People are fascinated by the power of the mind. Among the great mysteries that have accompanied humanity through its journey is the power of dreaming – the meaning of dreams and how they are conceived in the brain. Few people, however, realize that it is possible to control one's dreams: to, as the term goes, "lucid dream." One may dream of whatever one wishes and act in the dream as though conscious. This may seem incredible, but few are those who have not suddenly realized, one night, “Hey! I'm in a dream!” Through easy techniques, you can train yourself to have “Ah-ha!” moments like that every night. With practice, you can exercise great influence over your dreams, eliminating nightmares and, if you so desire, using your resting hours to ready yourself for the challenges of your waking life. In this article, I will show you the seven steps to lucid dreaming for the rest of your life.

The First Step: A Dream Journal

Most of us are not born with very good recall of our dreams. We may remember a few details immediately on waking, which drift away from us over the course of the first few minutes of morning. Every once in a while, a particularly pleasant, or horrible, dream will leave enough of an impression to describe it several hours later. But how can we lucid dream if we cannot even remember our dreams?

As with anything, increasing the amount of attention you give your dreams allows you to focus on and recall them better. A time-tested method for doing this is by writing them down. Keep a composition book by your bedside and write down every detail you remember of your dreams as soon as you wake up. Writing something down allows one to recall it an average of 30% better after several hours. Within a week or two of getting into this habit, you will find your memories of dreams are much richer than before.