Bedtime Dream Ritual
Let’s talk about dreams and how to manifest better ones.
The Ancient Greeks believed sleep was a form of healing. The god of sleep Hypnos was the son of Erebus, darkness and Nyx, night, and father of Oneiroi, dreams. He lived in the underworld near the Lethe, the river of forgetfulness and oblivion. The meeting of these two places, the underworld and the Lethe, represented the place we go to in our consciousness when we are in-between the waking and sleeping worlds. In this place, we explore our intuition, our inner consciousness and the depths of our emotions. Slowly we sink into this other worldly-state.
Dreams may not be prophecies, but they do give us a mirror into our deepest subconscious. Carl Jung once said that dreams do not hide things from us, instead they express the parts of ourselves that our egos do not understand.
No matter what your dreaming style may be, we can all benefit from better nighttime, dream-inducing practices. One of the best ways to ensure you’re reaching your nocturnal potential is through dream journaling. Don’t be mistaken, dream journaling is so much more than just writing down your dreams in order to remember them. In some ways it acts as a form of therapy by helping you to learn how to overcome anxiety, understand your emotions, and assist in controlling your dreams in order to lucid dream.
Dreams are never meaningless and by keeping a daily journal you will be able to process your emotions more clearly. Say you have an anxiety inducing event on the horizon in your daily life, it is highly likely you will find yourself in an anxiety ridden situation in your dream in the nights before. This is our subconscious’ way of working through this stress. By keeping a dream journal, you keep record of the themes and patterns within these dreams to gain a better understanding of these feelings and work through them in your waking hours. Dreams can function as a source of creativity. They are one of the most authentic sources of self-inspiration to our brains.
There are many ways to incorporate dream journaling into your evening routine, but to get a kick start on making it a habitual practice for yourself is to begin with a nighttime- dream ritual. Here is an example of one to follow to get you started, feel free to moderate to your needs.
Create your own pre-sleep ritual. One of the first steps is to pick a time to be in bed and stick to it. This does not mean you must be asleep by that hour, but in your bed ready to relax. To start winding down, make yourself a night time drink. We recommend botanical elixir, Nightcap, aka the Dream Maker from Three Spirits as an excellent choice for this. Made with lemon balm, valerian and hops to soothe the mind, adaptogenic ashwagandha combats stress and white willow bark makes you feel comforted and cozy. Make up any drink you like with this and take it into your bedroom ready and waiting for you when you finish the next step.
Most rituals begin with a form of bath, though this may not always be practical for our busy lives but switching to showering or taking a bath in the evening may dramatically improve your ability to drift off as soon as your head hits the pillow, into a deeper more restful sleep. Even if it's just a ten minute bath, try to make this a priority of a restful routine. Get into your cosiest pyjamas and give yourself a moment to stretch out. Full body stretches like downward dog, threading the needle, or even simply upwards hand pose increase blood flow around the body, relieves tension and calms the mind. Once you’re feeling loose and relaxed over all, hop into bed, Get comfortable, prop some pillows up behind you, as you don’t want to be fully laying down just yet. Take ten minutes to meditate and centre your thoughts. Relieve yourself of the stress of the day, take this opportunity to slow down your thoughts and clear your mind. Once you’re feeling centred, it is time to pull out that dream journal. What you write is up to you. If you’re feeling creative, go with a free flow for five-ten minutes. There are no rules, write outside of the lines, write in a spiral, quote something you heard that stuck with you today, describe the type of dream you’d like to manifest for the night, the sky's the limit. If prompts are more your style, here are three to get you started.
1: Something I’d love to do more of in my daily life is…
2: I am happiest when…
3: Describe the main emotion you’d like to feel in your dreams and why…
When you’ve come to a natural stopping place in your writing, put the book down next to the side of your bed, ready for you to wake up and record your dreams first thing in the morning. If you listen to a white noise machine or have an eye mask, etc that you have to wear to bed, go ahead and turn that on, or put on that item now.
Lights off
Restful sleep full of fabulous dreams up next.
Night night everyone. Let your dreams be your guide.
Words: Holly Westwood