Do you understand your dreams?
Here are my therapeutic musings…
🧠 I’ve been thinking about my dreams a lot recently, as they’ve been particularly vivid. And often fear-based.
Dreamwork is the cornerstone of therapy. Carl Jung, my hero and arguably the most important figure in psychology after Freud, wrote endlessly on the subject matter. He knew that dreams were the gateway into the unconscious. Symbology, the language of the soul.
There are two common pitfalls when it comes to interpreting dreams:
Taking it too literally and not figuring out the symbology (more on that below).
Turning to dream dictionaries for interpretations. Which is crazy. The experiences we have while dreaming are wholly personal to us. The things we see, hear and feel in our dreams arise from the deepest parts of our psyche. So a one-size fits all approach makes no sense. We’re all far more complex and creative than that.
That’s right. Your imagination is rich - and the images and scenarios we conjure up deserve some attention!
📢 Ask yourself:
“How did the dream leave me feeling?”
“What are my personal associations with the people, places and things experienced in the dream?”
“How might the dream connect to my current circumstances?”
Let’s say you dreamt about a boat. Consider what a boat means to you - not what a dream dictionary says it signifies. Maybe it brings back happy memories of family holidays in the Med. Or maybe it reminds you of a traumatic incident. Or a specific individual you know who owns a boat.
It’s similar when it comes to people. Too often we look at the people in our dreams as literal representations of them and how they show up in our day-to-day life. But if you begin to think about figures in your dreams as internal representations and symbols, you begin to notice what they may represent.
We see things not as they are, but as we are.
💡The revelation: Everyone in your dream represents a part of you! Why? Because they come from you.
An example - in your dream, a policeman tries to catch a robber. You are both the robber and the policeman. Question how this relates to your material, or current life circumstances. Perhaps you are trying to avoid getting caught, but a part of you is looking to be…
That’s just for illustrative purposes, of course. Only you - along with a therapist - can get to the bottom of what your dreams might be telling you. Start seeing your dreams as mirrors and get curious about what your psyche is communicating!
And always remember to note down your dreams before they fade: Jot down whatever comes up for you: A face, object, colour, scenario, or feeling.
💛 Product I’m loving: Download soulloop, an app I’ve been helping to develop with its founder, Priscila Lima de Charbonnières, who is a famed astrologer. The app is a hybrid of astrology, psychology and coaching. And it features a great dream journal, which takes you through a more in-depth process, like the one I’ve explained above.
Thanks for being here,
