of a dream, such as setting, people, creatures, location, colours, sounds, plots in a dream. It’s important to consider how you relate to these objects. Ask yourself:
• How were the people, places, and events in the dream related to my question and problem?
• Who were the key players in the dream? How do they relate to my question?
What elements in this dream can help solve my problem?
• What associations does the dream conjure up that might help with my problem?
• Does the dream change the nature of the question?
• What is the direct answer to the dream?
2. Look for metaphors, symbols and figures of speech.
After literal interpretations or explanations for a dream, look for metaphors and figures of speech within the symbols or actions of the dream. Remember, that dreams communicate with us in a special language.
Try to understand the symbolic meaning of what you dreamed about.
Consider what these metaphors and symbols may represent to you.
Start with your feelings during the dream.
• How does the dream make you feel?
• What is your mood when you first wake up from the dream?
• Were you feeling free?
• What were the strongest emotions you felt in your dream?
Focus on the most meaningful and recurrent images or symbols. Highlight keywords, symbols, characters or themes that stand out.
• What do these dreams, these images and actions mean to you personally?
• What are the significant images or symbols in your dream?
• What the image or symbol might mean for you?
• What kind of associations do you have with them?
• How can you use them in real life?
A dream dictionary can be helpful for decoding and interpreting dream symbols.
You can also use websites – free dream dictionaries or books that offer interpretations of dreams.
They can offer suggestions and additional food for thought to you – a starting point for you to consider.
However only you know what your dreams and dream symbols and metaphors mean to you.
3. Look for patterns or recurring themes.
At the end of a week, month, or year of journaling, read back over what you’ve recorded.
Notice recurring dreams or patterns and recurring themes in your dream. Look for patterns—the odd things, people, or places that make regular appearances.
This could be a thought that you had in the dream, an emotion that persisted throughout your dreams, a symbol that you kept seeing.
Try to identify some common dream signs, themes or symbols.
Things that reoccur in your dreams can help to discover the main dream symbols.
Consider how does your dream parallel a situation or experience in your waking life.
• What is the most useful and inspiring information?
• Any major life-changing conclusions?
If you’re having the same dream over and over again, then it’s likely that your unconscious mind is trying to tell you something.

10. Non-interpretive approaches

Non-interpretive approaches – “organic in nature, expressive and open-ended. They invite the dreamers and specialists to cultivate, refine and recognize the subtle arising of thoughts, emotions, and somatic experiences. While not grasping any immediate meaning, the process allows the creative mind naturally to organize the emerging insights.” (Fariba Bogzaran).
At its core, these approaches consist of creative ways of engaging with a dream without having a particular intention in mind.
• Listen to your gut. You are the only person who truly knows yourself! That makes you the best person to interpret your dreams. If you think your dream might mean something, accept that as the meaning. Keep an appendix or a glossary of personal dream themes. You will start to develop a pattern and formulate your significance to these dream themes.
Your openness and receptivity to the dream world are more important than following guidelines to a tee.
• Automatic writing, which is writing without thinking. After writing a dream down, follow it with automatic writing. Within this practice, one gets in touch with the flow of consciousness while the dream is fresh in one’s mind and insights often arise from this state of flow.
Wholeness. We should investigate one dream in the context of many dreams helps us to learn about ourselves. Carl Jung “We are not dealing with isolated dreams; they form a coherent series in the course of which the meaning gradually unfolds more or less of its own accord.”
Put all of the individual pieces of the dream together. Once you’ve analyzed each part of your dream, you can put it all together. This can give you a deeper interpretation of the dream.
The more important messages tend to repeat.
Identifying what makes you feel the same way can uncover the true meaning behind the dream.
• How does each part affect the meaning of the remaining parts?
• Taken together, what does the dream mean to you?
• Note when the dreams occur, how often they occur, and if they seem to be triggered by something.
Test your reality. All the ideas in your dreams may not make sense until you have unravelled them or brought them back to reality.
What you can do to give them a little more substance is to connect them to your everyday concerns and your real-life situations.
Analyze the dream like you normally would, but pay special attention to what the dream could mean for your waking life.
See a correlation and pattern between your dream and reality.
As you go about your day, pay attention to things that happen to and around you, especially anything resembling one of your dream signs. The goal is to test your reality so often that eventually, out of habit, you do it while dreaming.
• Throughout the day, ask yourself simple questions like:
• Am I dreaming or awake? Where am I? What am I doing at the moment? What do I see, feel, and think? What happened five minutes ago?

11. Democratic essence of creative dreaming

Sleeping is an important part of our daily routine that takes up about one-third of our lifetime. Dreams may help ordinary people find creative solutions to everyday problems.
You don’t have to be creative and have extraordinary abilities to use dreams in your daily life. Our dreams prove that we have incredible powers of imagination and problem-solving.
During the day every adult is bothered by an internal censor, but at night, everyone is a creative genius.

12. Revitalized, life-changing decision

1. Deciding to keep a dream journal could be one of the easiest yet life-changing decisions that allow us to discover a whole amazing world of creativity and qualitatively novel experiences.
2. Keeping a dream journal make the quality of dreams higher. They start getting more vivid and ”alive,” with more colours and more details. They begin to colour and enrich our waking consciousness, making our life more happy and fulfilling.
When you see, recall and write down dreams, you engage different parts of the brain and trigger your mind to think in a different way on a whole new level.
2. Achieving unity and co-creation of the two states of consciousness—dreaming and waking, and making connections between the dream world and waking life, brings us into the flow of higher awareness and creative vision.
4. Thinning of the line between dreaming and waking consciousness, allows making more accessible creative achievements and true-life successes.
5. Decide to discover a whole new world of dreams and inexhaustible creative possibilities, to open up a huge universe saturated with new emotions, colours and meanings, to free the inner creative unconscious part of yourself and awaken your creative genius.