Do You Wonder What Your Dreams Want to Tell You?
By: Bridget Webber
Tags: Mind, Nonfiction, Life, Psychology, Dreams

Do you wonder what your dreams want to tell you?

Rivetted by dreamtime imaginings years ago, I studied imagery and its meaning. Visualizations while half-asleep and those encountered in Dreamland seized my imagination. I wanted to understand them.

I found, sometimes, dreams depict what happens in the day. If you engage in a repetitive task, like conveyor-belt factory work, for instance, you might continue with your chore in a dream the following night.

At other times, however, your dreams offer profound insights.

Before I experimented with my own dreams, and those of friends, I had already examined symbolism and emotive content to fathom dream meanings with diverse success. But I learned how to create my own connections with symbols and embed them in my mind, which then uses them during my night-time imaginings, and you can too.

Emotions and symbols

Dream interpretations, I discovered, link with precise symbols held in your subconscious, like swords with conflict or love and hearts.

I saw how dreams could describe innermost secrets.

Studying emotions, I noted, was important too. When fear joins with heart imagery in dreams, for instance, it may reveal an unwillingness to love (dread of loss or rejection).

Distorted dream symbols make clarification difficult, though. Your subconscious attributes associations with them, but results are muddy.

That is, unless you expand your cognizant repertoire of symbols and attach them with exact meanings. Once sophisticated and repeated, they can penetrate your subconscious and crop up in your dreams.

Decipher (and note symbols and their associations)

It helps to work with what you have rather than start from scratch. Before you add fresh symbols, note pre-existing links you’ve already conjured.

Balloons, for example, might connect with freedom in your mind and rage or passion with fire.

You may find dream dictionaries useful. Then again, the author’s interpretation of symbol meanings, which vary, must match yours, and it’s a hit and miss affair. Hence, they don’t work for everyone. Many images and their meanings are imprinted in your subconscious, and the information in reference books won’t always be applicable.

List links your mind has already made. Next, add extra symbols, those you require your subconscious to connect with explicit meanings. This will improve how your mind communicates via your dreamworld.

So, on the left side of your list you might write ‘dove’ as a symbol, and on the other side ‘peace.’ (A generic example, but yours will be exclusive to you).

Create links between meanings and symbols

When sleepy, read the list before you go to bed. Picture symbols and their translations. Include emotion, too.

To connect fog with misunderstanding, for instance, recollect what confusion’s like as you imagine yourself encircled by smoke.

Interpret your dreams

When entrenched in your subconscious, the symbols you’ve learned will appear in your dreams. And you’ll understand them.

You can also ask your mind questions.

You might wish to know if someone’s an apt romantic partner or whether the investment you consider making is astute. Your subconscious stores everything you understand about the topic and can offer helpful tips as you sleep.

After repetition, you’ll no longer need your symbol list. Your psyche will have soaked them up and stored them ready for use.

Sometimes, your dreams won’t reveal anything pertinent. At others, however, they will reveal extraordinary insights.