Today’s post is brought to you by the very awesome Mary Richert of Not an Activist, yogini-in-training, food lover, gaming nerd, and one of my favourite people in the world. It’s The Headologist’s first guestpost evar, so make Mary feel welcome!
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Have you ever dreamed you were pregnant and woke up worried about how to take care of your baby? Have you dreamed of flying like a superhero or trying to run in quicksand? Ooh ooh, how about this one: You dream about having sex with someone totally inappropriate (teacher, coworker, neighbor), and the next day you find it hard to look them in the eye?
Your dreams can give you powerful insights to your waking life if you learn how to pay attention to them. Many people say they never dream, which we all know is not true — everyone dreams, but you don’t always remember your dreams. If you’ve had difficulty remembering your dreams, here are some ways you can start remembering them.
Pick up a dream dictionary or guide to dream interpretation, but know that those guides are not foolproof. There are lots dream symbols for which many people have very similar interpretations, so these are good to know. For example:
- babies: often a symbol of new projects, creativity and major life transitions
- nudity: vulnerability and exposure.
- house: the container for your worldly life; a symbol of your overall life phase.
However, all these rules have exceptions. If you dream about babies while you’re trying to get pregnant, it could very well be that you’re just preoccupied with babies and your brain is playing out all your hopes and fears about pregnancy while you sleep. Don’t panic: What happens in your dream is not necessarily going to happen in real life.
Based on your personal history, you may have some dream symbols that other people don’t share. For example, my engagement ring has a unique meaning because not only was it a gift from my husband, but it was handed down through his family. If my ring appears in my dream, it’s not just a symbol of marriage but a specific reference to my relationship with my in-laws.
Keep a notebook by your bed. When you wake up in the morning, jot down whatever you can remember of your dreams. You might not remember anything some days, and that’s fine. Maybe bits and pieces will come to you throughout your day.
Write in present tense. Don’t write in past tense, and don’t use phrases like “I dreamed,” which keep you firmly in your waking mind. If you write in present tense as though you are experiencing the dream as you write, your brain (which may still be half asleep) seems to be better able to access the content of the dream. Be vivid. Don’t worry about writing down strange or embarrassing things. This is for you only, plus it’s just a dream so there is no harm in writing it down. And don’t worry about it making sense right now.
Start a symbol index: Those dream interpretation guides and symbol dictionaries only go so far. While some symbols do have common meanings for many people, most symbols are highly personal. Pick out the key words in your dream descriptions and index them in the back of your notebook. I have a 200 page notebook, the past 26 pages of which are reserved for indexing (1 page per letter). I number the pages of the notebook, and I write down every time certain symbols appear in my dreams. As your start to fill up your journal, you can track how certain images, people, places or ideas recur in your dreams.
Once you start your dream journal and your symbol index, you’ll start to remember your dreams more easily, and you can begin to learn from them. You can start to analyze how the different symbols in your dreams interact with each other. Some symbols or themes may appear frequently in certain times of your life — maybe you always dream about kittens when you’re stressed out, or you always dream about cotton candy when you’re happy. Learning to remember and interpret your dreams is a way to get to know yourself and your own personal psychology on a whole new level.
Oh the perfect timing of everything is starting to get eery. I had such a lucid dream/nightmare last night and woke up feeling a bit shaken. But looking up the various symbols that appeared gives everything meaning (and takes away the scary).
*laughs* Glad I could be eerily helpful! I'm also glad that sorting out the symbols made your dream less scary. I'm definitely one of those people who only seems to remember scary or super intense dreams, so I know that feeling.
This makes so much sense! I always dream that I'm pregnant when I have a big project to finish. Once, when I was working on two at once, I dreamt I was having twins.
I also think the most obvious definition is often the right one. When I was fighting with my SO, I dreamt about the two of us leading an elephant around our apartment. I think I was literally dreaming about "the elephant in the room!"
It's great that you're so in tune with your own dream symbols! Going with your gut feeling is always going to produce the most natural meaning, I think. Dream dictionaries and such are based on the most common interpretations, so they're not always going to apply to you. Now if I could only figure out what that teeth-falling-out dream is about….
Love this, Ellie. Thank you so very much for sharing it. I am always looking to decode my dreams.
You're very welcome, sweetie (and big thanks to Mary, of course)! Dreamland can be a fascinating place. I hope this inspires you to start tracking your symbols. I'm sure there's something very interesting your subconscious is trying to tell you!
I hadn't thought of writing in the present tense. I think I'll try that and see if I'm able to catch more of the dream information. I so adore making the symbol index. It's very much what I suggest when reading tea leaves.
Using your own symbology just makes sense, doesn't it? I'd honestly never thought of it like that before, but it's a great point. Dreams are so personal that it only seems right to use interior logic instead of relying on someone else's vague interpretations.
Ooooooooo! Jungian dream analysis! Love this post. Been keeping a dream journal for 40 years, but Mary taught me something new: a dream symbol index! BRILLIANT! Just what this adult ADD ol’ lady needs! Thanks!
Oooh! I'm curious about how your dream journal will change with this new perspective. Since you've kept it for so long and are incorporating a new technique, I wonder what new insights you'll find!
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