Exercise

Step 1: Write down your dream as soon as you wake up. Make sure you keep a notebook and pan beside your bed so you don’t have to get up before writing. The goal is to capture the dream before its details begin to fade.

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Step 2: Try to write down as many details as possible. Pay attention to the individual elements you remember: people, places, objects, events, colors, animals, emotions, and any details that stood out to you. You don’t need to remember the entire dream or reconstruct it perfectly. A single image, feeling, person, or brief scene may become meaningful later.

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Step 3: Write down your personal associations also. This is an important part of Ball’s approach: a dream symbol should not only be interpreted through a universal “dream dictionary.” Your own experiences, memories, and associations are also part of understanding what the symbol may mean to you.

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Step 4: Keep track of your dreams regularly. By recording your dreams consistently over a longer period of time, you can build a collection that allows you to recognize recurring themes and elements over time. This allows you to reflect on a bigger collection later on. 

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Step 5: Analyze the dream afterward. Once you have written down the dream, look back at the symbols and recurring elements that stand out to you. You can then compare them with Ball’s A–Z dream encyclopedia and explore the possible meanings associated with them.

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Source

​Ball, Pamela. De complete droomencyclopedie: 10,000 dromen verklaard. Translated by Cora Brouwer and Nicole Seegers. Amsterdam: Boekerij, 2015.