Last week we looked at how getting more sleep, writing down dreams and looking for signs of new beginnings in dreams can help to achieve your goals. This week I am going to explore how recognising and resolving conflict in dreams can be used to overcome obstacles in your waking life.
Recognise conflict in your dreams: conflict in dreams can tell you a lot about the “battles raging within.” When you set goals, you are attempting to change a pattern of behaviour or a belief that you have held for some time. The first step to change and personal growth is often to assert the will – to try and “force” the change through a strength of commitment. Sadly, many of the best intentions fail because of this approach. Only when you truly accept the conflict associated with personal growth at your deepest, subconscious level, not simply the level of conscious ego, will lasting change really happen in your life. All change requires a certain loss – giving up, letting go or releasing something, in order that new behaviours, beliefs and relationships may come into being.
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Conflict in dreams can reveal what you are “fighting” against on a symbolic level, and what it is you fear losing or letting go of. Perhaps you have made a resolution to create greater work/life balance. While consciously this a goal, your dreams may reveal what fears you would have if you pursued this goal. You may dream of falling down stairs, perhaps indicating a loss of social esteem, declining fortunes, or going in a downwards direction in your career. Or you may dream of not being able to drive a car, symbolising your fear of “stalling” your career, or losing control of your life if you were to focus less on work or earn less money.
Look for clues to help you resolve conflict. Just as dreams can symbolically play out the battle going on inside you to achieve your goals, so too can they show clues that will help you triumph in waking life. Once you have recognised the conflict that is occurring inside you, pay attention to how this conflict plays out in your dreams. If you don’t win at first, that’s ok, this may be representative of your subconscious trying to absorb the goals your conscious mind is sending it. But as you stay committed and have small successes, your subconscious mind will seize on these wins and incorporate them into your dream.
The trick is to understand your own symbols and realise what your dreams are telling you. If you are dieting and dreamed of a wolf attacking you, maybe you notice that the wolf always bites your right hand. Perhaps if you start eating with your left hand in waking life, this will force you to eat slower, helping you to enjoy your food and making you feel full sooner so you eat less. Or maybe you beat the wolf by drowning it. This could mean you decide to drink water instead of snacking on unhealthy foods, or that you take up swimming so the exercise lets you eat some of the foods you still like, or maybe your realise the water represents your emotions, and you eat when depressed, so this awareness can help you stop comfort eating. Or you may decide all three things are relevant! It is up to you to recognise what your own symbols may mean to you, and what is helpful.
Next week we will explore how we can ask dreams for specific help, and how friends and allies in dreams can offer specific answers and guidance.
For more information, please visit The Dream Well.
