No one really knows the reason that we dream...we are unsure of its purpose, if it even
has a purpose, what it might mean and whether it is ever useful to us to look at them further.
Whatever you feel about the reasons behind dreaming I have found it to be a very useful tool in uncovering some of our more hidden thoughts and feelings. Dream interpretation was covered in my training as a Psychotherapist and I have used it on myself and my clients many times when a significant dream has been remembered and the insights can be quite astonishing.
So - how can you interpret your dreams and find out what insights they might hold for you?
1) Begin by writing down as much as possible about what you remember.
I have a special journal for this purpose as keeping all your dream notes together in one place can help you pick out patterns and themes that can be very interesting to look at over time.
2) Note down everything that you felt in the dream too.
The feelings, colours and thoughts that surrounded your dream are a key part of discovering more about it's meaning. If you had a dream where you were flying and felt very frightened this would have a very different meaning to a dream where the same event occurred but you felt free and joyous (as a simple example).
3) Next look at all the characters in your dream that where there.
Are they people you know? Strangers? What were their characteristics in the dream, did they look different but in the dream you knew it was a certain person? Were they someone you have not thought of for a while, someone you don't like, someone who was dressed in a completely different way to how you normally see them? Write it all down, every detail that you can remember.
4) How did you appear in the dream?
What age were you? Were you in the dream at all? What role did you take in the dream? Were you powerful, afraid, concerned, did you take the role of leader in the events, the role of the nurturer? Understanding who you are in the dream is a key indicator of what you are feeling - whether that is that you wish to be more like the person in the dream or less like them!
5) The Gestalt theory of dream interpretation.
This theory takes every object, person and event in a dream and looks at how this is an aspect of the self. I had a very interesting session when I was training where I had a dream about a robot - we looked at the idea of 'if I am the robot, how does that mean I am feeling?' I could then look at the automated response, the shut down of emotions and the metal barrier that formed the robot and use that to look at how I might BE the robot in my life and then to decide whether I accepted this idea or wanted to change it. Have a go at looking for significant objects in your dream and seeing how they might be a reflection of you - if you have a dream about a sink (for example), how might this reflect you at the moment? Are you letting things slip away down the metaphorical plug hole? Do you want to clean things up in your life? Do you need refreshing with the purity of water? Do you want to contain something in your life that seems to be to fluid to capture and hold onto? Are you the container for someone else's or your own feelings? Are you the person who cleans up others mess? What does a sink mean for you? Look at your own feelings within the dream to match it with your interpretation.
6) Draw some of the significant surroundings for your dream.
I make lots of sketches in my journal of doorways or gates or rooms that at the time felt significant so that I can remember them and interpret them later. I look at all kinds of things within these sketches - how old was the door, it is crumbing, inviting, closed, open, is there darkness beyond or light? Am I feeling worried about going through the door or excited? Will the door open for me? Is there a key? Hopefully you are beginning to see how even the smallest of details can build up a really important and deep picture for you.
7) Make a note of anything you remember saying in the dream.
I once wrote in my journal a line that I spoke that to me felt like it was very 'telling' of my situation even though I didn't immediately know how to interpret it - I had said 'It is safer for you to go down first as it isn't too far to fall if the stairs collapsed'. I wrote this down and then came back to look at it once I had scribbled down the rest of the dream. I also noted that the staircase was spiraled and that there was a lever on the stairs that you had to pull in order to reveal more of the staircase. I later interpreted my words to show my fear of taking the lead incase I had the responsibility of the whole thing collapsing around me, I also realised that this was because I couldn't see the whole of the journey in front of me yet and didn't enjoy this feeling of treading into the unknown. The lever was a call to action that would show me the way if I was brave enough to take that action instead of just watching others do it.
8) Dreams that seem really worrying are not always what they seem.
I once had a horrendous dream that I had killed someone, I had poisoned them and then hidden the body and lived in total fear of being found out. The police came round to investigate and I was terrified of what was going to happen - they went to the cupboard where I had hidden the body and it was nowhere to be seen. I couldn't understand it and wondered if I had imagined the whole thing but knew that it was real...I awoke from that dream and it stayed with me all day - even now I can recall it vividly and this dream was about 15 years ago! It was not a dream about me wanting to murder this person though, nor was it a repressed memory where I had done something awful and my subconscious was reminding me of it...it was a dream of being found out...the old imposter syndrome feeling...it took quite a lot of careful looking and analysing to realise that though!
9) Choose your Dreams wisely.
Dreams that you wake up and think - wow, that was odd or that was epic or that was bizzare are probably the ones you want to look at. I have had dreams where I have woken up in hysterics because they are so hilarious (actually they normally aren't hilarious at all...I once had a dream that I got my foot stuck in a sink as I walked past it...apart from this being physically impossible it wasn't at all funny when I recounted it to someone else and yet I could not stop laughing when I awoke!!) and these are nice to note down too but they may not tell you as much about yourself as the dream where the huge yellow and red spiders are chasing you.
10) Look for the patterns.
When you look back at your journal and see the ways in which dreams have common themes you can start to pull together a picture of what is going on in your subconscious that you may want to deal with. If you have a similar feeling running through your dreams (fear) for example, or you often dream about doorways, or you regularly dream of a notebook you used to have then make that a priority for further exploration.
11) As a bonus tip...
Sometimes there is just no explaining dreams.
I had a reoccurring dream about a room in my childhood home that no one knew about, it would change form as a room but the common theme was that it was a hidden room, that it was full of papers and documents and that I would always be amazed to discover it. The funny thing is, not so long ago, I met the woman who is now living in my childhood home and she told me after many years of living there they had found a room they knew nothing about and it was full of books and papers...what do you make of that??!
What is the strangest or most significant dream you have ever had? Maybe we can explore it together and look at what it might mean for you...You could even look at this in a FREE discovery session with me. Click below to book your session and happy dreaming!!
Love Nova xxx
