I created my dream of a dream journal

The best education I ever received about dreams and their power to heal, problem-solve, guide, predict, inspire, and amaze came when I journaled my dreams every day for two years.

I had enrolled in the Institute for Dream Studies certification program¹, and on the first day, our teacher informed us that keeping a dream journal was a requirement. I’d been writing down my dreams for nearly three decades by then, so I thought that would be a breeze.

But while in the past I’d written my dreams most of the time, now I was engaged in a serious program study, and I took the teacher’s instruction to heart: I wrote every dream I remembered, every day, all of the time.

For the average dreamer that might mean recording 3-7 dreams a week. For me it meant recording that many dreams (and more) every day! One morning I even recorded 18 dreams.

At the time, I was also working full-time. As a result of my extensive journaling, I’d sometimes get to work late, or find myself sneaking in more dream-journaling while I was on the clock.

About eight months into this routine I confessed my challenges to my teacher. “Oh, my Tzivia, you didn’t have to take that assignment so literally!” she said. (I later went on to be the education director at the Institute for Dream Studies, and I shared that story with my students each year so they could decide for themselves how far to take the dream journaling requirement.)

But even after my teacher encouraged me to refine the guidelines, I continued to write and study my dreams every day for those two years, and I couldn’t be happier that I did.

(Mind you, I’m not recommending that you or anyone else go to such lengths to record every dream. In fact, in this video I describe why you probably shouldn’t.)

As a dreamwork professional, who has studied dreams from the scientific, psychological, mystical, artistic, and theological perspectives, who has taken countless courses, including a 2-year certification program, and who has attended conferences on dreams, taken workshops, and participated in and led dream groups and 1:1 dreamwork sessions, recording every dream for two years was the best training I could have received.

That extensive and intensive period of self-study taught me about the relationship between dreams and consciousness, dreams and health, and dreams and evolving our human potential in ways I could never have gotten from books and lectures alone.

I learned during those two years that a dream journal truly is a book of transformation.

How to go beyond just keeping a journal

But to merely keep a dream journal isn’t enough. You also have to grow with your dreams and bring their wisdom into your daily life in meaningful ways.

That’s why I created The Little Dream Journal, the guided journal I wished I could purchase in a store, but could never quite find.

The Little Dream Journal is your book of transformation.

In creating The Little Dream Journal, I drew on my decades of experience and training to develop a process and a template for recording dreams that will supercharge the benefits and enhance your life, without overpowering your life—because for most people, and for me most of the time, we can’t put dream journaling above our other responsibilities.

The Little Dream Journal, my dream of a dream journal, includes:

• Encouraging guidance and information on why we dream and how to remember and deepen your dream experience, along with inspiring quotes to keep you feeling engaged and joyful as you build a vibrant relationship with your dreams.

• Daily templates to help you record dreams efficiently and hone in on the dream’s power and messages.

• Bedtime prompts for reflecting on your day, and a place to park your worries for the night, so you can move into sleep and dreams with a clear and relaxed mind.

• Ample additional lined pages to reflect on dreams in greater detail, or to write about daytime experiences.

• Space to draw your dreams including unlined spaces and entire blank pages to quickly sketch dream images or make drawings or collages inspired by them.

• An inside back pocket to tuck scraps of paper where you jot down snippets of dreams during the day, so you can record those dreams in the journal later, when you have the time.

• A dream index in the back of the journal so you can track patterns and trends.

• Writing prompts to inspire creative perspectives on dreams, and so the dream interprets itself! (In the process you’ll create poetic writings and stories based on dreams.)

• Numbered pages so you can reference dreams you wrote earlier in the journal or tag a dream, poem, or picture you recorded elsewhere in the journal.

• A beautiful cloth cover to welcome you back to the book again and again. Plus high quality design and binding that is worthy of holding your precious dreams.

The newly published Little Dream Journal from Smith Street Books has all that and more!

This is the dream journal I always wanted—but it hadn’t yet been created. Now you, too, can hold it in your hands!

Until next time …

I’m dreaming with you,

Tzivia Gover, author and Certified Dreamwork Professional

1. If you want to take a deep dive into dream studies, check out the Institute for Dream Studies, where I received my training, and also the International Association for the Study of Dreams, where I’m an active member and executive board member.