If you rarely remember dreams, or have been going through a dry spell, don’t worry about it. Catching dreams is fun; don’t make it a chore. Think of it as going on a blind date with a friend you can trust with your soul.

Make a date with your dreams. Get yourself all the equipment you’ll need: writing materials, or a tape recorded (preferably voice-activated) if you prefer, and one of those glow in the dark pens if you’re worried about waking a sleeping partner. Put these within easy reach by your bed. Pick a time of the week or the day when you can wake naturally and allow yourself some extra quiet time. Try to avoid excessive alcohol or anti-depressants.

Tell your dreams you are ready to play. Before going to sleep, write down your intention, and give it some juice. “I want to have fun in my dreams” or “I want to go on a dream vacation” are good intentions. But go where the energy is. If there is a big challenge looming in your life, ask for guidance. If there is something you need to face that you have been avoiding, you may have been blocking the dreams that can bring you healing and resolution. So ask for help with that. It is always okay to ask for help. It’s best to do it in a generous spirit. If you are in need of healing, don’t moan about your symptoms. The powers that guide us through dreams are less interested when we bleat about our migraines or our need for cash than when we say something like this:

Grant me the measure of health my body requires to serve the purposes of the soul. 

I have borrowed that one from Aelius Aristides, a famous Greek orator who found healing, inspiration and foreknowledge of future events in his dreams and walked very close to Asklepios, the god of medicine and dream healing. This invocation is quite adaptable. You might use something along these lines to ask for help with finding your dream job, your dream house, or the resources you need to keep body and soul together.

Whether your intention is a fling with a dream lover or help for a dying friend, go with the energy and remember to play. Write it down, put it under your pillow and sleep on it. You may be amazed how many things you can solve in your sleep.

You may need to use your imagination to relate whatever comes to you in the night to your initial question or intention. Say you ask for guidance on your relationship — as a woman in one of my workshops recently did — and you dream you have to escape from a resort hotel because a bomb is about to go off in the middle of your suite. There probably is a connection, even if you can’t see it (or just don’t want to see it) at first glance.

Write something down when you wake up (even if it’s not a dream). Whenever you wake up — even if it’s at a cruel and unsocial hour — write something down. Do this in the bathroom if that’s why you awoke. Dream memories are fleeting. If you wake without dream memories, don’t worry. If you just lie around in bed for a while, you may find a forgotten dream floating back, and then the dream before it, and the one before that.

Adapted from my book Dreaming True: How to Dream Your Future and Change Your Life for the Better. Published by Pocket Books
(c) Robert Moss. All rights reserved.