What does that mean? All dreamers have the ability to better understand themselves and their lives through their own dreams. It takes practice and a desire to learn! Here are 10 useful dream insights to start you on the path to personal discovery and the interpretation of your own dreams!
1. Dreams About Your State of Health
Our dreams come to us from our inner mind, our subconscious. Every night we experience this state of mind. We also tap into it any time we meditate, deeply concentrate, or listen to our intuition. The subconscious uses images from our waking life to communicate to us in analogies, in symbols. The presence of your car in a dream tells you about your health. The car symbolizes your body. A car in your waking life is a vehicle to move your body from place to place. What vehicle moves your mind from place to place – your body! Pay attention to the state of the car in your dream. Is it new/old? Damaged? Do you have it parked, or are you taking it somewhere? A parking lot is a place to rest your car, so it symbolizes that you are taking some time for relaxation. If you’re driving your car, you are in control of yourself. If you are driving but not able to control your car, you’re the one out of control! When you have a car dream, take stock of your current health. Pay attention to your body and what it may be telling you.
2. Dreams About Your State of Mind
What is the setting of your dream? Your purpose for those places will reveal what mindset you had the day before the dream. If you dream about your place of work, your mind was in a working mindset, focused on activity and accomplishment. If you dream about school, your mind was focused on life lessons to be learned. If you’re in a new house, you’re taking on a whole new way of thinking. If you’re in your childhood home, you’re in an old, comfortable way of thinking – maybe even an outdated one!
3. Dreams About Where Your Attention Lies
What kinds of dreams do you have? Are they mundane, everyday dreams? Or are they fantastical? Do you have simple, short dreams, or are they long and rambling? Do they have a logical progression – or do they spastically leap from place to place without any transitions? Whichever you experience – that was what was happening in your mind! A friend at a Dream Catchers Meetup once described one of her long, transition-less dreams in great detail. Repeatedly she was in the middle one scene, when suddenly she found herself somewhere else, doing something completely different! We all had a good laugh because we knew that she talked just like her dream: leaping from topic to topic without any clean transitions! Her dreams were a true visual representation of her mind.
4. Dreams About Your Future Possibilities
Dreams can sometimes be precognitive, giving insight into possible future events. One morning I had a brief dream with some very detailed scenery near some train tracks. That same morning, as I was sitting in my car, waiting for a train – I was startled to recognize that I was in the same exact location as my dream! Some people frequently have precognitive dreams. They might be frightened by predicted accidents and illnesses. The important thing to recognize is that these dreams are not set predictions. They are dreams of the possible future, as in the example of Charles Dickens’s infamous Ebenezer Scrooge. It is up to the dreamer to decide what to do with the information in the dream. The individual always has control.
5. Dreams About Your Use of Imagination and Creativity
Some dreams help you create and solve problems. Some famous inventions and discoveries have come from dream. Elias Howe was able to finish his sewing machine after his dream revealed an important component. Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” was revealed to her in a dream. Creative symbols in a dream reveal the creative use of your mind the day before. Watch for symbols like TV, movies, painting, and drawing.
6. Dreams About Control of Your Habits
Animals symbolize your habits. An animal is an instinctual, habitual being, so it represents one of your habitual ways of thinking. Some of our habits are problematic and addictive, but others serve a purpose – like brushing your teeth and driving your regular route to work. How are you interacting with the animals in your dream? Are they pets or are you terrified of them? Do you have them on a leash or are they chasing after you? This will give you an idea of whether you are controlling your habits or if they are controlling you! If you are being chased by an animal, you are avoiding that habit – it’s time to face it!
7. Dreams About How You are Expressing Yourself
Your clothing choice is a matter of personal expression. Work attire shows you’re getting down to business. Yoga clothes might mean that you’re relaxed. Whatever you’re wearing shows which side you are showing. If you’re naked, you’re experiencing your true Self! If you’re trying to cover up, you are feeling vulnerable. If you’re nonchalant about being in the buff, you’re very comfortable in your own skin, with who you really are.
8. Dreams About The Many Parts of You
If every dream is about the dreamer, than every person is really you! The people in your dreams represent the many different aspects of yourself. When a person pops up in your dream, the first question you want to ask yourself is: “How would I describe this person?” If this person is “kind,” you were utilizing that “kind” part of yourself the day before. However, if you see the person as “lazy” or “stubborn” you may want to take a look at how you were blocked or stagnant that previous day!
9. Dreams About How You Are Changing
Death is a new state. If a person dies in your dream, that is a part of you that is changing. Take a look at who has died and look at how they died. Were they killed? Do you know who killed them? Looking at the circumstances of the death, you can decide if this change was wanted or if it felt forced upon you. Knowing who was involved can help you understand what parts of you were involved in this process.
10. Dreams About Your Connection with Your Inner Self
The presence of people of different sexes in your dream gives you a clue about your involvement with the different parts of yourself. People of the same sex represent your conscious, waking mind. People of the opposite sex represent your wise, inner, subconscious mind. Keep an eye out for which sexes show up in your dream – you want to be in balance! Are you on the phone or talking with someone in your dream? That may symbolize a healthy communication within the Self. If you are intimate with this person, you are deeply connecting with this aspect of yourself and preparing to create something new – a new idea or a new aspect of yourself. What if you don’t know the people in your dream? That means you don’t know those parts of yourself very well. And if someone is after you or fighting with you – take a good look at yourself. As with the habits – what aspect of you are you in conflict with or trying to avoid? The next time someone is chasing you, see if you can turn around and face them. Ask them: “Who are you?” The answer might just surprise you! Are you ready to start interpreting your dreams? When you interpret your dreams, you understand your life! As you begin recording your dreams, you will start connecting with your inner teacher. And who knows you better than you?
