As a child, I was guided by a quiet voice that taught me how to paint pictures in my mind that would make me feel good and help me cope with the paralyzing fear I was experiencing at night. Working with my guide and the images seeded something deep within me of the power of images to heal.

One of the foundations of working with your dreams begins with a simple but radical act: learning to turn toward the dark figures in your dreams instead of away from them. This is what is known as ‘Shadow Work,’ a concept popularized by Carl Jung, which refers to the process of exploring the unconscious, rejected, repressed, or denied parts of ourselves. 

If you're serious about learning how to work with your dreams, keeping a dream journal is foundational. One of the first steps to working with your dreams is establishing good dream recall, and there's no better way to improve your recall than by recording your dreams regularly. Dreams are elusive; most of our dreams are forgotten. Even our remembered dreams, if not written down, will fade from memory over time. 

Do you ever wake up knowing you had a dream but can’t quite remember the details? You’re not alone. This is the most common roadblock I hear when I talk to people about dreaming. Dreams are fleeting. Trying to catch a dream is like trying to catch a cloud. Just when you think you have it within your grasp, it slips away. The good news is that with strong intention

As the wheel of the year turns closer towards winter, I feel a welcome shift in myself toward slowing down, rest and recuperation.  There is so much important work that gets done in the dark underworld that we can’t see.  Although I love the light, I am a steadfast lover of the dark. As I get older, I look forward more and more to gathering my energies to do my own inner alchemy at this time of year.  

In many ways, our dreams contain the broken fragments of our subconscious and are filled with the little cracks, imperfections, wounds and life experiences we have forgotten, tried to hide or ignore.