Interpretation of your own DREAMS

I have always loved dreams and tried to understand their meaning. 

Working with a psychotherapist led me to understand that we don't have enough time to interpret all the dreams I had.

I have 2-5 dreams each night.

It is frustrating when you have so much information that you don't know how to use, which often leads you to neglect the idea of even trying.

Why should we try to interpret our dreams? 

Dreams are the door to our subconscious through which we get to interact with and integrate unconscious parts of ourselves into our conscious reality.

Carl Jung believed that the role of the dream is to help us connect to the true reality we avoid seeing consciously.

Our dreams often reveal to us our deepest desires. We can use the seeing of the dream to find a healthy way of approaching that suppressed desire before it is manifested in our reality in the way and time we expect or guard the least.

Dr. Luise von Franz claimed that whenever a person is not connected to his dream life, he will probably develop some kind of neurotic behaviour.

Dr. von Franz said that dreams will never tell you what you already know, they will always point at a blind spot.

I believed that I could not interpret my own dreams because of that - I do not believe that anymore, and quite disagree with this concept.

I believe that when we attempt to interpret our dreams we should look for behavioural patterns and vectors, recurring patterns, symbols, and the dynamics between them. Thus we will be able to reach a high level of interpretation by ourselves.

My technique of dream interpretation:

1. Record or write your dream

    1. How to remember my dreams?

Record yourself on your phone at the moment you wake up.

Later you can write it in your notebook.

I struggled to remember my dreams, and then my brother recommended I voice-record them at the moment I woke up. It worked like magic every time.

   2. Notebook

    Dedicate a notebook or a diary for your dreams and interpretations.

You can write down your recordings or get straight to the interpretation.

It is good to have a separate notebook for your dreams to make it easier to spot the patterns.

You can highlight any recurring patterns or symbols and work on them more thoroughly. 

    3. intention

It is important to set your intention to remember your dream before going to bed.

Did you know that your body is capable of waking itself at a specific time without an alarm and only by setting an intention?

Make sure you are curious about your dreams before going to sleep as if you are about to watch a long-wanted movie.

    4. alarms

If you struggle to remember your dreams in the morning. try setting an alarm in the middle of the night or very early in the morning if the circumstances enable it.

Drinking lots of water before sleep also can wake you up in the middle of the night and help you remember your dream.

It is important to write or record what you remember the moment you wake up.

2. Items and inanimated objects:

    1. List all the items and major symbols from your dream.

    2. Next to each item, write what this item symbolizes for you.

Example:

Vacuum cleaner means for my submission.

It is a long story to explain the reason for this meaning, but you can see that it is a very individual symbolism, and everyone has their own symbols. 

Listen to your own feelings during the whole process. Your gut feeling would know which is the right symbol and meaning for you.

There is also the universal symbolism to items, characters, and actions.

If you struggle to understand what the item symbolizes for you, you can always look for universal meanings that may spread light onto your dream.

For example:

Water often symbolizes emotions.

A flooded house thus could mean a flood of unreleased emotions.

3. Characters:

    1. Write a list of all the characters from your dream.

    2. Think of each character as if it is not a stranger. but a part of you, part of your personality.

    3. Write next to each character what side of you he represents.

Example:

One of my co-workers appeared in my dream. After asking myself what she represented for me, I recalled she had bought land in Portugal and could fly there whenever she liked. I saw her representing for me the freedom of choice where to live.

When simplified - the freedom of choice.

4. Dynamics and actions:

    1. List the dynamics in the dream.

    Examples:

    The water flooded the house.

    Character A put a vacuum cleaner in front of Character B.

    Character C judged character D for his behaviour,

    2. Next to each action write what it symbolizes for you.

Example - Character A, who represented myself was submitting to Character B, who represented my critical self.

You can see how we can convert the images from our dreams into meaningful words step by step like in a mathematical formula.

5. General wish:

    1. Connect between the symbols and try to understand what was the wish of each character in the dream.

 Example:

Character B wished to dominate, and Character A submitted to its dominance but wished to have more freedom of choice.

6. Rewrite the story:

    1. Using the symbols of the characters, items, and dynamics, rewrite your dream.

    2. Summerize this paragraph into one sentence.

7. Integration into your life:

Lastly, ask yourself these questions to enhance your understanding of your dream and what you can learn from it.

    1. Does the dream point to an active problem in your life?

    2. Does the dream point at something that you have been denying?

    3. Does it include any solutions?

    4. Does it contain clues for the future?

    5. Does the dream point to a past problem that has not yet been resolved?

Lately, I used just my intuition - What, in my opinion, does this dream refer to?

Only you could know if the dream tries to point at something specific. 

Example:

I had a dream about a game where on each turn we had to move tables and chairs to block the opponent. If we left an unblocked space, the opponent could enter and we would lose. I made a mistake, as I did not understand the rules so well, and left a corner open, and lost.

I knew at that time I was struggling with understanding boundaries, after terminating an unhealthy relationship.

So my bottom line for this dream was - look at your blind spots, what else is missing in your understanding of boundaries? Talk more about past traumas, your insecurities are still welcoming future traumas if you don't take care of them now.

In conclusion, my action was to go to a group and talk more about my past traumas to get rid of unhealthy beliefs.

Try to see which of the questions fit the most to your dream. Reflect on it, and extract at least one action to take according to the dream's message to you.

Good luck, and let me know if you need any help.