We know the dream space is powerful. It is a place where we have open access to the great universal mind, and the aspects within that great one mind which we refer to as our ("personal") subconscious. In this space, unresolved matters have the potential to play themselves out to resolution. Wishes and fears reveal themselves, so that they may be disempowered by your pure and simple awareness. Psychic channels are traveled through as we remember the possibility of what has already happened, (viewed as "the future"), so that we may walk with more clear intention and accountability on our path. The list of what we are capable of becoming aware of in our dreaming state is endless.
We can connect with guides and spirit animals, and receive key details of important messages, but whether we are asleep or awake in this sacred playground is entirely up to us. It is easy to accidentally treat this space as a time to escape and fall into a deeper sleep state, keeping our awareness in atrophy from the unconscious waking state into the deeper unconscious sleeping space. Intelligently entering the dreamworld for a restful psychic journey is also easy, it is just a new choice to make. Both possibilities are at our fingertips.
Choose to enter blindly, and you'll find yourself constantly having mash-up dreams where all the little crumbs of your days turn into nothing more than a dust cloud of incohesion. Or you "won't remember them." Choose to enter with intention and awareness, and a whole world of heart-opening, healing, and freedom becomes possible. The only necessary ingredients are awareness and choice.
How you engage your time before resting your head on your pillow is the choice. Do you end a frustrating day, or a lackluster day, or even a great day by cruising off to sleep in what is essentially ignorance? (Ignorance of the power of choices, that is.) Or do you honor your life and say hey, I'm going to take a moment to walk through this door with my eyes open. I deserve to deepen my feeling of peace, truth, ease and well-being... and I have, (I am), the potential of a fuller, ever-evolving embodiment of these things.
The base of the recipe you need to work with for conscious dreaming is simply meditation. It includes you doing whatever you need to do: lighting candles, cleansing your space with sage, chanting, deep breathing. It includes you letting go of the energy accumulated throughout the day, from the angry person on his phone at the coffee shop beside you to the way your partner ticked you off at lunch. It includes you being accountable for what triggers you, breathing open space into those tight spots, and setting the intention to resolve the disharmony within you in the dream space. It includes you praying to receive visions and clarity and to take astral flight.
And that wide open space that you fly into is where you can remain when you wake up. It is the wide open sky of truth. With dedication, you will begin to realize the part of you that is aware of these dreams is the same part of you that watches your waking life. You will begin to work with the subtle languages of life, of energy, and before you know it, you'll notice yourself holding the magic wand of your life, intentionally moving through each moment with awareness and power.
As always, go for it. Remember the power of your heart.