How to interpret your dreams

Ever see a green goose? In your dream, anything can happen. What do your dreams mean? We spend about a third of our life sleeping. Each night, experts tell us, we have many dreams. Even if you don’t remember yours or swear that you don’t dream, you probably do as they are a natural part of the four stage sleep cycle. What do they mean? You can learn to interpret your own dreams-- and that is a good idea if you are interested at all in dream phenomenon, because the truth is you should not allow anyone else to interpret your dream for you. Why? Because you are unique and your history is unique and what an umbrella meant to Freud is not necessarily what an umbrella in your dream signifies for you. Also, a particular item may have different meaning for you in a different dream context; it is not always the same necessarily

The “code” to your dreams does not come in any book; it comes in your skillful and intuitive interpretation of those messages, and that takes experimentation and practice . Gayle Delaney, founder of the Association for the Study of Dreams, says that dreams do not come to you with information you already know Dreams are messengers from our subconscious, from our superconscious minds, and, many belief, occasionally from spiritual beings or those who have passed on who want to tell us something. Not all dreams are of equal significance. There are just wish dreams, processing dreams, anxiety dreams that tend to recur, and Big Dreams that come in living color with such powerful imagery that you never forget them You may have heard of “lucid dreaming.” That’s when you actually wake up within your dream and continue dreaming with your conscious direction. It is possible to study one dream for many years, or even a lifetime. However, most of us do not have the patience! We would like to know right away what our dreams have to tell us.

The first thing you need to do in working with your dreams is make sure you remember at least one per night, and keep a dream journal by the side of your bed, with a pen or pencil handy. Here are some tips for analyzing your dreams:

1) Notice the atmosphere of your dream – what is the primary mood or feeling? What is the light like – is it day or night? What could this aspect be trying to tell you?

2) Who are the characters in your dream and what are the significant objects? Do some free association writing on the main characters or objects and see what comes up. Do not censor your impressions or thoughts; for instance, saying to yourself “ oh that can’t be right, it doesn’t make sense!” Dreams are not logical. They don’t have to follow “the rules.”

3) Next, become an element in your dream and write from that character or object’s point of view.

4) Once you have followed these procedures for a few elements in the dream, some
pattern or meaning is likely to appear. Take it from there and see what interpretation occurs to you. If you don’t get a big “aha!!” keep on going. Try working with other parts of the dream until something starts to make sense.

There are many writers and experts on the world of dreaming. Go to the library or a bookstore and see what titles appeal to you. Follow your intuition, which is the sister of dreaming. I’ve studied a number of dream interpretation processes, but the one resource I’d recommend to start with is the author I mentioned above, Gayle Delaney’s “Living Your Dreams.” See her website, www.gdelaney.com.