Mindful Dreaming: Harness the Power of Lucid Dreaming for Happiness, Health, and Positive Change

by Clare R. Johnson

There are many books on dreams, dream interpretation, and lucid dreaming. What makes this one different is that Clare R. Johnson, PhD combines the principles of mindfulness with a fresh approach to lucid dreaming. The end result is a step-by-step guide for understanding dream language, waking up in our dreams, and transforming them to improve our waking lives. In this book, she
This is a helpful and practical book that belongs on every nightstand. It is book for all who want to unleash the power of their dreams and change their lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Spirituality, Self Help

216 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2018

About the author

Clare R. Johnson, PhD, is a leading expert on lucid dreaming. She has a PhD from the University of Leeds on using lucid dreams as a creative tool (the first doctoral work in the world to explore this topic), is a lifelong lucid dreamer herself, and is President of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. Her books include Mindful Dreaming (European title: Dream Therapy) and Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Lucid Dreaming.

Reviews

[lydea · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’ve realized (for myself at least) that this book is all about mindset. i tried reading this book about a year and a half ago, and i thought this was the worst book ever with absolutely terrible advice. my mind wouldn’t let me give up on it though. a year later i began reading it again. i was wary, i didn’t think it would be possible for me follow along with this book and the practices in it.

i think this is an excellent book for people who want to be more connected with themselves but don’t know how to (that was me!). i’ve learned a lot from this book, and am even subconsciously beginning to apply healthier habits into my dream and waking life thanks to this book.

[Marty Mangold · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explores the idea that the content of our dreams can be helpful to us. It's not that a book or person interprets your dreams for you, but that we look at our own dreams by ourselves. The first step is to write down or somehow record our dreams, and then reconsider them at any time.

There’s an entire realm of lucid dreaming, where we are aware we are in a dream and consciously move through the dream, and all of that’s currently beyond me. Short of this, I have found pleasure and valuable ideas thinking about what I’m trying to tell myself (or what the dream has to tell me) by particular themes or events.

I did follow and enjoy the discussion of guiding dream events to happier, more healing conclusions, with techniques to guide our waking lives towards greater health and happiness. It’s in the realm of guiding our reactions, and it’s adjacent to (hopefully different from) merely forcing happy thoughts onto unhappy circumstances.

I like this author’s perception of dreams: that our minds are so busy during the day, it follows that dreams are this same engine clicking along while we are asleep. The dreaming mind has some advantages: “melting away baggage” we aren’t consciously aware of, and “working with the energy you have in a powerful and creative way.”

I will report one example: I dreamed I got into a car and left my cello outside, then had to have the car stop, and I walked back in my dream to find my cello. I woke up, and recorded this dream. Then I thought I’d ease my mind by touching my cello in its usual place. It wasn’t there: I had left it in the car the afternoon before. There was no harm done: the weather was mild, the car was locked and in a closed garage, but this is something that essentially never happens. I’m completely convinced that after I went to sleep, my mind had a “wait a minute, we forgot the cello” moment and gave me this dream.

There are other issues my dreams have been dealing with, more profound and serious, and murkier. Giving the content of my dreams a little more attention has had, I believe, profound and serious benefits. I enjoyed the book and found it a helpful guide to this process.

A few quotes I want to remember:

* When we release the past, we free up huge amounts of creative energy. 116

* Even when a person is dead, we can still heal our relationship with them. 171

* … the extraordinary ability of the dreaming mind to summarize a life-long spiritual dilemma in a short dream. 182

* All dreams come to help and heal us … our dreaming mind wants us to heal. 193-94.

A minor afterthought: it’s good to keep going on a journey (or through a book) when there is a minor annoyance. The author’s capitalizing of “Mindful Dreaming,” as if it was a registered trademark on a proprietary product, annoys me still, but only a little.

[Tetyana Riy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me realize that I’ve stopped dreaming. I need to go back to it because dreaming is part of the joys of life. I know it’s just the essence, the flavor of life.

[J223]

Read in Sumer 2022

[Kcanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bumping this up to five stars after a cool dream I had

[Rikki McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved! takes a deeper dive into how to use our dreams in our waking life.