Understand the language of your dreams
Do you often feel confused by the surreal images and bizarre story lines your dreams contain, and yet still have a sense that behind the strangeness, there is genuine meaning there? It is as if our dreams speak to us in another language. If only we could learn that language, we might be able to decipher the important messages dreams are trying to tell us!
I don’t believe anyone else or any dictionary can tell you what your dreams mean, as only you really know what is going on inside your head and your heart. There are some methods and insights, though, that you can use to help reach this understanding yourself and to start to understand the language of your own dreams.
Let’s start at the beginning. When we talk about understanding our dreams, we are really talking about understanding our selves. Think of a dream as a movie that is playing back to you the story about your life as it is right now. It does not just play back things that you experienced physically.
Instead, your dreaming mind looks beyond to what was going on inside at the same time. When you went to work in the morning, how were you feeling? When you had that argument with your partner, how did that bring up past hurts? Your dreams will play back your emotions and link these to memories. Maybe you were frustrated at work. How do you show “frustration” in your dream movie? It is an abstract concept, not a thing.
Your dreaming mind will find an image to symbolise this feeling, this abstract concept, in your dream story. This symbol may be a person, an animal, a colour etc. Your dreaming mind will go through all your memories and think, “Hmm, what is frustrating? Where have I felt frustrated before? Who has frustrated me?” This then becomes your own dream symbol. Maybe it is your old sports coach, who wouldn’t let you on the field so you could show everyone what you were made of. So “coach” becomes a symbol of frustration. Maybe it is being stuck at the traffic lights, which has made you late for work in the past, so “red traffic lights” become your own symbol of being frustrated. This is the process where, in your mind, “a picture tells a thousand words”.
Dreams speak to us in symbols. Some of these symbols are unique to us while some have commonalities with other people who share the same culture and influences as us. Over the coming weeks I will explore some of these symbols, and help you to learn the language of your own dreams.
Dream well,
Amy x
