I am flying.
I’m soaring through clouds, reach out a fist, holster both hands, and accelerate to unsafe speeds. Suddenly I wonder if I should be wearing a helmet.
* End frowned upon dream sequence intro *
I wrote these words in a diary many years ago. I’ve journaled on and off for more than two decades, but it wasn’t until the past 12 months that I journaled everyday without fail.
Of course, it seems almost everyone claims this daily process will improve your life, but the habit can be challenging to launch or maintain–so there remain countless approaches available to help you consider its benefits, jumpstart the routine, and keep the practice.
These are the experiences observed by me, myself & I – presented to view – for me & you:
OBSERVATION #1: IDENTIFY THE WHY
Why in the cracker-jack do you want to journal?
Is it simply because you keep hearing it will help you?
– Do you think it can change who you are?
– Do you want it to change how you’ve been?
– Do you wonder if it will change who you’re becoming?
What do you hope, believe, and expect to get from journaling on a consistent basis?
The purpose buried in your answer will become the root cause for continuing your commitment.
As for my ORIGIN: I wanted to remember what I was doing with my eyes closed.
You see, I would lay my head upon the pillow each night, fall asleep, and then wake with no recall of what happened in REM.
You must see that I observed these unremembered night cycle excursions were framing my mind’s moods. So I became desperate to satisfy my mornings of mourning.
Have you met your dreams recently?
– Have you ever taken flight?
– Would you enjoy striking lightning from your fingertips?
Okay, superhero gig not your jam?
What if you could live a whole lifetime in one evening’s dream?
What if you could practice scenes before living them with eyes wide open?
… I have done and sampled all of these things.
… And I often return to my dreams for do-overs of some kinds–because it is my will that powers the action which becomes my way.
– JOURNAL EXPERIMENT #1: Explore the purpose inside your Why
Choose to use this observational topic as today’s journal entry. See how it feels on you today, and then tomorrow, maybe have another.
OBSERVATION #2: JUST DO IT YOU
I could offer you ideas to spin pretty prose between the covers.
Or I might suggest different ways to fill blanks on the daily. Or I could recommend you research approaches elsewhere. But I promise that nothing you find will be perfect.
So you must do you everyday in the diary.
… This is your only right way.
You may let coffee brew while you document dreamed events. You may poo and pontificate on pages about the day’s most pivotal goals. Between sentences, you may watch out windows at beings between the trees. Or maybe you punch keys to imprint new characters onto white screens.
Granted, some of your ways may be identical to others. In fact, I hope pieces of mine align with your right way–but be prepared for some adjusting as you continue everyday. Give yourself slack and pre-forgive for how ugly the experience may look one day.
Note: Discomfort is required because your right way is imperfect.
Until it isn’t.
BREAKING NEWS: Your right path must fulfill you.
Do you prefer typing about the nights using technology?
Do you prefer handwriting chicken scratch so the only way to read it is using your own pinky decoder ring. 😉
… So maybe try my ideas to start.
… Always do yours to finish.
– EXPERIMENT #2: Write about how your way is just right for you.
Don’t laugh at this quick hit visualization exercise. You must daydream to continually initiate the remaking of your created space.
This is possible. Test it. Everyday.
OBSERVATION #3: READ WHEN LOST
Open your journal and cruise words you’ve previously spun (or access prior photos of yourself).
Now locate a piece of you that you recognize without question.
This is your watch window into yourself.
Use this to assess your known past to access your knowing present.
Feelings may echo because you’re time traveling.
Trust the vibration you resonate.
Drink your beats.
Repeat.
– EXPERIMENT # 3: Write down a simple message
Write down words right now to reinforce who you are–because someday–you may need a reminder (or snap a selfie with a sincere smile of love for yourself).
Or if you already have journal records, flip through the pages to find yourself again.
OBSERVATION #4: SEIZE SLUMBERLAND
My alarm is most often set for 4:41am, 5:33am, or 6:14am.
Yesterday morning, my mental alarm woke me at 4:43am. This morning, my phone’s alarm sounded off at 5:08pm.
Many have said the simple but I will restate it here:
… To win the day, you must win the morning.
I would also say:
… To seize the dreams, you must take the night.
This is why I wake when I do. I get final say when the night ends and the day begins.
I originally studied the dream realm with thoroughness in my early twenties.
Because for several days in a row, I recalled night dreams that came true during their next days.
And in these moments, I thought my mind was malfunctioning–possibly pliable.
Because I never talked about such things to others, and at the time, I didn’t trust my own first-hand experiences.
… Do you think something like this is possible?
… Maybe it’s just seeing the algorithm which can foresee a most likely outcome?
Anyway, I believe me because I remember who I am. We trust each other. Of course, I’d also written down the dream scenes in my journal prior to fulfillment.
If I were to begin revisiting one of these dreams playing out in my waking life, I would describe the feeling as a case of déjà vu in a nonlinear timeline.
… This event resulted in years of journals which helped me see my own patterns layered into dreamlands.
Most of my dreams dealt with the past. My Portraits of Pain told over and over.
But I also found you can use your dreams to rehearse acts you want to happen in the past, present, or future. I did such things while getting lucid.
Lucid Dream: dream during which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming
The hardest part for most dreamers is staying in the dream once they become lucid. Of course, there are several moves to overcome an immediate ejection.
But I would label lucid dreaming as this place’s original Virtual Reality Program (VRP) — because by the end of that recorded run for lucidity, I could focus most any thoughts prior to slumber, and then enter a new reality encoded with my thoughts from moments ago.
I miss it, and I have more To Do:
First, I want to fly more often.
