Meditation and Dream Diary

I was recently asked to be more specific about meditation and Dream Diary work, and how they fit into the Lifewriting program.

"I would say that I’m the same way when it comes to talk of meditation or other activities that are intended to circumvent just that left-brained over-rationalizing bit of my personality."

(STEVE)That is a perspective on what they are intended to do.  A way of looking at it, in other words.  Other ways of looking at them is to BALANCE the right and left brained modes.  Another way is to teach you to differentiate between your self and your thoughts.  Another would be to teach you to remain calm under stress.  To focus or unfocus attention.  To, in other words, learn to operate your brain/mind/spirit/body in more effective ways.  but then that, too, is just a perspective.
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" In other words, when I’ve tried to sit down for an hour of heartbeat meditation, I usually end up being fairly analytical about it, and am never quite sure if I’m doing it right, and actually progressing in the fashion you intend. As a result, I usually find myself frustrated at the whole activity, and end up finding reasons for not quickly trying it again. "
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(STEVE) I would suggest that you begin with shorter sessions...say 15 minutes morning and night.  and five times durin gthe day (9, 12,3,6,9) you stop and breathe for sixty seconds, or listen to your heartbeat. 
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"Unlike a good exercise period, or a visible progress of 1000 words in a story I’ve written, I have trouble seeing what I’ve accomplished after a meditation session."
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STEVE: There are meditations where it is easier to measure progress.  For instance, pranayama breathing exercises where you slowly extend the inhalation/exhalation cycles, or the period of breath retention or expulsion. The measurable changes in time should satisfy the analytical part of you.  And you can understand the accomplishment in terms of "pushing back the lactate threshold", "learning to override the limbic response" or other stuff.  The most important thing is that you are teaching your mind to do what YOU want it to do, not what IT wants to do.
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"Perhaps it is counterproductive to try and wrap a rational layer around an activity intended specifically to circumvent the rational mind, "
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STEVE:  The rational mind is great.  It's just not as smart as it thinks it is.
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"but I for one would find it helpful to hear more about the mechanics of the process, where we’re supposed to ‘put’ our heads. I think we’re supposed to be allowing the chatter of the ‘monkey-mind’ to be suppressed, but are we to be striving for our minds to be completely blank as a successful meditation? Should we be trying to focus on some specific element of our desired development process? To me, such a focus seems more like giving carte-blanche to the chatter to hang around. "
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STEVE:  There are so many forms.  One is to sit quietly and listen to the chatter. Don't associate with it, just watch it without attachment.  And you might ask yourself: who is listening?  And who is speaking? The more you realize the voices in your head ARE NOT YOU, the closer you are to a breakthrough.  Yes, it is possible to reach a clear mind devoid of chatter--that is the "Mushin" state samurai train for, the state from which you can respond like sound and echo, because you are perceiving reality without all the filtering garbage.  this takes years. 
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"Are we tying to achieve some sort of a waking dream-state in which we have coherent thoughts or a dream-like storyline? What, in other words, constitutes a productive or positive achievement in any given meditation period? What are we striving for in this effort?"
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(STEVE):  To expand the moments when we are not distracted by the chatter, and are "just" paying attention to the breath, or the heartbeat, or the space between the breaths or heartbeats.  As we do, we are developing our ability to filter out the chatter.  If an irritating or stressful task is to be done, there is the task, and then there is all the grief we give ourselves about it.  The two interfere with each other.  All the power in the world, all the power we have, is found in our ability to stay in the present moment.  All the chatter in your head relates to the past, or the future.  If someone pulls a knife on you, thinking about what MIGHT happen will get your butt killed.  If you're making love, thinking about the job tomorrow, will screw up your ability to enjoy the delicious NOW.    The psychological aspects of meditation involve the capacity to optimize the noise/signal ratio, reducing stress, enhancing communication and mental function.  There are spiritual aspects as well, but believe me, you'll find those out for yourself.

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"And to make the discussion a little broader, you have often cited both the meditation process, and the keeping of a dream diary as tools to help begin to address one’s (for want of a better term) [/b]mental and psychic life injuries. And while you do describe the process of the heartbeat meditation (or at least, the external side of it), I’m less clear on how one is to apply either of these tools to do the actual work of improving one’s subconscious health. Is it merely the pursuit of the activity itself that makes the contribution to the repairs? "
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STEVE:  To a degree.  But learning the language with which the subconscious communicates is important to developing a coherant mental state.  keeping a dream diary will put you in touch with the map of your internal world, as well as be an endless source of creative inspiration.
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"Once I’ve got months of dream diaries, should I be looking at them with some sort of analytical lens to glean some sort of meta-message from my subconscious? If one (or one’s Lifewriting partners) suspects some sort of long term psychic damage from childhood, how does one make this the focus on one’s efforts to repair, or at least establish the need for repair, of such a suspected clot of mental detritus? Indeed, how would one tell if this suspicion is real, or perhaps a red herring hiding some other, better hidden damage? And at what point, if any, should someone start thinking about calling in professional help, or do you think most problems can be addressed with these self-administered tools?"
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STEVE:  Look to the external aspects.  If you are healthy in body, relationship, and career--the chances are pretty good you're in good shape. It's possible to be healthy without having these three, but it is damned hard to be sick and have these areas in apparent balance.  Man, that's rare.   If there is a persistent problem in one of those arenas, begin to work with it, taking responsibility.   taking responsibility will put pressure on the structure of your subconscious.  If you have wounds, this is when they will bleed.    If your dreams develop into night terrors, complete with monstrous transformations of ordinary objects and situations, there is a very good chance that you are dealing with serious damage.
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Now...does that mean you should call in professional help?  that's the safe approach, and I suggest it.  But it IS possible for most peole to deal with these challenges without it...but that takes more strength.  The safe bet is to seek counseling, if for no other reason than to have a committed ally who is, in a very real sense, not invested in your damage.
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STEVE:  As you work on your damage areas, your subconscious WILL begin to churn up the pain.  You have to have a way to process it.  Bringing things from subconscious to conscious awareness is one such way.  You can speed and enhance the process by applying the FIVE MINUTE MIRACLE to the "Fear Removal" technique, starting with small anxiety problems before you attack bigger ones.
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STEVE:  But as coach Sonnon said=-if you have any doubts about your ability to handle it alone, trust that intuition and get help.
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Great question.  keep 'em coming!