Friday, September 23, 2022

How to Interpret your Dreams

Dream interpretation has been around for thousands of years. It allows us to explore our subconscious mind and gives us the tools to solve some of our problems. If we take the time to really delve into what our dreams are telling us, we can access a wealth of inner knowledge and wisdom.

Most of us have at least 4-5 different dreams every night, so it’s no wonder that dreaming plays a big part in our lives. Apart from being just another state of reality, dreams act as our internal therapist, giving us signposts and warnings to things we overlook during our waking hours.

Getting Started

The first thing you will need is a dream diary or journal. Keep it next to your bed and record everything you remember the moment you wake up. It’s important to record everything, even if it doesn’t make sense, otherwise you could miss out on some important details. How many of us have remembered our dreams upon waking, only to forget them entirely an hour or so later.

Analysing Dreams

The subconscious mind communicates to us through symbols. That’s why it can often be difficult to interpret what your mind is trying to tell you. It will pluck out all sorts of strange and wonderful symbols in the hope that you will be able to make a connection. Remember, our dreams are our own so what makes sense to you, may not make any sense to someone else.

The first thing I would recommend at this point is to put your dream dictionary away. While there are some symbols that share the same general meaning, the most important thing about dream intrepretation is the context of the dream and how it made you feel. To make things even more difficult, some symbols have multiple meanings. For example, a snake can mean hidden fears and worries or it can represent healing and transformation. Ultimately, interpretation comes down to the context of the dream.

Because dreams are coming from your subconscious mind they are generally issues that have been suppressed. To successfully analyse your dreams, you will need to be completely honest with yourself and be prepared for critical self enquiry.

The following are some guidelines to work with when interpreting your dreams:

  • Ask yourself how the dream made you feel. Were you frightened? Happy? Nervous? For example, if you dreamt about flying (which represents freedom) but were terrified at the same time, chances are your subconscious is trying to tell you that you are nervous about moving forward. The emotional context of the dream is very important.

  • Use common sense and trust your intuition above all else.

  • Look for obvious signs and symbols such as colours, objects and numbers.

  • While people in your dream are important, they don’t necessarily represent what is happening in real life. For example, dreaming of kissing someone else’s boyfriend doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in love with him. Look for reasons why your subconscious may have chosen him as a symbol. This is where common sense and intuition are important.

  • There are no rules or definitive “right” or “wrong” answers. If an interpretation resonates with you, chances are it is right.

  • Don’t rely entirely on someone else’s interpretation. Your dreams are your own and no one else’s.

  • Before going to sleep at night, ask yourself a question to what you want answered. It is likely your dreams will give you the answer.

  • Look for recurring dreams. If you keep dreaming the same thing over and over again, it means that your subconscious is trying to alert you to something in your waking life that you are not wanting to face.

    Dream Symbols

  • When working with dream symbols, try not to take the dream too literal or allow logic to get in the way. Look for metaphors and what the dream symbolizes. Remember, some symbols have different meanings so it's important to consider the context of the dream. The following are some common dreams and what they generally symbolise:

    Flying – freedom
    Falling – insecurity, lack of control
    Water – emotion
    Stuck – lack of confidence, fear of moving ahead
    Moving upwards – moving forward in life, pursuing goals
    Moving downwards – suppressing thoughts into the subconcious
    House – represents self. Different rooms in a house represent different aspects of self.

    Finally, we all have the answers to our problems. Our dreams are a way in which we can access those hidden parts of ourselves and bring the answers to light. Learning to analyse your dreams can give you a wonderful opportunity for personal insight and spiritual growth.

    3 comments:

    1. great article, very informative, keep up the good work, really looking forward to the next one xxx mum

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    2. Very helpful Shelley...thanks for posting. I am now trying to recall my dream!

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    3. Precious Shelley, I just read again your article -I love your approach for the subconscious world and the useful interpretations about dreams. You said it the best- we should trust our intuitions and feeling when we wake up not so much for the symbols.

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