Second, I want to continue watching what I’m doing when my physical vessel performs its overnight charge mode.
Third, I want to trial and test new experiences in my dreams–because I once shared an interlocked dream with my brother. I believe such things are replicable. In fact, just last night before this piece’s publication, another brother coincidentally told me a story about his shared dream with his wife(!).
– EXPERIMENT #4: Be among the lucid
In bed, write in your journal describing the dream you will experience the moment you fall asleep where you lay.
Put the pages down while repeating and imprinting those thoughts as you drift.
Do this nightly until you actualize your new creation in the dream simulation.
… Meet me at the meetup.
… OG VRP in play.
… New day.
OBSERVATION #5: THIS WAY WORKS (for me)
I rarely journal in bed, so after I have risen around one of the aforementioned times:
1. I open my journal to the proper space, place the date, and write the first header as:
“Dreams:”
This is where the previous several hours get quickly downloaded.
These writings bridge me from my dream life to this waking simulation. The eagle has landed. Grounded.
If I cannot recall any dreams, I write, “Do not recall.” And blah because this line feels a lot like a “Did Not Play” (DNP) player’s decision.
… But I always know that dreams revolving around anger, sadness, pain, or death warrant thorough unfoldings.
– EXPERIMENT #5.001: Unlearn the half-truth that you don’t dream
Don’t let people or yourself tell you that you do not dream.
You do. You just don’t remember yet–actually, the research states that every human being so far exhibits REM sleep, but not everyone reports dreams.
I believe a program is always running there in REM–but if you aren’t writing or running the program, and you can’t recall it, maybe it’s not yours(?).
… So be aware of what could be spinning silently in your mind–meaning you must always rewind, remind and then rebind.
2. Then after I finish my dream entry, I write the next heading as:
“Thoughts:”
This new portal records my present feelings to start the day.
This area calibrates my morning’s emotional frequency, and as needed, real-time mental re-alignments are performed on the page.
… Tuning.
Next, I shift to gratitude.
Because I am grateful for my life and every connection experienced. The Creator, Spirit, and Fam are always met first along with Friends, Animals, Plants, Games, Self, etc.
Last, I move into what I know must come–meaning I write (program) new hard copy coding as sneak peeks into my impending best-Self.
… Scripting.
… So I must simply remain grateful with patience–and help others–while authoring my story.
– EXPERIMENT #5.002: Adopt one or Opt for none of the above
Although it’s easily known that adoption of at least one approach is required for proper experimentation.
But none means you make up one on your own.
Find an opening.
Everyday.
3. After “Thoughts:” are completed, I write the final heading as:
“Goals:”
Today’s core goal(s) is(are) scribbled here.
A micro and macro.
… No more than three for me.
… Refinement never ends.
– EXPERIMENT #5.003: Make a goal for the next 24 hours
What is one thing you want completed in 1 day from now?
Write it down in your journal, computer, phone, and/or heart.
– Believe the goal.
– Achieve the goal.
Once done, well done. You’re an actor, writer, director, editor, and producer in The Story of Your Life.
OBSERVATION #6: ALCOHOL INHIBITS DREAMS
It’s probably not surprising that I journaled everyday for 1 full year after I’d stopped drinking alcohol for 2 years.
I don’t miss the libations.
The rising tolerance. The obsessing about timings. The sweet and smoky sugars. The empty calories. The dream catchers.
It was certainly my most frequent vice.
Research indicates that alcohol helps people fall asleep faster but it also reduces REM–and data sources suggest that alcohol imbalances the body’s clock and time management systems.
* Of course, the effects of these elixirs may vary by user and volume.
I simply know that my relationship with these liquid spirits caused unhealthy spells. Maybe they’re called the spirits for a reason.
All throughout my drinking days, I saw how alcohol paused my dream sequences–except I still stayed stuck on repeat–but I never stopped wishing for dry days–and suddenly my wish came true one night.
Another miracle.
Except this one stuck–and straight up–this was an overnight physiological transformation that I will forever remember.
– EXPERIMENT #6: Analyze your partnership with consumables
Your vice may be a different liquid. Soda. Energy drinks. Coffee (I love this one).
Or maybe it’s food. I have many sweet dreams (another vice of mine).
We love to self-medicate. I have done it because I want the easy offerings to pacify me–but change starts in the choice.
… So I challenge us to change the vice games.
… Trial a choice. Meet action. Know change.
OBSERVATION #7: OWN YOUR EVERYTHINGS
Ten months ago, I forgot my journal on a travel trip.
Silly mistake. Simple fix. Just used my phone. Owned.
Don’t give in to easy outs because:
Discomfort is needed and it’s part of you. Accept without delay. Forget Renting and Own it now.
You will mistime things.
Forget.
Slip.
Fall.
Forgive.
Anything you receive is yours to own.
… Ugly cries, lit fires, and all the Likes.
Again, you must come to own it all.
Trust your daily way being done right. And wrong.
Unbreaking news: FAILURE = SUCCESS
But remember it’s not the success that breeds the satisfaction. It’s the pleased pleas suddenly feeding you ease.
This is basically OBSERVATION #1 + #2 = #7 because the nodes must be retold and unsold.
Vacation from work–not yourself.
Magnified self-observation can bring about revelations, hauntings, truth, lies, 2 + 2 = 5‘s, news, and maybe anythings or everythings, too.
Own all of your Verses.
– EXPERIMENTIENCE #7: Own your every self
Walk to a mirror and look beyond the glass.
Meet yourself again. Be inspired to thrive.
Or close those eyes. Get lucid.
And then ink your lines.
Charge the changes.
Have another.
Everyday.
Yay.
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